“The Theater” at Gwinnett Church Benefits from Speaker Steering Technologies and High Channel Count Consoles
North Point Ministries (NPM) was founded in 1995 with the vision of creating non-denominational churches with an attractive environment that would appeal to those who do not regularly attend church. Obviously, this plan has worked. Since its inception, NPM has grown from one church to six in the metro Atlanta area and has developed a global network of more than 30 strategic partner churches.
Each week, more than 30,000 people attend services at NPM churches. Each month, sermons and leadership messages are accessed over one million times via North Point websites.
Part of the NPM group, Gwinnett Church of Sugar Hill, GA, recently completed construction and outfitting for a new worship center on its campus. The center’s main sanctuary, named The Theater, is a rectangular 1,300-seat auditorium featuring the latest audio, video and lighting technology to provide a completely absorbing worship experience for the three services that 3,000 congregants attend each Sunday.
But what might be the end goal for some churches is only phase one for Gwinnett Church’s long-range strategy, as steel girders and other structural materials are already in place for a planned expansion in years to come that will accommodate upwards of 3,000 people per service.
When a church plans that far ahead at that kind of scale, it has to make wise capital-investment decisions. One of those for Gwinnett Church was its choice of two DiGiCo SD10 digital audio consoles to be used for FOH and monitors. The new sound system that also includes Martin MLA Compact line array speakers and d&b audiotechnik J-Sub cardioid subwoofers, were sold and installed by nearby Alpharetta-based dealer/integrator Clark ProMedia group.
Founded as a small operation in 1996 as “two guys in a green truck,” Clark has since expanded into a full-service design, engineering and integration firm specializing in the house of worship market and has offices in the Atlanta, Dallas, Austin and Los Angeles metro areas.
A Systems Approach
“Clark has partnered with North Point Community Church for over 15 years,” says company co-founder Houston Clark. “During that time, we’ve built a significant amount of trust. We were asked to help them solve a unique problem with their new Gwinnett campus. We had to develop an audio solution that met their very high sonic requirements that would also minimize sound ‘bleed’ into a nearby housing subdivision. After researching the design parameters, we knew Martin Audio could give us the results we were looking for. The MLA speaker line was a perfect fit,” says Clark. “We could literally steer the sound away from the areas we wanted to avoid without in any way degrading the sonic experience.”
In addition to providing consistent coverage for every congregant, the MLA system also solves a critical noise overspill problem. Knowing this would present a problem given the high-SPL audio for early morning sound checks and services, the church specified walls with three inches of concrete, two inches of Styrofoam, another three inches of concrete and four inches of lightweight poured concrete on the roof.
Although this “does a good job of keeping the sound inside, some still leaks out a bit, especially during soundcheck at 6 a.m. on Sunday, when it’s pretty quiet outside,” according to Gwinnett Church’s technical director Adrian Varner.
“Because of MLA’s amazing control, we’re not only covering the seated section very well, but also actively keeping sound off of the roof and the back wall,” Varner explains. “And with a situation like ours, where we don’t have 18 boxes a side, it’s tough to get that control over those low-mid frequencies, but MLA has really been a huge help. Ever since we’ve been up and running, we haven’t gotten any noise complaints from the neighbors. And with all of those electric instruments and vocals, things have been pretty lively on stage, so the kind of control we get from MLA has been a big help.”
Complementing the Martin Audio MLA rig are d&b audiotechnik J-SUB subwoofers. These are an actively driven two-way bass-reflex design housing three long-excursion neodymium 18-inch woofers, with two drivers facing to the front and one driver to the rear. The cardioid dispersion pattern resulting from this approach avoids unwanted energy behind the system, which greatly reduces the reverberant field at low frequencies for increased accuracy in low frequency reproduction.
Gearing Up
Discussing the thought process behind the decision to acquire the two SD10 desks, Varner notes that the non-DiGiCo consoles the church had been using in its previous building were near the end of their useful lifespans. The church needed a platform that could accommodate a large number of inputs — the church’s worship band alone requires upwards of 60 channels — while offering the flexibility needed for ancillary functions such as multi-channel recording of services.
A five-piece electric band (two guitars, bass, keyboards, drums) with two to four worship leaders who also handle vocals provides “rock and roll style” music for the contemporary praise worship services. The audio, video and lighting systems are intended to break down the wall between the stage and audience and bring that stage experience directly out into the audience.
“With the style of worship that we’re doing, I’m trying to create an experience that really surrounds you,” says Varner. “It doesn’t just feel like it’s coming at you from the stage, but you feel really absorbed in it as it happens all around you.”
A big part of this experience depends on the sound, which explains the choice of a Martin Audio MLA Compact system with eight enclosures a side, four DD12 for outfills and eight DD6s for front fill.
“Our room is 150 feet wide by 75 feet deep and — as a rectangle — it can be hard to provide uniform coverage to the far extremes. We’ve been able to achieve that coverage extremely well,” adds Varner. “The system has exceptional clarity for speech and we needed a music system that could comfortably hit 100 dB (A-weighted) or greater with enough headroom, which MLA does easily.
“We also wanted to provide smooth, even coverage from front to back, not just in terms of volume, but consistent tone for every seat in the room,” Varner continues. “I don’t want anyone to feel it’s too bright where they’re sitting. We don’t have that problem with MLA.”
Console Considerations
With the high channel count for the band, and with a need to create other mixes going to other parts of the building, such as overflow rooms, and supplying mix-minus feeds when required, the system required a console that was more powerful to move beyond “just mixing a left-right P.A. system.”
Varner added that a smooth workflow is critical: “We had become very used to using plug-in processing on our previous consoles, and we wanted to maintain that kind of workflow and not have external plug-in processing as it would have been with some other console choices. The fact that the DiGiCo consoles have Waves plug-ins fully integrated into their workflow is a huge plus. It makes using plug-ins easy and quick.”
In addition, both consoles share the same two DiGiCo SD-Racks, located near the SD10 used for monitors, on a shared fiber loop, with direct home runs between the racks and the consoles. The SD-Racks will also support these and any additional DiGiCo consoles once the new auditorium is finished.
Besides the DiGiCo SD10 consoles, Martin Audio MLA Compact main speakers and d&b audiotechnik J-Subs, the audio system also includes a Neve Portico 5045 Source Enhancer, Radial engineering direct boxes and a selection of Royer Labs, Shure and Sennheiser — microphones — both wireless and wired.
“Because we know growth is coming down the road, we can’t make purchasing decisions just for today,” says Varner. “DiGiCo gave us the best options for now and also the bandwidth to go into the future. We feel comfortable that the SD10s will still have plenty of life left in them years from now.”
Inside the Gwinnett Church
- Owner: North Point Ministries
- Location: Sugar Hill, Georgia
- Capacity: 1,300
- Integrator: Clark ProMedia
- Key Audio Components: (2) DiGiCo SD10 consoles; (16) Martin Audio MLA Compact line arrays (eight/side); (4) Martin Audio DD12 outfills; (8) Martin Audio DD6s front fills.
More Than Just Audio
A key part of the North Point Ministries experience is incorporating video and lighting as part of the message, and Gwinnett Church is no exception, with some serious technology as part of that goal.
As a North Point Ministries church, lead pastor Andy Stanley delivers his sermons to all the campuses on video via fiber. Stanley generally speaks 40 to 42 weeks a year, with Gwinnett Church pastor Jeff Henderson speaking to the audience live on other Sundays.
Gwinnett’s sophisticated video system is based on Digital Projection Titan projectors for side and center, with Panasonic AK-HC931 and HPX-10 cameras; a Ross Carbonite 2ME production switcher; Harris 96×96 router; Clear-Com Matrix for communications; Harmonic message playback, and a Renewed Vision Pro Video Server and Pro Presenter.
The lighting system includes a Jands Vista L5 console; ArKaos MediaMaster media server; ETC Source Four (zoom, ellipsoidal, and parnels) and ETC Sensor 3 for key lighting; Martin MAC Aura and MAC Viper lights; Chauvet Tri Tour and Epix Strip 2.0 LED lights; a Pathport Octo for distribution, and a Chroma-Q Inspire 2 for house lighting. —TSF
