Old Ashly meets new at Midland Nazarene Church
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: Relying on its original sound reinforcement system for the previous four decades, Midland Nazarene Church in Michigan, USA, decided the time had come to replace it with a new system capable of supporting the church’s increasing use of reinforced music. Nearby A/V integrator, Center Line Technologies, oversaw the installation of new Ashly amplifiers and processors alongside a selection of JBL speakers and an Allen & Heath console.
‘This was the kind of church that likes to do things for themselves,’ said Tony Rogalski, vice president at Center Line Technologies. ‘As their on-stage needs grew, they added four mini floor monitors for the praise team, two monitors for the pulpit, and two monitors for the musicians. All told, they had eight floor monitors on stage and only two small loudspeakers to cover the congregation. And they were the original two loudspeakers.’
The while designing the new system, the team realised that the only pieces of original equipment still functioning properly were Ashly FTX-1501-MOS-FET amplifiers from the ‘80s. Mr Rogalski replaced the two main loudspeakers with a new JBL system comprising multiple flown loudspeakers, monitors, and subwoofers. The new system called for vastly more channels, and while he was happy to keep the old Ashly FTX-1501 MOS-FET amplifiers in service for monitors, he added a KLR 5000 to power the left/right loudspeakers and a KLR 4000 to power the centre loudspeaker and the flown monitors. A new Ashly ne24.24M processor with modular I/O now replaces the scant analogue processing of the original system.
New Shure wireless microphones and an Aviom system provide a robust input set, which the church now combines with a new Allen & Heath GLD-80 digital console. Addidtionally, Mr Rogalski repurposed several of the old floor monitors for use in the classrooms that serve as overflow.
‘We started working with Ashly processing over fifteen years ago, and it became our go-to processor,’ said Mr Rogalski. ‘Ashly processors never failed, and my field techs consistently reported that they were the easiest to programme and gave them the most consistent results. Why mess with that track record? Ashly amplifiers won me over when we started specifying their combined amplifier/processor units. At their price point, it’s like buying an amplifier and getting a processor for free. Ashly amplifiers have proven to be every bit as robust as the Ashly processors that I’m more familiar with.’