Advanced Audio and Lighting recently returned to the Third Reformed Church in the Pella, Iowa, for a technical redesign following an earlier sound and lighting installation.

‘As so often happens, the existing system was a case of fine products having been installed, but completely misapplied within the environment, so that coverage was extremely inconsistent,’ says company President and Senior Design Engineer, Graeme Brown.

‘The space is quite unique – a modified fan-shaped building with lots of ceiling angles and a massive custom centre truss that required out fill and delays to evenly cover all seating.’

The new sound system not only needed to address these issues but also have the capability of reinforcing a variety of events and source inputs. ‘While the Church’s main focus is contemporary music, it does have a choir and mixed quartets on a regular basis for the early service,’ Brown says. ‘The client was requesting very hi-fidelity, with extended sub-bass, rather than necessarily high SPL.’

His solution was to designate a main PA comprising the scalable resolution of Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision WPS compact line array. To this he added centre flown SXC118 cardioid low-frequency enclosures, as well as a further SXH218 subwoofers on the floor for sub-bass. Additional fill is provided by Martin Audio CDD loudspeakers.

‘The Wavefront system and SXC118, in conjunction with the Display 2 software and iKon DSP amplifiers, driving the system in one-box resolution, provided optimum efficiency. ‘It gave us the best control over which areas of the sanctuary needed coverage and which needed avoided,’ Brown confirms. ‘Once properly configured – during the design phase – commissioning becomes greatly simplified. Once the system handles the loudspeaker management on its own, the integrator can focus on aligning and tuning the room and not “fixing” the sound system.’

To achieve this optimisation had required a good deal of programming in the Martin Audio software, in particular using the Hard Avoid function. ‘There was initially some acoustic treatment in the space, more absorption was added during this phase,’ says the installer. ‘With that and the multiple ceiling angles adding diffusion, the space is very well behaved, and the system performs extremely well. It has much higher gain before feedback, when compared with the previous system.’

The new Martin Audio system also meets all the requirements for weight loading and general aesthetics. ‘The original system was the typical ‘flying junkyard’, so popular at the time. It consisted entirely of front-loaded, point source powered enclosures, whereas the new system is based on line array technology and cardioid LF control.

‘Between the Martin Audio factory rigging hardware and custom Polar Focus beam mounts, this was an extremely clean installation – everything is high and tight. The clients were thrilled even before it was powered up.’

The result is that the 800-capacity congregation in the main sanctuary now receives the exact same signal wherever they are seated, and when the doors open out to engage a further 100-seat overflow, whenever capacity is reached, these worshippers too will be immersed in an identical audio experience.

Advanced Audio’s designer believes the clients are now able to achieve their goals of communication on a much higher level, while no longer battling sound system shortcomings.

‘The Martin WPS system that Graeme and his team installed has met and exceeded our expectations, since our room design is not your typical space for modern live sound,’ says a church representative. ‘The WPS arrays perform very well in our space and have taken our musical mixes to a much higher level while also improving speech intelligibility.

‘The steerability and thoughtful design of this PA allowed us to create intentional PA Silent areas on the sides of our room. This allows us to better serve our congregation with prayer and communion ministries during our services. From the tightness of the low end to the clarity and smoothness of the high end, we are extremely pleased with this system design and performance.’