Built at a cost of US$18m in 1995 and serving a congregation of approximately 30,000, the World Dome is home to the World Changers Church International (WCCI). Located in a suburb of Atlanta (Georgia), the sanctuary features a flown L-Acoustics V-Dosc system, with under-hung dV-Dosc front fills plus SB28 subwoofers.
‘We upgraded the consoles at WCCI about two years ago to DiGiCo – an SD7 at front of house and an SD8 at monitors,’ says Roy Drukenmiller, president of Rock ‘n’ Road Audio, the sound production rental, sales and systems integration company that has also recently supplied the church with new Powersoft amplifiers.
‘Although the consoles made the rest of the system better, it was still not working to its full potential. The next step was to either replace the speakers or the amplifiers,’ he continues. ‘Jim Green from Quest, the southeast rep for Powersoft, and I went down there with two K3 amplifiers and did a quick demo.
The latest upgrade of the system involves 22 Powersoft K3 power amplifiers fitted with the manufacturer’s proprietary AESOP (AES Ethernet Simple Open Protocol) networking.
‘The PA has awakened like a brand new system,’ says WCCI audio engineer, Hall Williams, who has also handled production and toured with a variety of gospel, jazz and reggae artists. ‘Everyone has commented that the sound is a lot cleaner, a lot brighter, a lot fuller. It sounds really, really good.’
The WCCI staff engineers had previously suspected that some of the drivers had failed in the system, but the sound problems persisted even after a number of components were replaced. ‘That’s when I called Roy Drukenmiller at Rock ‘n’ Road and said, bring me a couple of power amplifiers,’ says Williams.
‘When we put those Powersoft amps on, it was like the speakers woke up,’ Williams recalls. ‘I’d never experienced anything like it. There was just something about the definition of the bass notes, and the clarity of the system. So I said to them, quote me for 22 Powersoft amps.’
‘Some of us grew up in a world when things actually used to sound pretty good,’ says Drukenmiller. ‘There are lots of manufacturers making small, lightweight amplifiers now, but I think audio quality is what we’re looking for in our world. In this day and age, with the rush to the bottom, Powersoft defies that trend.’
