Community covers classic church

Grace United Methodist has gained a reputation for its music and musicians, including a highly sought after choir and a resident chamber music ensemble, Mélamonie. ‘Many of the singers in their choir are accomplished professionals, and virtually all of them are phenomenally talented, on an operatic level,’ said Tony Hersch, president of Pottstown, PA-based Audiobahn, the company behind the new sound system. ‘Their director is a highly accomplished pianist and organist, with a doctorate in music, and their performances are always in high demand.’

With such a strong emphasis on music, it's not surprising that the church’s elders and congregation were less reserved than many Methodist congregations in their approach to sound system design. ‘They were very involved in the process of selecting their new audio system,’ recalled Mr Hersch. ‘They really did their research and knew what they wanted to accomplish.’

With its vintage lathe and plaster walls, reflectivity has long been a problem in the sanctuary, and spoken word intelligibility was a prime requirement for the new sound system. But musicality was also a critical factor – the system had to deliver full-range performance that could complement the choir and musicians.  

The idea of a traditional line array was first suggested, but as Mr Hersch points out, this was a project where a line array would have looked out of place. ‘Aesthetics are really a consideration in a place like this. ‘The architecture is absolutely gorgeous, and hanging a bunch of speaker cabinets would have just destroyed the aesthetic completely. We were suggesting a very different approach.’

Mr Hersch arranged to demo a pair of Community Professional Entasys steerable arrays. ‘We set up a pair of Entasys full-range cabinets on tripods, along with a VLF208 subwoofer to give it some bottom end. We ran an Ease acoustic simulation program on the room, set things up, and they were just blown away. Everyone in the choir got up and sang through it. We utilised a Shure wireless lavalier system and a Countryman podium mic for the demo. We were able to tune the lav mic to a point where it sounded like a good quality handheld mic. The sound was just wonderful.’

The church also took delivery of one of the first-available Soundcraft SiCompact digital mixing consoles, incorporating it into a new custom-built booth at mix position. The console is connected via Madi to an Avid Pro Tools|HD system. ‘They record most of their services to two-track as well as multitrack, and then mix and master it for download on their website,’ Mr Hersch explained. ‘The services are very popular.’

To pick up the choir, Mr Hersch provided four Audix MicroBooms on mic stands, while the vintage piano is outfitted with a Helpinstill Piano Pickup System. On the main platform, monitoring is handled by four custom-stained Community iBox i2w8 cabinets. Community Veris 8 cabinets provide monitoring for the choir.

‘The Entasys sounds fantastic,’ said Mr Hersch. ‘The sound is focused where it needs to be, and the new system allows them to easily record the service and make it available to others. We've taken a church from the early 1800s and incorporated 21st century technology into it.’

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