Expanding church turns to Danley
Published: WORSHIP
US: Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia has built a new 500-seat sanctuary to cope with its burgeoning congregation. The church hired Gainesville-based dB Audio & Video to design and install a video projection system and a high-fidelity, high-output sound reinforcement system to support its spirited services.
‘High-energy contemporary gospel music with a full band sets the tone for the two Sunday services at Pleasant Hill,’ explained Ronnie Stanford, systems advisor with dB Audio & Video. ‘The church was clear in its desire for a sound system that is abundantly loud, yet clear and intelligible. Moreover, it wanted robust low frequency extension, something the system in the old sanctuary had always lacked.’
Mr Stanford was able to cover the room’s entire 120-degree fan shape with just three principal Danley loudspeakers supplemented by three down-fills in an exploded mono configuration. A single Danley SH-96 covers the middle 90-degrees of the room, with a pair of Danley SH-50s flanking for side fill. Below each of those three loudspeakers, a Danley SH-95 provides down-fill, with a pair of Danley TH-115 subwoofers providing the requested low-frequency extension. For stage monitoring, Mr Sanford flew a pair of Danley SH-100s opposite the central SH-96. In addition, four Yamaha C115V-CA loudspeakers and four Yamaha CM12V-CA floor monitors support the band.
‘The centerpiece of this installation, the Danley SH-96, is an incredible piece of engineering,’ said Mr Stanford. ‘With it, we’re able to cover most of this very large room in one blanket from a single-point source. And where we do need another loudspeaker, the excellent pattern control of the Danley designs provides practically seamless coverage that does not suffer from the comb filtering generated by overlapping coverage patterns. In total, the coverage at Pleasant Hill is remarkably consistent from seat to seat.’
To further enhance the listening environment, dB Audio & Video deployed two-inch mineral fibre panels on the back and sidewalls as acoustic treatment.
For mixers, an Allen & Heath GL2400-32 at FOH and an Allen & Heath GL2800-848 at monitors are in use. An expansive collection of live microphones, mostly from Sennheiser and Shure, provide instrument-specific capture. A Biamp Audiaflex NC DSP provides input processing and loudspeaker conditioning, and 11 QSC RMX-series amplifiers power the system.
On the visual side, dB Audio & Video supplied Panasonic cameras and video projectors which fire onto Da-Lite PermWall screens.
‘They’re really enjoying the new room and its new A/V system,’ reported Mr Stanford. ‘It’s serving them well. In addition, the Danley TH-115 subwoofers have given them the low-end boost they were so eager for. It’s really amazing that those two modestly-sized subs can fill such a large room with so much well-defined bass.’