Founded in 1940, the Church of St John the Divine in Houston, Texas, presently hosts 900 attendees on any given Sunday across its traditional, contemporary and family services. While the church’s sanctuary is ideal for traditional hymns, an aging sound reinforcement system was presenting problems. Brightengale (formerly Houston Sound Service) was called in to help with an upgrade, following a recommendation from another area church.
‘The prior installation leaned heavily on digital signal processing and beam steering to fill the room with intelligible sound,’ says Adam Keho, system designer at Brightengale. ‘Acoustically, the room is fantastic for pipe organ or choral music, but it’s very difficult for speech intelligibility. When the system was first installed, it was only designed to deliver speech reinforcement, not all of the music necessary for a modern church.’
‘In the new installation, we had a number of requirements,’ Director of Audiovisual Services, Dawayne Gaspard, elaborates. ‘We wanted to improve intelligibility in a live acoustic environment without losing the look of the space and adding some additional sonic capability. Over time, we’ve brought in other equipment for certain events that we no longer wanted to do. The capability of music playback and quality sound performance were paramount as well.’
The existing sound system featured aging powered column array loudspeakers that had been in place for 15 years and repaired multiple times. These stood at 12ft high and were recessed into the wall. Any replacement would need to both fit into the existing space and meet the requirements of the installation. Working alongside Brightengale, church staff agreed that a steerable column array was not the ideal solution – Danley Sound’s SBH20LF loudspeaker, however, offered both
‘Given the size of the existing recesses, we discussed a variety of options from filling the gap with stone work to designing something new for the space, but none were feasible,’ Keho says. ‘So, we were creative and simply requested that Danley provide us with four dummy or empty SBH20LF loudspeaker cabinets to create the look of one tall 12ft speaker, but only one speaker functions as the additional speakers weren’t necessary in the space.’
In addition, Brightengale installed furhther Danley SBH20 column loudspeakers as delay and balcony speakers, FLX12 loudspeakers as stage monitors and used Danley DNA amplifiers to power the system. The additional delay and balcony speakers are run at lower levels simply to provide coverage throughout the room. While Keho designed the system, Danley Western Regional Sales Manager, Kim Comeaux, demonstrated it onsite.
‘It was nice to have a Danley representative personally attend and do a demonstration,’ Gaspard says. ‘All of our clergy and senior staff were able to attend and hear the sample. That was helpful in making the final decision.’
‘Even if it’s a small project, Danley Sound Labs is willing to bring out sound equipment and let customers experience the “Danley” sound,’ Keho agrees. ‘Customers don’t typically believe us when we tell them that we can fill the room with clear, intelligible sound with just a few speakers until they experience it.’
‘One of our prior issues was with support,’ adds Steven Newberry, Director of Music & Worship at the Church of St John the Divine. ‘If any repair was needed, we had to send parts overseas or around the world for repairs. From what we’ve seen thus far, both Danley Sound Labs and Brightengale have far superior customer service and support for Danley products.’
The congregation is very pleased with the installation. ‘The feedback has been great thus far,’ Gaspard reports. ‘We’ve had some actually say that it is the first time they can really hear what is being said throughout the church.’
More: www.danleysoundlabs.com
