38 REP ORT: H OUSES OF WORSH IP
OPE N DOOR PRESBYT E R I AN CH URC H COMPANY: ALLEN & HEATH LOCATION: VIRGINIA, USA
Herndon, Virginia’s Open Door Presbyterian Church has continued to steadily grow their congregation and upgrade their AV capabilities over the last 30 years. As expanded audio requirements had been increasingly difficult to fill with their aging 2005-era digital console, they knew it was time for a change. Turning to the local audio experts at Genesis Technology for guidance as to the best choice to modernise the system, the answer was unanimous - Allen & Heath dLive. “The Open Door project was a great example of the power of having a connected audio ecosystem,” noted Genesis Technology Senior Systems Engineer, Michael Yoo. “Obviously we aim for stellar audio quality for the congregation and ease of operation for the church AV technicians, that’s always a key goal. In this case it was also important to bump up the overall worship experience for the praise band. We have FOH quite a distance from the musicians, high ceilings and stage
volume concerns that brought forth to the need for a top notch personal monitor solution as well.” “That’s one of many areas where Allen & Heath has things really figured out,” added SK Macdonald (SKMac) Sales Support Associate Jack D’Angelo. “Jumping up to dLive and adding in the ME Personal Monitoring System was the answer to all of those needs. It was also helpful to know that with so many network and interconnect options for dLive, the swap over wasn’t going to require stripping out all of the existing infrastructure. Dante, no problem. AES, sure. Not only was it largely ‘plug and play’ for the install of the new desk and peripherals, but the church can rest easy knowing that future expansion is also a breeze if they should need it.” The upgrade includes a Dante-enabled Allen & Heath dLive S7000 at FOH, paired with a DM48 MixRack and AES output card. A 96kHz DX168 AudioRack
provides additional I/O flexibility and scalability. The dLive feeds five ME-1 40-source personal mixers distributed across the stage, powered and managed by a ME-U 10-port PoE Monitor Hub. “The previous audio console was designed in a pre-iPhone world and just wasn’t cutting it as far as usability and workflow,” said Michael. “dLive is unique in its ability to offer up over 200 assignable fader strips and dozens of SoftKeys while not completely overwhelming the engineer or requiring operators to bend their usual way of looking at workflow to conform to the desk. It really is as easy as dragging and dropping inputs and outputs around to configure the desk like you would popping around on an iPad. The musicians love the sound quality and customized mixes on their ME units and the entire system took a sonic leap.” www.allen-heath.com
TAURANGA ELIM CHURCH COMPANY: HARMAN PROFESSIONAL LOCATION: TAURANGA, NEW ZEALAND
Among Elim Church’s several locations throughout New Zealand and other countries, Tauranga Elim recently moved to a new facility. A move that was nearly two years in the making, the new location is much larger than the previous building and includes an auditorium that is able to accommodate 550 people. Wanting to offer guests and attendees an engaging experience with crystal-clear speech intelligibility and great acoustics to support its live modern contemporary music, Tauranga Elim required a premium sound system that delivers consistent tones at all volume levels with smooth, even coverage across the entire facility. After experimenting with various loudspeakers from different manufacturers, Tauranga Elim selected a state-of-the-art HARMAN Professional audio solution that offers pristine sound for worship services and other events. The church outfitted its auditorium with two JBL CBT 1000 line array column loudspeakers supplied through Sound and Vision
Connection. Custom-flown in a L-R configuration, the CBT 1000s feature JBL’s Constant Beamwidth Technology, which provides adjustable vertical coverage and a tapered horizontal waveguide to deliver consistent sound across the auditorium. Further ensuring even sound distribution, a JBL CBT 70J-1 two-way line array column loudspeaker was added to provide audio to the auditorium’s mezzanine level. Complementing the column loudspeakers with accurate, low-frequency performance, the system also includes a JBL VT4883 subcompact dual 12-inch subwoofer that is used as a flown low-mid extension and a VTX G28 dual 18-inch ground subwoofer providing a solid low-end for the contemporary worship. To power and process it all, Crown I-Tech 4×3500HD high-powered tour sound amplifiers and CDi 4|300 amplifiers were deployed, providing proven reliability along with the convenience of four inputs per amplifier. OMNIDRIVEHD delivers enhanced performance on the iTech 4×3500HD.
www.mondodr.com
“As a church, we were blessed to have the opportunity to develop the shell of an industrial building into an awesome place of worship that speaks to the flavor and character of our people,” said Sean Verwey, Audio/Visual Coordinator at Tauranga Elim. “For the audio system in our auditorium, our requirements were simple; we wanted a system that sounded great, was punchy yet smooth through the dynamic range of a service, suited our style of music, covered the wide space evenly and overcame the challenging acoustics of the venue.” “We are very pleased with the result. We heard some great systems, but we felt what HARMAN and JBL Professional offered met our requirements perfectly,” Sean said. “The JBL CBT 1000 loudspeakers provide more than enough grunt for youth services and special events, yet is easy to mix during a regular Sunday service, it simply sounds amazing.” pro.harman.com