Having occupied several different locations and worship spaces since its 1970 origins, the Cary Alliance Church in Cary, North Carolina, is currently a 600-seat multipurpose room with double the capacity of its previous sanctuary. Although arguably not the ‘churchiest’ of spaces, the multipurpose room allows the church to meet the community’s larger cultural needs with public space for a variety of activities.

As the times have changed, so has Cary Alliance’s service style. Local A/V integration firm AVCON recently designed and installed a Danley Sound Labs sound reinforcement system that brings the church to the cutting-edge of live sound technology in support of that new, more-contemporary service style.

‘Cary Alliance Church moved into its new building about 12 years ago, and AVCON provided the sound system,’ explains AVCON CEO/President, Frank Yarborough. ‘At the time, the church’s style was more traditional, and the sound system met their more modest needs. But it has evolved with the rest of the world into a more contemporary, blended worship style.

‘Whereas Cary Alliance’s services used to be more “piano-driven” with a full choir, now it’s more “guitar-driven”, with a praise band every week. The choir only joins for special occasions. With a different mode of performance, a higher level of audio fidelity and impact was needed. When the old equipment started reaching the end of its life, they put in the call for a completely new sound reinforcement system that was ready to keep up with current services.’

Yarborough speculates that – as people have more, and more consistent experiences with high-definition sound in cars, theatres, venues and stadia – they come to expect it more. Not only in those situations, but in all of the situations they find themselves in.

‘It’s experiential conditioning,’ he elaborates. ‘People get used to better quality, and that better quality becomes the new standard. When was the last time you saw a standard definition TV? It’s almost offensive…

‘Church sound is now compared with all of those other situations, and people have higher expectations. We’ve found that Danley’s technologies can reliably and affordably take churches to that next level. The people at Danley are fantastic, and we worked closely with Cooper [Hedden, Southeast Regional Manager with Danley]. He produced a model of the proposed system that was useful in our conversations with the client. Importantly, he arranged a demo at Cary Alliance so that they would feel completely comfortable with their decision.’

‘Everyone at the demo could hear the clarity and punch of the system,’ said Danny Brymer, worship pastor at Cary Alliance Church. ‘We played a variety of different styles of pre-recorded music. I played my guitar. Our pastor spoke. It sounded fantastic!’ AVCON design engineer Eb Strickland noted that Tom Danley’s patented point-source loudspeaker designs deliver excellent pattern control octaves below that of most conventional designs. ‘Danley pattern control lends itself well to the geometry and reflective surfaces of Cary Alliance’s multi-purpose space,’ he said. ‘Keeping energy off the walls and on the people is important.’ The demo sealed the deal, and AVCON moved forward with the installation.

Cary Alliance Church now has straightforward exploded mono system driven by LR SH69 full-range loudspeakers. Each is paired with a SH95 for dow -fill. A DBH218 subwoofer hangs above the centre of the room to give the kind of undistorted, big-impact low-end support that will help the band fully connect with the congregation.

A single four-channel DNA 20k4 Pro amplifier powers the system, with onboard DSP and presets to optimise loudspeaker and subwoofer performance with modest conditioning. Strickland specified the Dante option on the DNA 20k4 Pro so that it can receive signal from the new Yamaha QL1 reliably in the digital domain.

The new system sounds excellent,’ Yarborough says. ‘The intelligibility of spoken word and sung lyrics makes the entire service more effective, and the clarity and depth of musical reproduction is exactly what Cary Alliance’s new service style needed!’

Brymer agrees: ‘Everything we put through our new system sounds super clear, even without EQ or compression. The coverage is great from wall to wall, front to back, from the deep lows to the crystal clear highs and everything in-between.’

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