Among those churches in the US that has endeavoured to continue in-person – alongside streamed – services throughout the 2020 global pandemic, Faith United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, found that with its live sound system running, the audio on the stream became increasingly unintelligible.

‘The sound system we had was spraying sound all around the sanctuary,’ explains Director of Tech Ministries, Mark Eldridge. ‘Sure, it was hitting all the people, but it was hitting all the walls as well. That’s been a challenge with the on-site sound for some time. It wasn’t always the most intelligible sound. But then, with streaming video, you really can’t have that sound getting back to the mics because it really muddies up the mix.’

To repair the local sound in the 855-capacity, octagonal sanctuary – and improve the sound quality of the streamed video services – the church turned to Renkus-Heinz.

‘We were already planning upgrades to our system,’ Eldridge says. ‘I had been researching it for about five years, and I knew steerable loudspeaker technology was going to work in our space. When we unexpectedly had to begin live-streaming the services we quickly found the audio we were providing to our congregation was not at a high enough quality. We immediately began looking at what we needed to do it right. The obvious answer was to go with Renkus-Heinz.’

Faith United Methodist Church’s newly system is centred on Renkus-Heinz ICLive X Series, with two arrays of three modules – two ICLX loudspeakers and one ICLXL loudspeaker – installed on the edges of the space.

‘Making sure the audio was focused on the in-person congregation was our highest priority,’ says Curt Taipale of Taipale Media Systems, the company that designed the system. ‘By using Renkus-Heinz, we were able to make sure sound was going where it was needed, and not filling unnecessary space. And when you solve that challenge, you solve the sound on the stream as well.’

Faith United Methodist reportsb that, after the first run with the new system, it impressed not only those in-person, but also garnered praise from the streaming viewership as well.

‘Everyone from the staff to the worshipers have noticed the drastic improvement in audio quality we got with Renkus-Heinz,’ Eldridge confirms. ‘Worshipers who have been tuning in via live-stream are calling in words of praise as they’re finally getting an immersive service experience from their homes.’

Renkus-Heinz representative Michael Austin of Native Media provided assistance throughout all phases of the project. Renkus-Heinz provided on-site commissioning of the system, and Taipale Media Systems sent consultant Tom Tyson for on-site setup services. The tuning of the system was completed in just a few hours. A custom paint finish allows the loudspeakers to blend into the space.

More: www.renkus-heinz.com