GC Pro revamps First Baptist Church’s A/V with JBL
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro) was recently chosen to solve problems of intelligibility at the First Baptist Church of Sebring in Florida.
Originally founded in 1922, the church has since significantly expanded its campus, adding a Fellowship Hall, a kitchen, an elevator, a children's department and a ‘ROC’ (Recreation Outreach Centre) for athletic events, social gatherings and youth activities. However the sanctuary’s sound system needed an upgrade, as the 60-person choir would often miss many of the weekly sermons due to a lack of intelligibility through the PA system.
This lead the church to approach GC Pro, which assessed the building’s needs. Commuting from the company’s Tampa office, GC Pro account manager Mick Hall visited the church to assess its audio requirements. The chosen solution included a JBL VRX928 line array system configured as a centre cluster with two VRX dual-15-inch subwoofers for low end support.
‘The old systems left a number of dead spots throughout the church,’ Mr Hall explained. ‘It simply didn’t have the reach, and as a result intelligibility suffered. Rooms with these kinds of dimensions need very specific kinds of system solutions.’
The new PA system was completed with a Yamaha LS9 FOH console, Aviom in-ear wireless monitoring for the band, an Ashly NE24.24M matrix processor, a Sennheiser Evolution wireless microphone system and two JBL CBT 70 mini arrays for the choir’s monitors. Mr Hall also specified two Mitsubishi 8100 video projectors for the church. ‘The big picture was to get an even and consistent sound coverage for the entire sanctuary, which is something the church had never had,’ stated Mr Hall.
The church reports that GC Pro was chosen as the partner on this project based on ‘the comprehensiveness of its approach’, which included design and consultation services, installation availability, in addition to competitive pricing. ‘We let them know we would be their partners in this project, not just a vendor selling equipment,’ added Mr Hall.
The church can now report that ‘everyone in First Baptist of Sebring can hear every word spoken by the pastor – and every note of music sung by the choir and played by the worship band.’