As its Church Unlimited’s Corpus Christi campus has grown and seen successive improvements made to its audiovisual systems, the church found itself increasingly having to work around the limits of a 20-year-old PA system.
Unable to deliver the clarity, consistency or impact needed for modern worship, the non-denominational, evangelical, multi-site church turned to long-time integration partner Messenger AVL, and now has a new EAW ADAPTive sound system.
Messenger AVL is a design-build integrator specialising in worship spaces. Knowing that traditional systems would struggle to meet the church’s goals without compromising aesthetics, budget or coverage, the Georgia-based company looked to EAW’s ADAPTive technology – a software-controlled system capable of delivering even coverage to the rear of the room from a short, visually unobtrusive array.
Messenger AVL devised a left-center-right configuration, with four Anna loudspeakers as mains, four Anya loudspeakers providing out fill and two AC6 column loudspeakers for additional horizontal coverage. ‘Church Unlimited wanted to create a feeling of width and immersion,’ says Senior Systems Engineer, Parker Gann. ‘They had a fixed budget and specific sonic goals. EAW’s ADAPTive series gave us the performance and flexibility we needed without compromises.’
Low-frequency reinforcement comes from 12 SBX218 subwoofers – six flown and six on the ground – meeting the church pastor’s request for musical, full-range bass throughout the room.
‘I was floored at what the AC6s can do and the amount of space they can cover,’ Gann says. ‘The system has so much headroom and power while barely touching the boxes. It’s incredible how the PA just disappears above the trim height of the production lighting. The church loves the clean aesthetic that EAW offers.’
EAW’s ADAPTive technology allowed Messenger AVL to fine-tune the coverage throughout the room, ensuring intelligibility and balance even in difficult seating areas. ‘Even when seated far off to the sides, the intelligibility and sonic consistency are remarkable,’ Gann reports. ‘The result is an extremely engaging experience for every seat in the room.’
The installation process was efficient and tightly executed, with Messenger AVL and EAW working together to ensure optimal results from the first system model to the final tuning pass.
With this upgrade, Church Unlimited has stepped into a new era of worship, where every message and song is delivered with clarity, emotion and connection. ‘My team loved working on this project,’ Gann says. ‘EAW’s ADAPTive system performed beautifully, and I can definitely see us using it for more system designs in the future.’