‘The first time I visited Wellspring Community Church in Ruskin, Florida, they had a red movie theatre carpet, velvet ropes, popcorn and Star Wars stuff for the kids,’ recalls All Pro Integrated Systems Sales Manager, Mark Salamone. The service was amazing – full hands-in-the-air singing from everyone led by a charismatic pastor and a praise band loaded with talented musicians. The sound system was just OK, but [Technical Arts Director} Preston Eaves was squeezing everything he could out of it. In terms of community service, Wellspring made it clear that they weren’t just talking the talk – they are actively working to improve access to the material and spiritual needs of the community.’
Salamone, who has a long history of critical listening in the role of recording and mixing engineer, attended that service in anticipation of Wellspring’s move to a new, larger sanctuary that would eventually benefit from Danley Sound Labs point-source loudspeakers, subwoofers, and DSP-enabled amplifiers. The church’s existing sanctuary held 180 people, and congregants were regularly overflowing into the lobby – even though the church was holding five all-live services every weekend! And the church had planted only four years prior.
‘We could see where we were at and where we were going, and a bigger space was definitely needed,’ Eaves explains. ‘Our new sanctuary seats 550. We have a high-energy praise band with drums, bass, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, organs and a slew of vocals. The music is progressive and modern, with a Hillsong Worship kind of vibe. I got in touch with Mark and the folks at All Pro Integrated Systems a little over a year-and-a-half before the new sanctuary was supposed to be completed. I thought I was getting a jump on things but came to realise that I had actually set myself up for a time crunch.’
‘The blueprints for the new room showed that it was going to be as wide as it was deep,’ Salamone continues. ‘A line array would be a bad choice but Danley’s point source technology would be perfect. Danley boxes are very accurate – like extra-large format studio monitors. And Danley’s subwoofers bring musicality and clarity with incredible punch.’
Eaves had heard of Danley, but he had never actually heard a Danley system. Coincidentally, Chris Bencsik of Bencsik Associates was arranging a demo with two Danley SH96s and a TH118 subwoofer up against Grace Family Church’s big-name installed system.
Eaves attended: ‘It was an installed system from another manufacturer that everyone respects up against a very small Danley system by comparison,’ he says. ‘They did a classic A/B bouncing between the two systems. The Danleys clearly outperformed the installed system – the difference was night and day. Everyone in attendance agreed. After hearing that demo, how could we go with anything else?’
The All Pro Integrated Systems engineering team worked with the Danley engineering team to model an ideal system for Wellspring’s new sanctuary, and the All Pro team installed it. Two SH96HOs deliver stereo, supplemented by three SH95HOs for down- and centre-fill. The system design, handled by All Pro’s Justin Schwartz.
Pattern control keeps energy off the walls, which are acoustically treated to lend sympathetic acoustics for Wellspring’s worship style. Two DBH218 subwoofers round out the low end, and three four-channel DNA 20k4 Pro amplifiers power the system with loudspeaker conditioning DSP.
‘Knowing our church and – maybe a bit selfishly – I really wanted the new system to hit you in the chest,’ Eaves says. ‘I wanted to really feel the rumble. The “first draft” didn’t go as far as I had hoped it would, but the All Pro staff dialled up the subs and gave me a second listen the next day. I remember listening from the centre of the room, feeling that bass, throwing my hands in the air, and shouting in triumph. It was exactly what we needed.’
‘You can tell a successful church just from the vibe,’ Salamone adds.
More: www.danleysoundlabs.com
