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When the time came to design its new
worship facility, church management
for White Oak Worship Center (formerly
known as Full Gospel Fellowship Church
of Danville, VA) knew that a well-implemented
audio-visual system could do wonders toward
making services more relevant.
By closely coordinating the architectural
process with a seasoned AV integrator, their
new sanctuary is home to a new $300,000
audio-visual system that incorporates multiple
large screen displays, a sophisticated camera
implementation and post production suite to
edit services for broadcast and online streaming.
The new sound reinforcement system
from Greensboro, NC-based WorxAudio Technologies
also plays a key role.
Not an Afterthought FOH
Burlington NC-based Boone Audio Inc., a
design/build firm specializing in AV integration
for the house of worship, education, and
corporate markets, was contracted to design
and implement White Oak Worship Center’s
new system. Paul Boone, president/CEO, dis-
cussed the nature of the installation and the
challenges it presented.
“White Oak Worship Center’s sanctuary
is 105 feet wide by 96 feet long in a quarterround
configuration with a seating capacity
for approximately 850 people” Boone explains.
“The stage/pulpit area features a uniquely designed
area for the choir that is located over
the orchestra pit. In addition to the main floor
that slopes up toward the back of the room,
there is a balcony at the rear of the sanctuary
that houses the FOH (front of house) mix position,
which is equipped with a 64-In / 32-Out
Allen & Heath iLive-T112 digital live audio mixing
console.
24
Installations
At White Oak Worship Center, the System was
By R.Maxwell
Music is Key FOH
“White Oak Worship Center’s services are
very contemporary in nature,” Boone adds.
“Music plays a prominent role, and church
management made it very clear that, in addition
to displays for visually reinforcing the
message and aiding the congregation with
lyrics, they wanted a top-notch sound system
that delivered first-rate speech intelligibility
while also being capable of handling
high SPL music reproduction. Their worship
services are very upbeat. The church uses
a good-sized praise band to augment the
worship leader and eight backing vocalists,
and they also have a full choir of roughly 40
voices.”
To meet these requirements, Hugh Sarvis,
WorxAudio’s CEO and director of engineering,
penned a sound reinforcement
system that provides for a center cluster
consisting of six WorxAudio TrueLine
V8i-P two-way powered, high efficiency,
compact line array loudspeakers flown at
a height of 24 feet over the front of the
pulpit/stage area. Suspended by WorxAu-
“The fact that we planned the sanctuary’s
AV facilities at an early stage paid huge dividends
on this project.” —Mike Klauss
Anything But An Afterthought
dio’s TrueAim Grid, which utilizes a single,
industry-standard schedule 40 pipe, the
cluster blends in with its surroundings.
Two WorxAudio V5M-P powered enclosures
are used for congregational
frontfill along the left and right edges
of the stage. A seventh TrueLine V8i-P is
mounted to the rear of the TrueAim Grid.
Unlike the six enclosures facing into the
sanctuary, this loudspeaker serves as a
monitor for the choir and is visually hidden
from the congregation.
Submerged Subs FOH
Low frequency support is provided by
JANUARY 2011 www.fohonline.com
Boone Audio Inc. provided the new WorxAudio sound reinforcement system for White Oak Worship Center
two WorxAudio TrueLine TL218SS-P subwoofers
plus a single TL118SS-PMD2 subwoofer.
All three enclosures are housed in
specially designed, recessed cubicles under
the front edge of the stage. With the
two TL218SS-P subwoofers positioned at
the left and right edges of the stage and
the TL118SS-PMD2 enclosure in the center,
these subwoofers provide plenty of
low end punch and smooth bass response
throughout the room while effectively remaining
out of sight. All PA enclosures
are managed by an Ashly Protea 4.8SP 4
Input / 8 Output Digital system controller,
which handles room EQ and time alignments.
Monitor provisions include a combination
of WorxAudio 8M two-way, high
efficiency, passive loudspeakers and Aviom
A-16II in-ear personal mixing systems,
which are used by the front line vocalists
and all musicians. Mike Klauss, lead
sound engineer for White Oak Worship
Center, notes that these personal monitor
systems have been a boon for everyone
involved. “We’re running about 14 Aviom
units,” Klauss reports. “These systems do a
tremendous job of minimizing stage volume,
which helps clean up the sound at
FOH.”
All handheld microphones—both
wired and wireless—use Audix OM6 elements.
“We wanted to ensure the best
possible consistency of sound regardless
of which microphone is being used,”
Klauss notes. “Other microphones include
a Countryman E6 earset mic for Pastor
Roger Ewing while the choir is picked up
by Audix MicroBoom microphones.”
Post-Production Remixes FOH
To support its TV broadcast and Internet
streaming endeavors, White Oak Worship Center
has a dedicated post production suite where all
audio and video is processed. To ensure the best
possible sound quality, the church records to a
Tascam X-48 48-track hard disk workstation. This
workstation takes a combination of analog and
optical digital feeds as direct outputs from the
“They wanted a top-notch sound system
that delivered first-rate speech intelligibility
while also being capable of handling high
SPL music reproduction.” —Paul Boone
Allen & Heath MixRack—the mix engine for the
FOH console. “The Tascam X-48 enables us to remix
the audio separately,” says Klauss, “before it is
sync’d with video during post production.”
“The fact that we planned the sanctuary’s AV
facilities at an early stage paid huge dividends
on this project,” Klauss adds. “We began planning
for all this as far back as January of 2009
when the building’s architectural blueprints and
CAD drawings were being finalized. By being involved
early on, we were able to arrange for the
subwoofer cubicles and numerous other aspects
of this project that, ultimately, made it a worldclass
installation. Hugh Sarvis was a tremendous
help—not only in the design of the sound system,
but in its final tuning as well.”
With the new AV system in place and
operational, Klauss reports a positive reaction
from that everyone — from Pastor
Roger Ewing and the praise team to the
congregation. “The church wanted the
sound to be clear, comfortable, and distinct
and that’s exactly what we achieved,” he
says. “We continue to receive compliments
for every aspect of the entire audio-visual
system. Several pastors from various area
churches have visited White Oak Worship
Center to experience the system and have
been very impressed. In my mind, that’s the
best compliment of all.”