Technology replenishes River Of Life
Published: WORSHIP
US: The River Of Life Christian Center in Riverview, Florida has made both sonic and scenic upgrades to its sanctuary. The ministry hired Christian Sound Installations (CSI) to design and install a new A/V system, whose Paul Garner, principal and chief designer, used Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers and subwoofers together with a suite of energy-efficient theatrical lighting fixtures and video display technologies.
‘The old sound system at River of Life looked as if it had been cobbled together over the years by well-intentioned souls whose expertise lay in other spheres of human endeavour,’ said Mr Garner. ‘When problems arose, or some new functionality was hoped for, it appeared they relied on the local music store for a solution. The main coverage was delivered by four boxes, each with a horn and a 15-inch woofer, affixed to the wall above the stage. Two were basically facing each other and the other two were angled up to deliver balcony coverage on a wing and a prayer. A subwoofer mounted above a door was clearly an afterthought. In all, the coverage and clarity were terrible, and intelligibility was horrendous.’
The sanctuary at River Of Life is orientated like a diamond, with the stage at one vertex and a balcony above the two walls opposite the stage. To come up with the final design plan, including not only the loudspeaker and subwoofer locations and angles, but also their makes and models, Garner exhaustively modeled the room using AFMG’s EASE software. The optimal model called for three Danley SH-100 loudspeakers in an exploded arc above the stage (equidistant from each other and the adjacent walls) and four Danley SH-Minis on a 28ms delay ring for balcony fill. Twenty one-inch sound-absorbing acoustical panels line the back wall, each composed of two 2 x 0.6m and two 2 x 1.2m panels arranged so as to form a cross in reveal.
Two QSC RMX 1450 amplifiers provide power to the Danley full-range boxes, whereas one QSC RMX 5050 serves the subwoofers. A 32-channel Roland M-400 console connects the stage to the reinforcement system. CSI also supplied River of Life with seven M48s, Roland’s fully-integrated personal monitor system. ‘This is the first time I’ve been able to remove every noise source on stage except the drums,’ Mr Garner said. ‘Everything else is either direct or mic’d off stage. Because all of the musicians have ambient mics on their Roland personal mix controllers that allow them to speak to one another, they feel connected in a way that is not possible with other personal monitoring systems.’
The new video and lighting systems consist of two Optoma TW766 4000-lumen projectors illuminating two 113-inch Black Diamond high-gain fixed projection screens, which Mr Garner hails as a substantial improvement over conventional screens because they don’t wash out even in bright daylight. To provide a theatrical effect, the church blacked out the ceiling and back wall. As a result, the eight Chauvet Par 64 LED lights, four Elation LED Frenels with barn doors and adjustable focus, and four Chauvet Q-spot 260 LED moving lights generate a captivating aesthetic that rivals some of the best rock clubs.
‘The new system at River of Life is incredible,’ added Mr Garner. ‘I ran pink noise at 100dB and found less than 3dB difference anywhere, and the frequency response is perfectly flat. The relatively small Danley boxes are practically invisible against the black ceiling and the whole look of the sanctuary really came together nicely.’