Built in 1936 in the Gangnam district of Seoul, the Changsin Church found that the quality of its old audio system was falling increasing short of its requirements. After a comparison with systems from other major manufacturers, an Alcons Audio LR14 pro-ribbon system was chosen as its replacement

The church committee appointed Jang Young-wook, a church sound engineer and executive director of the Korean Church Acoustics Association, as project consultant. He in turn contacted eight leading audio system manufacturers and asked them to participate in a briefing to be held at the church. The companies included audio contractor Sky Sound, based in Daegu, which had previously worked with Alcons Audio’s South Korean distributor Corelab on the project to install an Alcons pro-ribbon LR14 ultra-compact line-array system in The Gyeongsan Central Church, in Gyeongsan City. Sky Sound also has an Alcons LR18 compact mid-size line array system in its rental inventory.

The eight companies represented were offered details of the sanctuary acoustics and the church’s requirements, and were invited to proffer solutions based on a definedbudget. Sky Sound CEO Park Sang-hyun and Corelab’s Baek Seung-hoon had worked together on the Gyeongsan Central Church installation, so it was obvious for them to work together on this project.

As well as considering which Alcons pro-ribbon system would deliver the best sound for church sermons, Baek Seung-hoon also considered what would be the easiest system for the church officials to use and how it could be used to improve the visual appearance of the space where worship takes place. ‘There was a certain amount of reflection and a balcony at the back, with chairs underneath, so I had to be very careful with the sound,’ he says. ‘The existing system also had cables visible in many places, which detracted from the interior appearance.’

During the two weeks allowed to produce the system proposal, Baek Seung-hoon visited the church when there was no worship taking place to discuss the acoustics with its part-time sound engineer. He also visited during Sunday worship to hear and make a recording of the pastor’s sermon with the existing system.

From this research, he decided that the best Alcons pro-ribbon solution would be a system comprising six LR14/90 ultra-compact line-array modules, six LR14/120 wide dispersion ultra-compact line-array modules, two LR14B ultra-compact line-array bass modules, four VR8 compact versatile monitors and one CCS8 medium-format surround unit, powered and controlled by two Sentinel10 amplified loudspeaker controllers.

The system would provide high quality, even coverage throughout, including both above and below the balcony, meaning no secondary speakers would be needed.

The four companies that passed the initial proposal evaluation made system demonstrations to of the church committee and other staff. Afterwards, the church committee and pastor spoke to the vendors individually. Here Baek Seung-hoon spoke explained why hearing the pastor’s sermons was difficult with the existing system. This ensured that all committee members understood the issues. Impressed with both the demonstration and Baek Seung-hoon’s explanation, the committee chose the LR14 system.

Sky Sound faced some difficulties with removing the old audio system and flying the Alcons LR14 pro-ribbon arrays, so the company manufactured and installed specially-made wall brackets to hang the arrays from.

‘Before installing the Alcons system, not everyone present could properly hear or understand the pastor’s sermons,’ says Baek Seung-hoon. ‘Now everyone in the Church can hear every word and the pastor no longer needs to preach loudly, which was making him tired when using the old system.

‘The walls of the chapel also no longer look ugly with a lot of speakers and cables. All church staff and worshippers are now enjoying a very comfortable faith life with the Alcons LR14 system.’

More: www.alconsaudio.com