A large but relatively young church in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Summit Woods Baptist Church moved into its first permanent sanctuary in 2004 – a space that it had helped to design. Although most aspects of the 650-capacity, fan-shaped sanctuary (with room to expand to 1,000) were serving the congregation well, its acoustics and sound reinforcement were not.
Involving a contemporary band, choir and orchestral instruments, services lacked the desired impact. Avoiding the expense, footprint and compromised sightlines that installing a line array would incur, A/V integration firm Advanced Sound & Communication opted for a Danley Sound Labs system.
‘Perhaps the greatest challenge facing Summit Woods was a desperate need for acoustic treatment,’ explains Advanced Sound & Communication consultant, engineer and integration project engineer, Brent Handy. ‘Reverberation time is near four seconds. The aging central cluster lacked bass, provided poor coverage and generated plenty of SPL on stage and thus a lot of low-mid feedback problems. The church couldn’t afford acoustic treatment for this upgrade, but could afford a new sound reinforcement system.
‘Given everything they were up against, Danley Sound Labs was my first thought,’ he continues. ‘Danley’s point-source technology has all of the frequencies coming out of the same horn at the same time, which delivers high intelligibility and great pattern control without any DSP voodoo in the background. We showed the church models of line arrays versus Danley point source systems – the Danley system covered the room more evenly, provided a smoother transition from midrange to bass and didn’t wreck sightlines to the stained glass and video screens behind the stage or the budget.’
Handy designed a straightforward LF system with a pair of SH96HO full-range loudspeakers. The aisles are wide enough and the seating is spread out enough so that there is no appreciable comb filtering on the inside seats, and the patterns drop off nicely just before the walls on the outside, minimising the effect of the long reverb time. Since the concrete stage couldn’t accommodate subwoofers, Handy flew a pair of TH118XL subs in the centre. One four-channel DNA 20k4 Pro amplifier and two four-channel DNA 10k4 Pro amplifiers power the system with onboard DSP and model-specific presets. Handy chose the optional connectivity, which serves new Allen & Heath SQ7 new Shure ULXD wireless microphones with Dante connectivity.
‘There is a night and day difference; the new system sounds fantastic,’ Handy says. ‘People can now hear whispers and page noise in the choir – they can hear the diction, the enunciation. The violins sound like violins. The piano sounds like a piano. You can even tell the difference between the subtle characteristics of different vocal microphone types. This system has plenty of gas and lots of gain-before-feedback. The Summit Woods technical staff can now mix and equalise for creativity and taste instead of damage control.’
Anticipating the church expanding its available seating, Handy ensured the new system is able to accommodate change with minimal adjustment. The SH96HOs will raise a few degrees and new (smaller) SH95HOs will provide front fill. Open amplifier channels are already set up to power the fills. Interestingly, Danley’s ‘cliff-edge’ pattern control accelerated the church’s thinking about acoustic treatments because musicians and singers can now hear the unmasked effects of the room on stage. ‘The prior system had poor pattern control and was aimed improperly. It was covering high on the sidewalls and ceilings quite well,’ Handy says. ‘With the Danleys, the pattern control is very tight, and the stage is quiet. They can hear the reverberation clearly, which made it easier to think about improving it.’
