Laying claim to being the largest non-pillared auditorium in Chigago’s metro area, the oval sanctuary of Moody Church has recently replaced a 20-year-old main cluster with a new Meyer Sound Mina line array system.
‘To the untrained eye, the new cluster doesn’t look that much different,’ says Michael Arman, the church’s audiovisual technical coordinator. ‘But after the first Sunday, our senior pastor [Dr Lutzer] told me that a number of people had praised him on his voice being in unusually good form. Apparently, they were hearing nuances they’d never heard before.’
Built in the mid-1920s, the sanctuary accommodates more than 3,700 worshippers and has been fraught with audio problems. For those seated in about 80 per cent of the seats, Dr Lutzer’s ‘revived’ voice was carried by a single array of ten Mina loudspeakers. Worship services also call on contemporary and traditional music, including an amplified band, full orchestra, and 70-voice choir.
‘Mina was clearly the right tool for the job,’ says TC Furlong, President of project integrator, TC Furlong Inc. ‘The loudspeakers offered vastly better performance and coverage, and aesthetically they fit into the same mold as the old system.’
The balance of the main cluster hang comprises two UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers as side fill, rear-facing choir fills of a UPA-1P and two UPA-2P loudspeakers, and four 500-HP subwoofers in a cardioid configuration. Three UPM-1P loudspeakers on the chancel cover the front rows and hold the audio image down, while a Galileo loudspeaker management system – with two Galileo 616 processors – provides system drive.
According to Arman, the new system also provides greatly improved uniformity of coverage throughout the church: ‘I find that I don’t have to overcompensate when I’m mixing anymore,’ he says. ‘Before, I’d force myself to mix brighter where I was sitting, because I knew people 30ft away were in a dead null spot. Now I’m far more confident that everybody is hearing what I’m hearing.’
The worship services feature a blend of contemporary and traditional music, including an amplified band, full orchestra, and 70-voice choir. Touring artists have also noticed the sanctuary’s sonic improvements.
The new Meyer Sound loudspeakers complement the existing front-end system at The Moody Church, including a Yamaha M7CL digital console, Shure wireless microphone systems, and Aviom personal monitor mixers. Together, they provide greatly improved serive to both the curch’s regular speakers and performers, and visiting performers.
‘We had Keith & Kristyn Getty in here with their full band after we put in the new system,’ Arman reports, ‘and their FOH mixer told me we had the best-sounding mono rig he’s heard.’
More: www.tcfurlong.com
More: www.meyersound.com
