Houston house of worship, The Dwelling Place, has added a TiMax SoundHub-S32 object-based spatialisation to its Meyer Sound loudspeaker system in an upgrade to its sanctuary space. As well as creating an immersive experience for congregants, sound designer John Hettinger sought to liberate vocals from static positioning at the front of the church.
The Dwelling Place previously worshipped in a traditional stereo audio set-up and Hettinger noted the main problem was how few of the seats were served by stereo audio. ‘We wanted a sound system that had depth and soundstage for every seat in the room,’ he says. ‘We wanted to create a worship experience you could get lost in, and that was an experience you had to be in the room for. Broadcast is incredible, but a completely different experience.
‘Once I’d helped the sound team here learn how to create an object-based mix we quickly hit that spot where the PA disappeared and the music wraps around you,’ he adds.
The Dwelling Place sound team mix using a Waves LV1 audio console from which audio is routed via an MGB Soundgrid into TiMax. TiMax outputs Madi into Auvitran which converts the signal to AVB for its Meyer Sound Galaxy Processors, feeding four main hangs of Meyer Sound line array and front fills, with surrounds fed direct from TiMax analogue outputs.
The objective of this design was to wrap the worship music around the room, with the option to localise the music back to its originating position. To this end, the four line array hangs are positioned around a phantom centre, while front-corner, side and rear surrounds are positioned ‘with enough overlap between all the speakers so TiMax creates full immersion’.
‘PanSpace spatialisation is great for getting creative with different set-ups, wrapping stereo keys, guitars and pads around the room,’ Hettinger notes. ‘TiMax is pretty incredible in its capability to work in any configuration. I design the whole room so the speakers disappear. This set-up gives me also enough localisation to widen the soundstage on the stage.’
The effect of widening the soundstage is a highly effective TiMax feature and used commonly for getting the best overall sound for the audience from orchestras and bands. By localising each instrument and voice to its originating position and spreading them out, they are effectively given more space so that the music comes alive to the listener.
The result, according to Hettinger is, ‘vocal clarity and depth for every seat in the room, as well as an immersive soundstage’. ‘Using TiMax, we were able to design a system with not only tonal balance, but fully balanced energy and immersion across the whole room,’ he says, ‘The sound is world class, and people have reached out after hearing it to get more information on how to go immersive, as well as asking for demos. It’s convincing people immersive is more than just a gimmick.’
