Located in Englewood, Colorado, Brave Church recently called on Butler Engineering & Technology Group (BETG) to install a sound system in its new Broomfield sanctuary. Serving contemporary services, as well as defining the need to update the audio infrastructure at their main sanctuary in Englewood, the church is now served by a Clair Brothers kiT12+ and kiT-Sub+ powered loudspeakers and subwoofers.
‘Brave Church had already planned to launch its first multi-site facility in Broomfield in a building that is 30 miles northwest of the main campus,’ explains BETG President, Kurt Butler, who provided consulting and technical infrastructure design services to the church leadership. ‘The kiT Series was a perfect match with the performance criteria, physical size, and cost.’
With the new location equipped for future growth, Brave Church re-evaluated its main Englewood sanctuary. ‘The audio systems were ten-to-twenty years old, and the sanctuary aesthetics had a traditional feel consistent with the church’s past, but not with its future,’ Buter says. ‘Overall, we worked with the client to achieve their performance systems and interior design goals. This involved new rigging; augmented lighting; new video acquisition, control, and distribution; and a completely new Clair Brothers audio system with speakers, amplifiers, processing, control and infrastructure.’
The audio system subsequently chosen for the main sanctuary comprised Clair Brothers i218 line arrays and CS218 subwoofers. Like many, Brave Church has relatively low ceiling heights and needed sound reinforcement that would deliver even coverage without compromising sight lines. The i218 line arrays fire from above three points of the stage for stereo imaging throughout the seating area, with the subwoofers, arrayed in a cardioid pattern to give directionality.
‘We needed a powerful and phase-coherent set of arrays that would fit a limited-height sanctuary,’ said Joe Bunting, VP of sales at Clair Solutions, who partnered with BETG in the design to meet all performance specifications. ‘The Clair Brothers i218s provide consistent coverage, impressive output and sound quality, and the right visual aesthetic for the remodelled space. The results exceeded the client’s expectations.’
A Yamaha CL5 digital mixer serves FOH, with inputs from new Shure ULX-D wireless microphone systems and connection to the stage from Yamaha RIOs. A smaller Yamaha QL1 digital mixer serves the church’s video and postproduction needs, while a Digital Audio Labs LiveMix personal monitoring system gives the musicians on stage control over their individual mixes. A Lake LM44 DSP handles all of the loudspeaker processing and protection, and a rack of Lab.gruppen D-Series amplifiers power the system.
‘Clair Brothers brings significant value to the industry through their speaker systems,’ observes Butler. ‘They know what it takes for gear to withstand demanding environments; they know how to communicate and integrate into broader design teams; and they know how acoustics and electronics work together to build impactful sound reinforcement systems.’
