Electro-Voice fills Sydney Central Presbyterian
Published: WORSHIP
AUSTRALIA: The concrete floors and sheet metal roof of what was once an empty warehouse in Granville have been replaced with the wooden flooring and ceilings of the Korean Sydney Central Presbyterian Church’s new permanent home. An Electro-Voice Innovation line array solution provides the sound, filling the main hall’s front of house, as well as smaller PA and ceiling speaker systems throughout the remainder of the church.
The EV system was sourced and provided by Nick Bava, owner and general manager of Bava’s Music City, who was engaged by the church due to his local knowledge and vast experience of working alongside churches in supplying audio equipment, having installed a number of worship sound systems during the last decade. Mr Bava provided quotes for two different systems and along with the church, opted for the Electro-Voice solution. The decision was based on the fact that there were similar worship projects that Electro-Voice has previously provided solutions for, setting precedence for its suitability, while the church preferred the system’s sound during a shoot-out.
Mr Bava was also impressed with the support and product knowledge provided by Electro-Voice product specialists. ‘We chose EV as they had expertise, knowledge and a team that could support us,’ he explains.
Following several years of hiring churches in different locations, the Korean Sydney Central Presbyterian Church looked to settle into a permanent home for its community. After three years of planning and fund raising, the Granville warehouse was purchased and the Sydney Central Presbyterian Church would go on to open its doors a year later, on Christmas Day. In total, the venue comprises a church hall, two medium-sized halls, a canteen, a library, a cafe and a mother and baby room, along with 20 teaching rooms.
The main church hall’s front of house system comprises an L-R configuration of four Electro-Voice EVA2082S line array modules and two EVF2151D subwoofers hung each side. These are controlled via a DX46 230 V speaker controller and powered by three CPS 230 V amplifiers. Meanwhile, six ELX112 and two ELX115 passive, two-way loudspeakers are utilised as foldback monitors.
The church band is reportedly impressed with the professional sound system, in particular the foldback monitors. The band’s leader, Danny Park explains that the monitors aid the musicians to harmonise, noting, ‘The foldback speakers are an important tool to help us to recognise and understand our sounds and to harmonise the sound of our voice and instruments as one. This system is very helpful for all of the singers and musicians.’
The church building project manager and elder, Joshua Kim admits that he doesn’t understand much about the technical side of things, but is nonetheless impressed. ‘The set up transmits the sound to wherever you are within the church, to the same level of sound effect,’ he muses. ‘I’ve been to other churches, and found that when I sat at the back I didn’t hear clearly. At this church it’s been well engineered and well positioned so that wherever you sit, you can hear the same level of speech or sound very clearly. I think the system has been set up very well.’
While the FOH system in the main church hall gets used five times per week, with two Korean services taking place on Sundays, along with another mid-week, and two English services also occurring on Sundays, the seminar rooms are used multiple times each week for prayer meetings and children's services. These rooms have been equipped with portable PA systems combining ELX subwoofers with six ZLX-12P or two ELX loudspeakers. In addition, the hallways and canteen have been fitted with 24 Evid 8.2 ceiling speakers, powered by a Bosch PLM-4P220 4-Channel PLENA matrix amplifier.
‘Now we have this sound system that we can rely on,’ adds the church’s sound system supervisor, Mike Hwang. ‘This means that we can concentrate on what we are meant to be doing, which saves us time. It’s a huge improvement.’
‘When we were hiring places, we weren’t settled and weren’t able to provide good teaching and community service,’ concludes Mr Kim. ‘Now that we’re settled with such a good sound system, the speaking and teaching quality has improved, allowing us to prepare ourselves for community service.’