Like many houses of worship, Bright Christian Church in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, found it had both the need and the opportunity to upgrade its A/V systems during the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns. After working with nearby ClearSound Design on streaming its worship services, the church retained the firm to upgrade the building’s legacy sound system.
Worship Director Ashley Grigsby oversaw the project on behalf of the church: ‘Basically, we wanted to improve the quality of sound throughout the sanctuary, both in terms of fidelity and coverage,’ she explains. ‘We trusted ClearSound to help us reach our goals.’
‘Over the past 25 years, there were architectural changes to the room along with a move to a more contemporary music presentation,’ adds ClearSound Design President, Bill Hinds. ‘Our assignment was to design a new, more musical system within a fairly modest budget.’
ClearSound system integrator Brock Fowler took on the task of designing the new system: ‘It’s a very wide room, but there were coverage issues that the old system never addressed,’ he says. ‘We also wanted to clean up the sound by flying the subwoofers. We knew from experience that Electro-Voice EVAs would provide world-class musical performance with the coverage options we needed – all with a clean, modern appearance – which was exactly what the church was hoping for.’
Designed with a focus on house of worship applications, the Electro-Voice EVA (Expandable Vertical Array) features a compact form factor with two array elements per cabinet, available in several dispersion patterns. For Bright Christian Church, full coverage was attained with just two hangs of four EVA-2082S cabinets per side, deploying two 90° x 6° boxes above two wider-dispersion 90° x 20° models. No fill speakers were required.
To address coverage differences between the left and right sides of the room, one array was splayed slightly outward. Smooth, deep bass reinforcement is provided by two EVA-2151D subwoofers flown together in the center. The system is powered by three Dynacord C3600FDi DSP power amplifiers.
‘We used EVA system design tools to dial-in the dispersion pattern,’ Fowler says. ‘When it was later decided to ensure clean sightlines for those standing in the back, we did have to make some adjustments. Fortunately, we found we could still achieve full, even coverage by raising the arrays a couple feet and adjusting the angles.’
Another key upgrade was the Dynacord MXE5 Matrix Mix Engine. ‘We used SoniCue software to optimise the loudspeakers, then programmed them in pairs to create independent zones via the MXE5,’ Fowler says. ‘For access, we added a pair of wall-mounted Dynacord TPC-1 touchpanel controllers. So, for a smaller gathering that just wants to use a single microphone on the left side of the room, they can quickly and easily customise the system for their needs.’
‘It was a night-and-day change,’ Hinds reports. ‘I was there and could see it on their faces as the congregation walked in with music playing. That was a great feeling for all of us.’
‘The improvement in sound quality is a major upgrade, and our team loves the fact that the sound is now balanced throughout the room,’ Grigsby confirms. ‘We’re thrilled with the new system.’
