Worshippers at Upstate Church Haywood in Greenville, South Carolina, recently called in Elevate AVL to transform its main room into a space that would support both blended and modern worship styles, the latter incorporating electric instruments including guitar, bass and drums.
Founded by Jordan Tripp in 2022, Elevate AVL is a specialist audio, video and lighting design and integration firm based in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Focusing primarily on houses of worship, the audio, video and lighting upgrade for Upstate Church Haywood is its latest project with Upstate Church, a Baptist church with locations across upstate South Carolina – many of which are equipped with Powersoft amplifiers, Elevate’s ‘go-to’ amplifier platform for house of worship installations,.
‘When it comes to reliability and performance at an affordable price point, Powersoft amplifiers are hard to beat,’ Tripp says. ‘I’ve experienced issues with other amplifier manufacturers, with amps either dying quickly are being dead on arrival, and that’s never been the case with Powersoft. I’ve always loved their end product. Plus, the ability to integrate Dante is also a massive plus for these kind of installs.’
Three Powersoft Quattrocanali 8808 DSP+D and one Quattrocanali 2404 DSP+D amplifiers are at the heart of the new audio system. The amplifiers are paired with a TW Audio line-array system and Danley Sound Labs subwooferss, providing abundant power and headroom for the roughly 400-capacity room. ‘The church wanted a system with a high priority on clarity, and that could also cover the room really well at higher SPLs, which is why we went with a line array as opposed to a point-source system,’ Tripp explains. The end result is a system that can provide the entire room with a clear stereo image, including underneath and onto the balconies, he adds.
In addition to their reliability, Tripp highlights the Quattrocanali amplifiers’ energy efficiency and compatibility with Dante networking, as reasons why they were the chosen option for the Haywood campus.
‘Dante is a pretty critical element with most installs nowadays – the ability to get audio to wherever you need it over a network is key, and having that onboard capability with the Powersoft amps definitely helps a lot,’ he says. ‘We’re also able to use the amplifiers’ analogue lines as a failsafe; having that back-up is absolutely crucial in a high-intensity environment like a house of worship.’
Quattrocanali amplifiers are equipped with Powersoft’s proprietary Smart Rails Management (SRM) technology, which maximises the efficiency of the entire audio system and optimises power consumption – a must-have technology for installs like the Haywood campus, Trippsays, when installers are limited by the electrical infrastructure in place.
‘When that happens, we need amplifiers that are able to provide the maximum performance with as minimum amperage as possible, and that’s something that Powersoft does very well. It’s important that we know that when we need to, we can put several amps on a single circuit and not be concerned about overloading anything.’
As with previous Upstate Church installs featuring Powersoft amplification, the end-user is more than satisfied with the new system. ‘They love the sound in the room and the performance of the system, as well as its ease of use,’ Tripp confirms. ‘Everyone is extremely happy.’
