A complete upgrade at Christ's Church
Published: WORSHIP
USA: A common approach taken to replace A/V systems is to upgrade individual components only when necessary. All manner of organisations around the world adopt this ‘band-aid’ approach, as well as houses of worship. It is the same approach that was taken by Christ's Church of Winterville, North Carolina for many years.
That changed recently when the church, which has embraced a contemporary worship style, decided to install a comprehensive sound, video and lighting system from the ground up during a renovation at its worship centre. John Crawford, CEO and co-founder of Auburn AV was tasked with the A/V design and installation. In particular, the new sound system posed a couple of challenges, as the brief stated that it was to provide even coverage and high fidelity for music reproduction as well as vocal intelligibility, while the sanctuary’s rectangular shape, concrete walls and metal-skinned roof presented an acoustical test.
Focusing on directivity and fidelity, Mr Crawford design and installed a setup comprising Fulcrum Acoustic CX Series two-way loudspeakers serving as mains. This is formed of left and right CX1595s with CX1526 and CX896 cabinets filling in as centres.
‘To provide low frequency support while directing energy off the stage, we flew a pair of Fulcrum US221-2 dual 21-inch subwoofers in an active cardioid array above the proscenium,’ explains Mr Crawford. ‘The sub array is an excellent match for the coverage and output level of the mains. We also redesigned the side walls with angles to eliminate parallel reflections, and we installed acoustic paneling to the rear and to select areas of the side walls. This let us create a balance between life in the room for acoustic sources and the sound quality of the speaker system.’
‘Our old downward-firing, ceiling-mounted speaker cluster would blast the centre of the room while leaving quiet corners to which some of our older members gravitated,’ Christ's Church worship minister Jordan Clark remembers. ‘Now, sound levels are consistent throughout the room with no hot spots to avoid. We are extremely happy with our new sound system and have heard nothing but positive feedback from our congregation on its benefit to our services.