Sound & Communications April 2008 issue

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The T.L. Lowery Global Ministry Center in Cleveland TN. All photos: Johnny Hughes FROM OFFICE SUPPLIES TO GLOBAL MINISTRY AV and architecture transform retail space for worship use. BY DAWN ALLCOT The building that houses the T.L. Lowery Global Ministry Center in Cleveland TN is a converted Office- Max retail store, but you can’t tell by looking at it. The classic American architecture of the white building is defined by a rounded portico; pillars supporting the portico flank the tall front door. Floor-to-ceiling glass panels have been replaced by two smaller rows of windows. “Imagine it without the columns and the portico,” said Bill George, secretary of the T.L. Lowery Global Foundation, “and you have an OfficeMax!” It takes quite a bit of imagination, however, to picture this distinguished building as a bustling retail space. Even inside, the structure reveals no hints of its former life. Visitors to the ministry center enter a circular lobby, where they are greeted by a Panasonic 42-inch plasma screen for digital signage, which displays news about upcoming events and information about the center. Glass display cases on either side of the lobby showcase pieces of history from T.L. Lowery’s 60-year career as a Pentecostal evangelist, pastor and denominational executive. The 24,800-foot, $4.5 million ministry center also houses an 850-seat sanctuary/auditorium with state-ofthe-art AV systems, media studios for recording and broadcast, a boardroom, bookstore, prayer room and office space. ‘Not A Church’ The T.L. Lowery Center is not a church, representatives are quick to point out. The home of the T.L. Lowery Global Foundation, the center exists as an educational venue for evangelistic pastors. “Prior to building the center,” said Ministries director Greg Casto, “Dr. Lowery worked out Dawn Allcot is a freelance writer specializing in the audiovisual and health and fitness industries. 30 Sound & Communications www.soundandcommunications.com
of an office and toured the world. Building a central location is a vision he’s had for many years. The Lord spoke to him about having a place where he could bring people together to mentor and teach them, a place where he could be a leader to church leaders.” While high-profile guests in the Pentecostal/Charismatic community offer high-energy worship services during the Friday Night Fire series, the ministry center’s purpose is teaching and ministry development as modeled by T.L. Lowery. Upcoming events include an Evangelism Certification course and the International Conference on Spiritual Impartation, a fourday event featuring T.L. Lowery, Perry Stone and Greg Casto, and hosted by Pastors Ron and Alice Scott. Situated next door to the Bradley Square Mall in Cleveland’s main retail center, the ministry center is located in a bustling section of the modest city. Dr. Lowery’s son discovered the building while driving through town one day. When he pointed it out to his father, the senior Lowery knew the Lord had led him there to fulfill his vision of creating a gathering place where evangelists could learn. “It’s in a high-traffic area…a very desirable location,” said George. “It’s in an area with a lot of hotels and restaurants, which is important for the type of training we do, where we bring people in from other places.” He added that renovating an existing building was much more economical and sensible than starting from scratch with new construction. From Shopping To Worship Transforming a former big box retail store, with its high ceilings and parallel wall surfaces, into an acoustically superior sanctuary capable of hosting musical acts of all sizes, Friday night high-energy worship services and classroom instruction for large groups of evangelists posed several challenges, according to acoustical consultant James S. Conversion of this former retail space created an attractive, inviting facility, as is seen in this entrance area. Brawley, president of James S. Brawley & Associates, Inc. Clemson SC-based Brawley, who completed the sound design for the space, worked closely with Sam Arnold of Southern Digital Products, Inc., the project’s Huntsville AL-based audiovisual installer. “It’s an educational auditorium with live music performance and evangelical instruction,” Brawley said. “So the criteria was to have a robust music amplification sound system with enough inputs and outputs to handle typical worship music bands normally found in a Pentecostal church, including several voices, praise team, horns, string, keyboards, organ, drums, guitars and basses.” Arnold added, “They run a very high level of live sound in the sanctuary. I expected it to be a high level of sound, but it turned out even higher than I expected.” The high ceilings and parallel wall surfaces created acoustical challenges when it came to achieving the desired sound quality. Brawley specified acoustical treatments on the back wall; additional sidewall treatment was recommended, and may be installed at a later date. High Ambient Noise Another challenge was the high ambient noise levels created by the HVAC system, much of which was reused from the venue’s OfficeMax days. The contractors installed a layin ceiling with acoustical panels to block some of the noise, and Brawley worked with the HVAC contractors to route ductwork in such a way that it created less ambient noise in critical areas of the auditorium. Brawley specified that Yamaha IF2115 two-way full-range loudspeakers with 15-inch woofers be placed in an arc to cover the entire sanctuary. The speakers are placed in a semicircle around an eight-foot extension off the front of the 20'x15' stage. Brawley determined optimal speaker placement using modeling software. The speakers are powered by a collection of Yamaha PC-3301N and PC- 6501N power amps. Two Yamaha IS1218 subwoofers were added, along with four Yamaha IF2112/AS floor monitors. Four IF2108 speakers can be configured as compact floor monitors or front fill floor speakers. “One of the requirements was to have sufficient stage monitor mixes and loudspeakers to give them a lot of April 2008 31
Page 1 and 2: Vol. 54 No. 4 April 21, 2008 AV FOR
Page 3 and 4: Microsoft ® chose Crestron
Page 5 and 6: A TEAM OF ENGINEERS AND SUPPORT STA
Page 7 and 8: TURBO iDDR DIGITAL DISK RECORDER P
Page 9 and 10: NEWSLETTER ANSI/ISO ACCREDITS INFOC
Page 11 and 12: Long-term reliability and complete
Page 13 and 14: AV dealers, systems consultants and
Page 15 and 16: fluid precision 250º 350º 350º 2
Page 17 and 18: Rule of Thumb Guide for RT and Soun
Page 19 and 20: April 2008 19
Page 21 and 22: an inspired blend wired & wireless
Page 23 and 24: Heavy Duty. Power tools for powerfu
Page 29: When a subject is as important as y
Page 33 and 34: SEE THE NEXT “BIG” THING IN WIR
Page 35 and 36: Introducing CONTROL 200 Medium-Form
Page 39 and 40: dB10 dB12 direct boxes worthy of
Page 41 and 42: “These square panels are unique n
Page 43 and 44: No compression. No conversions. No
Page 45 and 46: and the engineers gave us the point
Page 47 and 48: 112IM At One Systems , we do thin
Page 49 and 50: Built with pride in the U.S.A., Yam
Page 51 and 52: The purpose-built Longwood FL campu
Page 53 and 54: The World Deserves A Better Project
Page 55 and 56: 26 Meyer MM-4 ceiling speaker cabin
Page 57 and 58: Electrosonic, Inc. Founded in 1964,
Page 59 and 60: CTS and CTS-I are now accredited un
Page 61 and 62: 80° horizontal dispersion, 90° ho
Page 63 and 64: Wilson noted that the primary chall
Page 65 and 66: NetStreams’ DigiLinX IP-Based Dis
Page 67 and 68: Look into a whole new idea in poke-
Page 69 and 70: is fed into a computer with ViewCas
Page 75 and 76: writer has been to hundreds of chur
Page 79 and 80: Gym, cafeteria, theater, worship sp
Page 81 and 82:
the audience feels enveloped by the
Page 83 and 84:
WWW.YAMAHACA.COM YAMAHA’S LS9 DIG
Page 85 and 86:
Whether such standards have to be c
Page 87 and 88:
develop products around a common se
Page 89 and 90:
We’re sending a clear signal. The
Page 91 and 92:
THE ONE SHOW! Experience the Latest
Page 93 and 94:
180 Exhibitor Booth Spaces Subscrib
Page 95 and 96:
It’s not just a magazine it’s a
Page 97 and 98:
Peerless Mounts’ Video Wall Flat
Page 99 and 100:
Barix’s Exstreamer IP Audio Decod
Page 101 and 102:
Hall Research’s TVB-400 Switching
Page 103 and 104:
In the April edition of VIEWpoint,
Page 105 and 106:
call for additional religious educa
Page 107 and 108:
Community Begins Its 40 th Celebrat
Page 109 and 110:
COMPILED BY DAN FERRISI Pinstrikes
Page 111 and 112:
Technomad’s Vienna 16 Weatherproo
Page 113 and 114:
AN ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO SOUND
Page 115 and 116:
AN ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO SOUND
Page 117 and 118:
FURNITURE, ROLLTOP DESKS AND RACKS
Page 119 and 120:
SUPPLIERS April 2008 119
Page 121 and 122:
SUPPLIERS April 2008 121
Page 123 and 124:
April 2008 123
show all

Sound & Communications April 2008 issue

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?