WorxAudio solves intelligibility and coverage issues for Prescott United Methodist Church
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: After suffering from a sound system that was unable to distribute audio consistently throughout all of its sanctuary, Prescott United Methodist Church in Arizona required a new solution. Enlisting Indiana-based CSD Group Inc for its design and installation, CDS president Doug Hood and his crew worked in close coordination with the WorxAudio Technologies’ engineering team to deploy two WorxAudio X3i-P powered line arrays for primary reinforcement.
‘Prescott United Methodist’s sanctuary proved to be a challenging environment,’ explained Mr Hood. ‘The room is very live, which compromised speech intelligibility and caused music reproduction to suffer. There are hard surfaces everywhere, with drywall, hard floors, and glass doors and windows across the back end of the space. The room is also quite wide, making it considerably more difficult to gain even sound dispersion throughout the space for the approximately 300 worshippers. Furthermore, the church didn’t want the loudspeakers to be visually distracting. Hence, the compact X3s made a great choice for this project.
‘Music plays a huge role in the church’s worship services and consists of both choir and instrumentalists for a blend of traditional and contemporary music,’ Mr Hood continued. ‘Considering the importance of music in their programmes, we elected to improve the acoustics of the space and deploy the WorxAudio line arrays in place of the point-source loudspeakers that were installed previously.’
Prior to installing the new system, the space was acoustically treated through the strategic deployment of 96 1.2m by 0.6m panels in the main space and a further 16 panels for the choir loft. Furthermore, the old video screens were replaced with acoustically transparent screens to allow sound from the organ’s loudspeakers to propagate.
The CSD crew flew the two white WorxAudio X3i-P line arrays in a left-right configuration over the front edge of the stage area, using WorxAudio’s X-Minibeam 3 suspension system for each array. The manufacfturers's PXD-2580 digital power amplifiers drive the arrays.
'Because the church’s sanctuary is so wide, the X3’s wide dispersion was a significant factor in our decision to deploy this line array,’ recalled Mr Hood. ‘We also like the fact that the X3 boxes have an extremely clean, streamlined appearance. The finished product looks much more sophisticated than many competing products. Our customer was very pleased with the aesthetics. We received comments that not only does the new sound system sound better, but it also looks better.’
‘I believe we’ve struck the right balance between music and voice, with the room still seeming quite live,’ explained the church’s technical director, Joel Bump. ‘When I ran the sound during the contemporary service for the first time, the instruments were each individually audible. All the musicians immediately noticed the clarity. Several critical choir members reported they could hear everything crisply and at a good listening level. The spoken word is very intelligible and well articulated, and the sermon was crystal clear throughout the room. We are all very pleased.’