Paradise found with dampb audiotechnik
Published: WORSHIP
AUSTRALIA: National Audio Systems (NAS) of Melbourne has supplied and installed the latest PA system for Paradise Church, 565 miles away in Adelaide. Founded in the early 1980s, Paradise Church is the second largest ministry in Australia and one of the most influential in the modern Evangelical movement. Leading the fashion for embracing contemporary music into the modern Christian context, upgrading the PA system was second nature; unlike many other churches from that era, sound reinforcement had been on their minds since inception.
‘My brief to NAS was predicated on the shortcomings of the previous system,’ said the head of Paradise Church’s technical department Craig Britcher.
‘Coverage left to right and front to back was very uneven. None of this is especially unusual for a dated system, even the fact that there was no front fill to the area where our pastors sit. What’s important is that they really need to feel what everyone else in the room is experiencing to modulate their own presentation. So coverage across the full frequency range that was immersive for the pastors was a key factor, plus defined SPL targets across the room.’
The room is mildly reverberant, but when NAS came to design the system based on the d&b audiotechnik Q-Series, some unique factors intervened. ‘It's actually a strange room,’ continued Mr Britcher. ‘The large walls down the sides of this fan-shaped auditorium are not treated, so you do need to keep audio energy off them; Q-Series is, with its narrower than a regular line array horizontal dispersion, ideal for addressing that problem. But the real challenge is more about the very large upper balcony. It seats almost half the congregation; at the back if you stand up you can almost touch the ceiling. Keeping it intelligible up there is tricky, so we spent a lot of time getting the delays up there just right.’
For this NAS opted for some d&b T-Series loudspeakers: used individually and rigged horizontally, they slotted the requisite sound energy and intelligibility directly onto the listeners. ‘The services tend to be full on,’ said Mr Britcher. ‘For our regular Sunday service I might aim for 95dBA; for a youth service it’s not unknown to hit 105dBA peaks. We have a full lighting and video system as well, so this is very much contemporary worship. It’s a busy church and we’re very production driven.
‘Our relationship with NAS is very important. We didn’t want a love-you-and-leave-you kind of deal. I have to say their support has been really good; I never tire of telling Shane Bailey what a great job his company does. That reflects through their customer network. When we have a big event here, say a special youth service that requires a little more lift in the subs, I augment my Q-SUBs with B2s from local company Andy Jay Sound here in Adelaide. They have really good equipment; considering it’s rental stock it’s kept in as good a condition as our installed system. They also have a big stock of Q-Series, maybe 60 boxes, so for something special like a big Easter festival I can pull in extra for that. They have the same d&b D12 amps we use, it’s that easy. Everyone loves the system.’