Among the oldest and largest Korean American Churches in Texas, Binnerri Presbyterian Church hosts three services each Sunday and fills the sanctuary with nearly 600 faithful – some of whom have been worshiping in the church for almost 30 years.
Set in the suburb of Richardson, the church holds services that begin in a traditional format with choir and spoken word and conclude with a youth-orientated gathering complete with guitar, bass, and drums. Recently the aging sanctuary underwent a major remodelling that included the audio, video lighting systems. Designed and installed by Genesis Technology, the new A/V system is centred on Vue Audiotechnik’s al-4 Subcompact Line Array System.
According to Michael Yoo, Senior System Engineer with Genesis Technology, the greatest challenge was the room’s unusually wide listening area: ‘It’s an extremely wide and shallow room at nearly 170 feet and just over 50 feet from the stage to the front of the balcony. There is pew seating throughout, with rows at both the far left and far right of the stage. From an audio perspective, it’s essentially a 200° room.’
Adding to the acoustical challenge is a very reflective stage area, with a brick back wall, and hardwood flooring that was a last-minute replacement for the carpet specified in the original design.
Needing a turnkey solution that would offer ample coverage in an unusual space and deliver a wide variety of source material, Yoo chose the al-4 line array as a balance of output and control in a compact format.
‘The Vue line arrays, with their beryllium high frequency, are easily the best sounding loudspeakers on the market,’ he says. ‘Plus, they’re a very honest and easy to mix on, which is critical with an all-volunteer audio staff every week.’
A fortunate coincidence of timing found the company looking for a field test opportunity for a soon-to-be-released, wide dispersion al-4 element, and so Vue Design Chief Michael Adams made special arrangements for Genesis to receive 16 prototypes.
Binnerri’s new system features left and right al-4W (Wide dispersion) arrays of eight elements each. The perfectly symmetrical and extremely compact al-4 elements each combine two four-inch woofers with Vue’s Truextent beryllium compression driver mounted to a new, 120°x90° horn. A pair of VueDrive V4 Systems Engines provides all power and processing for the array.
‘Coverage is really great with no dead spots at all, even at the far left and right or under the balcony area,’ Yoo says. ‘The Vue system went up easily and required virtually no tweaking – exactly as the Ease Focus model predicted. And the sound quality is just amazing. There’s nothing out there that sounds as good as Vue’s beryllium high end. It handles anything we throw at it with perfect transparency.’
The all-Vue system also includes a selection of ultra low profile i-2x4.5 full-range systems for front fill and under-balcony delays, and a full monitoring system comprised of Vue a-10 two-way boxes. A pair of Crown XTI amplifiers power the for i-2x4.5 and a-10 systems, while a Midis Pro 3 console with Vue i-6As as monitors handle the mix. An optional in-ear system is on hand to help dampen on-stage slapback during more lively performances.
‘I really love working with Vue,’ Yoo reports. ‘The systems sound amazing and are very predictable. We always get a great result and the company is so supportive – simply making a phone call and having a totally new solution on your doorstep in a matter of days is nearly unheard of today. When it comes to service, Vue just gets it.’
