Portable RCF system is rock solid
Published: WORSHIP
SINGAPORE: Petra Church, an independent, non-denominational church founded in 1998, has adopted a portable sound reinforcement system made by Italian pioneer RCF.
Like most Singaporean churches, Petra is experiencing growing pains and is currently going through a period of transition, having relocated from its original site in Toa Payoh to a Christian bookshop in China Square Central in Chinatown in late 2010. The rented site serves as a temporary location until a larger, permanent church is found, so the current A/V needs for contemporary services required a portable system. At just 3m height, the ceiling of the bookshop was an acoustic drawback and so the sound system, designed by Quad Professional Pte Ltd in conjunction with Petra’s music director Daniel Kan and volunteer John Ng, took this into consideration.
An RCF portable, self powered speaker system was selected on the merits of its portability and lightweight design, ease of setup and accurate sound reproduction. Two pairs of NXM-12A two-way 12-inch speakers have been ceiling-suspended as the L-R FOH system. These multipurpose speakers operate within the 50Hz–20kHz frequency spectrum, for which each speaker is equipped with a 750W Digipro digital amplifier. Supplementing the lower frequencies down to 40Hz, two floor-standing NX 25-A dual 15-inch subwoofers are equipped with 1,000W Digipro digital amplifiers. Given the small nature of the stage, three-ceiling suspended NX-M10A 10-inch monitors serve the needs of the musicians, while a further two NX-M10As have been added as delay fills for the audience sat towards the rear of the temporary worship centre. Furthermore, one ART905-AS has been added for bass while another extends the low frequency for the delay fills.
Loudspeaker processing is handled by a 4-input/8-output DX4008 digital loudspeaker management system, which includes I/O levels, delays, polarity, six bands of parametric EQ per channel, crossovers and limiters. The processor is controlled in real time on a PC in the control room via the RS-232 interface. Yamaha LS9-32 and Midas Venice mixers have been chosen, while the musicians on stage use seven sets of MyMix as their personal in-ear monitors and mixing stations. A selection of microphones including Sennheiser wireless and Electro-Voice drum models are used by the church for each of three Sunday services.
The founders of Petra Church – Lim Liat and Ang Puay Koon, Wilson Teh and Rachel Shing, and Henry Ong and Connie Yew – came from Lighthouse Evangelism. Although the founders preferred to converse in English, they took it upon themselves to spread the Gospel to the Mandarin community and so started a Chinese church. However, as the church grew an English service was introduced and, soon after, the name was changed to Petra – the translation of the Greek word for ‘rock’.