New Bethel Baptist Vision Center puts faith in Tannoy
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: Tony Parker, co-owner of Parkers Productions, was recently called upon to design and install a sound system into the new Vision Center at the Bethel Baptist Church in North Carolina. The new centre houses additional Sunday school rooms, office space, as well as a large kitchen and multi-purpose fellowship area and stage.
The room hosts everything from theatrical performances on a large recessed stage to basketball games, so the new system needed to be able to accommodate an assortment of live events. In addition, the room was typical of a gymnasium with an 8.6m ceiling, metal roof, tile floors, plenty of hard surfaces and no acoustic treatment to speak of.
‘Bethel Baptist Church has been a customer for seven years,’ explained Mr Parker. ‘When they started construction on the new facility we began planning how to accommodate their sound needs for the space. We knew there would be serious acoustic challenges to overcome in order to implement the pristine sound they envisioned.’
Mr Parker continued: ‘We immediately thought of QFlex from Tannoy – the ability to control the sound and focus it in the desired areas was going to be key.’
Mr Parker specified two self-powered QFlex 24 loudspeakers wall mounted to the left and right of the stage approximately 3.7m off the ground. Under the stage, two powered subwoofers were installed behind a reinforced screen cloth to enhance the depth of the sound. Mr Parker also utilised Tannoy’s VNET software to focus the output to cover the seating area, maximise the vocal intelligibility and minimise the room reverberation.
‘The sound quality and control of the new system is amazing,’ added Michael Byrd, sound engineer at Bethel Baptist Church. ‘Parkers Productions was able to program the output from the QFlex to keep the sound off the walls. Since the install we have had many comments from people within the congregation complimenting the sound quality.’
Mr Parker also specified Roland’s M-300 digital V-Mixer in conjunction with a 4000-S Digital Snake. As a result, the church sound team can quickly and easily set-up a front-of-house position in the centre of the room when events require it.
‘The Snake makes it as simple as merely unplugging one data cable from one location, moving the portable mix station to the centre of the room, and patching the data connection in there,’ he explained.
‘Our sound team was a little concerned about the learning curve moving from an analogue to a digital board,’ Mr Byrd admitted. ‘But the layout of the mixer is very friendly. With just a short introduction and a few minutes of “hands on”, I was ready to go.’
‘The best compliment is when the client tells us that they have never experienced this level of great sound in a gymnasium before,’ said Mr Parker. ‘That is, after all, what we were trying to accomplish.’