Revitalised services and a major facility upgrade have recently brough new life to the congregation of the Summit Church in Kernersville, North Carolina. The refit includes multiple 60-inch LED displays, new lighting fixtures and a new sound reinforcement system into play.
Counting colleges, theatres, corporations, civic institutions and houses of worship among its clients, Audio & Light was contracted to handle the design and install. ‘In meeting with our client to determine their needs and goals, it became very clear that high quality sound reinforcement was a primary objective,’ says Sales Engineer, Brent Everhart. ‘The non-denominational contemporary services are very programmatic and production oriented using multiple flat-panel displays with environmental video and moving lights, LEDs, haze and more to create an attention-grabbing environment. It was crucial that the praise and worship band –with guitars, bass and drums – could make an auditory impact on par with the visual aspects of the environment.’
The church 860-seat sanctuary is arranged diagonally, with a ceiling height of approximately 24 feet. Based on its experience with DAS Audio loudspeaker systems, the Audio & Light team installed ten Aero 12A powered, two-way, mid-high line array modules arranged in two flown clusters of five units. These LR hangs are supported by eight Artec 8 two-way passive loudspeakers positioned across the nose of the stage for front fill.
‘Our customer decided to revamp their stage area by cutting off a portion of the nose of the stage and replacing their existing exploded array,’ Everhart explains. ‘I designed the room using Ese software to choose loudspeakers and determine their correct location and aiming. Two proprietary subwoofers were added to the four the church already owned, and are arranged three-per-side in a cardioid pattern to control SPL under the stage and eliminate the uneven coverage they had previously experienced.
‘DAS loudspeakers have great sound quality,’ he continues. ‘The active design of the Aero 12As ensures that the power amps are perfectly matched to the loudspeakers, while simplifying system cabling. With this in mind, these loudspeaker systems deliver exceptional value and all these factors combined made them the perfect fit for this application.’
The Summit Church’s new loudspeaker system is now in service, and Everhart reports that it has been exceeded expectations: ‘Everyone has been extremely happy with the new sound system,’ he says. ‘Summit Church and everyone at Audio and Light couldn’t be happier.’
