All houses of worship share the common goal of spreading the message. Some have a greater emphasis on spoken word; others rely more on music in any variety of styles, from liturgical to flat-out rock ‘n’ roll. Yet all need a sound system that provides clarity, intelligibility and musicality. With that in mind, we looked at some recent installation projects.
Bright Christian Church, Bright, IN
Like many houses of worship, during the Covid pandemic Bright Christian Church found the need and the opportunity to upgrade the A/V systems for its musically driven, contemporary worship. After working successfully with nearby ClearSound Design to enable streaming worship services, the church retained the firm to replace the building’s legacy sound system.
Worship director Ashley Grigsby oversaw the project for the church. “Basically, we wanted to improve the quality of sound throughout the sanctuary, both in terms of fidelity and coverage,” she explains. “We trusted ClearSound to help us reach our goals.”
“Over the past 25 years, there were architectural changes to the room along with a move to more contemporary music,” says Bill Hinds, president of ClearSound Design. “Our assignment was to design a new, more musical system within a fairly modest budget.”
ClearSound system integrator Brock Fowler took on the task of designing the system. “It’s a very wide room, but there were coverage issues the old system never addressed,” he notes. “We also wanted to clean up the sound by flying the subwoofers. We knew from experience that Electro-Voice EVAs would provide world-class musical performance with the coverage we needed — all with a clean, modern appearance, which was exactly what the church was hoping for.”
Developed with a focus on house of worship applications, the EVA (Expandable Vertical Array) feature a compact form factor with two array elements per cabinet, available in several dispersion patterns. For Bright Christian Church, full coverage was attained with just two hangs of four EVA-2082S cabinets per side, deploying two 90° x 6° boxes above two wider-dispersion 90° x 20° models. No fill speakers were required.
To address coverage differences between the left and right sides of the room, one array was splayed slightly outward. Smooth, deep bass reinforcement is provided by two EVA-2151D subwoofers flown together in the center. The entire system is powered by three Dynacord C3600FDi DSP power amplifiers.
“We used EVA system design tools to dial-in the predicted dispersion pattern,” explains Fowler. “When it was later decided to ensure clean sightlines for those standing in the back, we did have to make some adjustments. Fortunately, we found we could still achieve full, even coverage by raising the arrays a couple feet and adjusting the angles.”
Another key upgrade was the Dynacord MXE5 Matrix Mix Engine. “We used SONICUE software to optimize the loudspeakers, then programmed them in pairs to create independent zones via the MXE5,” explains Fowler. “For access, we added a pair of wall-mounted Dynacord TPC-1 touch-panel controllers. So, for a smaller gathering that just wants to use a single microphone on the left side of the room, they can quickly and easily customize the system for their needs.”
According to Hinds, the worshippers’ first listen to the new system presented a night-and-day change. “I could see it on their faces as the congregation walked in with music playing. That was a great feeling for all of us.” Since then, both the church team and the congregation have continued to enjoy their enhanced audio experience. “The improvement in sound quality is a major upgrade,” says Grigsby, “and our team loves the fact that the sound is now balanced throughout the room. We’re thrilled with the new system.”
Bright Christian Church
- Capacity: Approx. 800
- Key Components: Electro-Voice EVA line arrays
- Integrator: ClearSound Design
Jeonju Sion Church, Jeonju, South Korea
The town of Jeolla is a unique hybrid of urban and rural communities and a known hub for Korean cultural and gastronomical heritage. The Jeonju Sion Church has served the local community since its founding in 1975. The current building, which has stood since 2012, offers a variety of worship programs ranging from speech, modern live music, choir and orchestra.
After a decade of use, the church’s management decided it was time to upgrade its audio system. The brick-walled, 1,400-seat hall presented several acoustical challenges, including highly reflective surfaces and a deep audience configuration, which meant the back rows were getting unintelligible speech reproduction. Church management sought a new system to provide even coverage and SPL distribution from the front to the back of the hall, and enhanced sound quality in the mid and high frequencies for speech clarity.
Sion Church’s management team had a close relationship with local system integrator AnM. A regular project collaborator at the church over the past decade, AnM provided maintenance for the previous sound system. AnM reached out to local L-Acoustics partner Klausys, who had a resume of providing excellent modern audio solutions for a variety of projects. Together AnM and Klausys demonstrated an L-Acoustics A-Series system for Sion’s team.
Klausys technical support engineer Cheol Jang relied on L-Acoustics Soundvision audio mapping software to create a design that would evenly cover the entire audience while avoiding problem areas like the reflective walls. After hearing playback of the church’s recordings of live music and sermons, Sion’s pastor also tested the A-Series system with his preferred live microphone. Pleased with the system’s pristine sound quality, he was convinced that A-Series was the right choice for the church upgrade.
The L/R array consists of three L-Acoustics A15i Focus and one A15i Wide, topped by one KS21 subwoofer per side. Using Panflex variable horizontal directivity, the Focus boxes were set to 90° to avoid reflection from the walls and to focus sound toward the back of the hall, allowing for excellent clarity of both music and speech, all the way to the back row.
“While mixing live music, the church’s engineer commented that he could recognize a more natural separation of musical instruments,” Cheol says, adding that “orchestral musicians also praised the richer sound from the main system array.”
The installation was deemed a success. With all performers hearing the quality of the new audio system, the church team and worship attendees can now benefit from the balance of natural and reinforced sound for the various programs throughout their weekly services.
Jeonju Sion Church
- Capacity: 1,400
- Key Components: L-Acoustics A-Series
- Integrator: Klausys and AnM
Olive Baptist Church, Pensacola, FL
With 10,000 members, Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, FL is among the largest congregations in the region. Its main campus, one of two in the city, has always fielded a large contingent of musicians, vocalists and praise leaders — both onstage and on the main floor in front of the stage. But post-Covid, the orchestra and vocalists were spread out even wider at the front of the 3,300-seat auditorium, now split left and right on the 250-seat choir risers, with the band’s guitars, drums and keyboards remaining onstage.
The church’s in-ear monitoring system, already strained, simply couldn’t manage the new configuration. But KLANG could. Earlier this year, the church acquired and installed a pair of KLANG:vokal immersive in-ear monitor mixing systems and 14 KLANG:kontrollers, providing the church’s musical multitude with the highest degree of sonic IEM quality and control over their stage mixes.
“The previous IEM system was, well, let’s just say, ‘lo-fi,’” comments Allen Hendrix, the church’s director of media production. “Once the format onstage changed, it became completely inadequate. We needed better sound quality for monitoring, but we also wanted dimensionality, because the musicians and singers are more spread out now. The KLANG system offered a way to let everyone put the instruments and the voices into a perspective onstage that was better oriented for everyone.”
Fourteen KLANG:kontrollers are divided among groups within the music array. For instance, vocalists are grouped as sopranos, altos and male voices, with each group having its own mix through the :kontrollers. The orchestra is divided into woodwinds and strings on one mix and brass on another, and the electrified band members have individual :kontroller mixes.
While the church’s tech and praise teams did the installation and integration of the KLANG systems themselves, Ryan Shelton, the national sales manager for professional audio products at Group One Ltd., (KLANG:technologies’ distributor) was onsite for the initial configuration of the systems and for training. “The technical support we’ve received, from KLANG in Germany and here in the U.S., is fantastic,” says Hendrix.
Since installing the KLANG system, the change has been remarkable, Hendrix adds. “Everyone in the band onstage now has a much better sense of presence in the IEMs, thanks to KLANG’s 3D aspect. Using KLANG:app on an iPad or iPhone, they can place all the instruments in a soundscape that reflects the reality on the stage. The same goes for the vocalists. It was exactly what we needed after reconfiguring the musicians and singers.
“One additional benefit is that everyone can turn their volumes down,” Hendrix continues. “Previously, that had been a major problem, not just about performance but also about health and ear safety. Before KLANG was installed, people had been leaving one side of their IEMs out and using the other mostly to hear the click and cues, and for pitch. But now they’re getting the full monitoring experience, as much choir and orchestra as they want in their individual mixes, so it’s much more comfortable and safer to keep both IEMs in. Altogether, the addition of the KLANG system has been a game-changer for everyone.”
Olive Baptist Church
- Capacity: 3,300
- Key Components: KLANG immersive IEM mixing system
- Integrator: In-house
Discover Church, Milwaukee, WI
A Wavefront Precision line array forms the centerpiece of a new AV upgrade at Milwaukee’s Discover Church, which was spec’d and installed by Avenue Systems.
Since 1969, the expanding ministry has undergone several campus extensions, culminating in a major renovation in 2022, which included the sanctuary. Avenue Systems were part of that renovation process. “This is the project that allowed for the installation of the new Martin Audio rig,” confirms Avenue founder and CEO, David Price. “We helped coordinate the design and integration for the newly renovated space.”
Besides its full AV makeover of the main worship area and video control room, Avenue Systems installed new audio, lighting, video, control and acoustical systems for every aspect of the main auditorium’s AV.
Price notes that the project required a versatile P.A. to reinforce modern worship, with full band, plus occasional choir and orchestra for special occasions in a room seating a little over 1,800 congregants. “The church also conducts several special musical events throughout the year and hosts a smattering of professional Christian music artists and large conferences,” Price adds
Before the renovation, Avenue Systems arranged a demo of Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision line array, which helped facilitate a worship conference the church were hosting in the space. “The demo is clearly what won the project,” says Price. “They were blown away by the clarity and performance of the system and using it over that weekend also displayed how well it performed even at lower levels for their regular weekend experience.”
Designed and optimized by Avenue Systems’ technical team, the system includes 16 flown WPS (eight per side) as a stereo main array, 16 flown WPM (eight per side) as outfill arrays for the raked seating, a pair of flown SXH218 cardioid subwoofer arrays (each with three SXH218 elements), and eight DD6 front fill speakers on the lip of the stage. A pair of Martin Audio LE200 wedges provide the pastor with reference monitor sound. All arrays are powered by Martin Audio’s iKON multi-channel process amplifiers, and visualization and optimization were carried out using EASE and Martin Audio’s DISPLAY2 and 3 proprietary software. “The system performed incredibly well, virtually straight out of the box,” says Price.
Explaining his philosophy regarding room acoustics, Price adds that “the RT of the space was initially not bad — roughly 1.75 seconds. The church did want to add some treatment to lower it to 1.5 or slightly less but didn’t want to lose the character of the space they had come to know. They are a ‘spirit-filled’ congregation and value the congregational participation. It was a factor knowing that they didn’t want to ‘over treat’ the room. I knew the optimization would be a great way to compensate for acoustical treatment by instead optimizing the coverage. Although this was an unusual-shaped room, the rig handled it beautifully.”
The church’s technical director, Danelle Yacco, agrees. “We have noticed a dramatic improvement in sound quality, allowing for a truly immersive worship experience. The sound is clear and consistent, providing even coverage throughout the building — from the front row to the back, and up to the gallery.”
Discover Church
- Capacity: 1,800
- Key Components: Martin Audio Wavefront Precision line array
- Integrator: Avenue Systems
