Sound & Communications April 2008 issue

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OLD TIME RELIGION, MODERN AV Lake Grove Church delivers high-energy, tech-enhanced worship. BY SHONAN NORONHA, EdD A passionate preacher, six musicians, 87 choral singers and more than 1500 parishioners raise their hands and voices in worship every Sunday at the newly constructed Lake Grove Missionary Baptist Church in downtown Memphis TN. The $5.2 million Corinthian-style building sits on the 25,000-square-foot parking lot of the old church, and its interiors feature classical architectural detail and the latest sound and visual systems. Powered portable line arrays, programmable DSPs, laser pendulums and GPS are just a few of the high-tech tools that Sound Hill Technologies (Holden LA), a turnkey system design and integration firm, used to bring the best possible AV systems to the new home of this old community church. The new construction features a chapel with a sanctuary, a choir loft and a balcony or production area. At the back of the church are the Fellowship Hall, six offices and 12 classrooms. Achieving Clarity According to Pastor Revered Sam Henry Mickens, speech clarity and a clear tone in all areas of the church were top priority. “The couple of mics we had in the old church screeched, groaned and produced static when we moved them around,” he said. The audio system for the sanctuary, Lake Grove Missionary Baptist Church, Memphis TN. which is about 130 feet across and 115 feet deep, with ceiling coffers 48 feet from the floor, presented some special challenges. Discussing the uses of the sound system in light of the unique characteristics of the interior design of the chapel, Tim Hill, Sound Hill coowner, noted, “Our primary goal was to design a speech and music system capable of outputting high decibel levels with clarity and no distortion.” Gerald Kennedy, a principal at G&A Architects in Little Rock AR, who designed the interiors of the chapel and served as project manager for Lake Grove Missionary Baptist Church, reported that the arched ceiling features 4'x4' custom-built coffers. Shonan Noronha, EdD, is an independent writer, producer, training consultant, and author of several books and numerous articles about television, AV, multimedia and music. Send comments to her at shonan@optonline.net. 40 Sound & Communications www.soundandcommunications.com
“These square panels are unique not only as a decorative element in the overall design, but also serve the insulation requirements (R-factors) and help to prevent high frequencies from bouncing off the ceiling and causing echo,” explained Kennedy. Sound Hill carefully specified audio components, such as JBL line array speakers and a dbx 481 DriveRack audio processor that would provide clear tones without reflections. Because the walls do not have acoustic panels, Hill noticed that the sound tended to bounce around, causing certain frequencies to ring. “We used a dbx DriveRack for digital signal processing and calibrated the system with EAW’s SMAART measurement software to optimize the sound,” he said. Managing The Sound To ensure good audio coverage in all areas, Sound Hill specified the new powered VRX portable line arrays from JBL. Two arrays, each containing two VRX932LAP loudspeakers and one VRX918SP subwoofer, are set up above in order to prevent inadvertent or intentional messing up of the settings,” explained Hill. “Discreet passwords enable authorized users to access the control application, and we train them on how to make adjustments.” Audio Configuration The audio configuration also includes six JBL SRX712M stage monitors, Crown amplifiers to drive the stage monitors, a Soundcraft 32-channel mixing console and Furman Sound sequential powering. Pastor Mickens had wanted the microphones to be easy to set up and use because volunteers would operate them. Sound Hill selected a range of AKG wireless and wired mics, including the AKG WMS 40 Pro Vocals handheld, for high-quality, reliability and ease of use. Because the distance from the pulpit to the back wall of the chancel is about 50 feet deep and 100 feet wide, Hill ruled out traditional horn-loaded loudspeakers and specified JBL powered VRX line arrays. “We do our own design/build and, in previous jobs, I had put in some of the first, non-powered JBL VRX loudspeakers. I like the VRX system, and for a mid-sized church, it is excellent,” Hill said. “When I found out that JBL was going to introduce powered ones, we used them for this church; that was the very first installation nationwide.” Hill explained that his decision to use powered VRXs instead of the nonpowered ones was related to the long wiring runs from the speakers to the amps. “With non-powered speakers, that could have resulted in difference in impedance and signal loss. In addition, we would have had to run a multi-pair speaker-line because there are three speakers in each array. By using powered VRXs, we were able to run a microphone line to supply our signal; to accomplish this, we ran a four-line audio snake,” he said. Arrays In The Air Flying the line arrays from an arched ceiling 48 feet high required skill and experience. Sound Hill had both, as well as welding and fabrication capability. Describing the process, Hill said: “We took 2"x2"x¼"- The powered line array pendulum, hung with additional subs behind a cloth mesh under the stage, gives maximum sound disbursement. the main stage in the sanctuary, in a leftright configuration. “The JBL line array characteristics allow for advanced control of the sound, keeping it off the walls, while providing adequate power for the services,” noted Hill. A dbx 481 DriveRack provides equalization and loudspeaker management. Sound Hill used dbx’s DriveWare application to set up the controls. “We decided not to have any controls on the DSP unit, but to provide management of the controls via a Toshiba computer, April 2008 41
Page 1 and 2: Vol. 54 No. 4 April 21, 2008 AV FOR
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