The new home of the Rivers Church in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton can accommodate 3,000 congregants. As well as doubling the capacity of the South African church, the development has given it a fan-shaped sanctuary with a single balcony – and its attendant acoustics concerns.
Engaging Stage Audio Works, the church solved a classic dilemma: ‘Our pastors André and Wilma Olivier never wanted it to be two churches, with those at the front feeling fully engaged, and those at the back, a little removed,’ says Head of Sound for Worship Music, Andrew Illgner. ‘So it’s in how we address our audience where the benefits of d&b audiotechnik’s ArrayProcessing have proved such a discernible difference.’
The array optimisation tool from was not available when the church first contacted Stage Audio Works. ‘In terms of audio system design, Rivers Church has used us previously at their Youth Facility and the Durban campus,’ explains Stage Audio Works’ Project Manager, Nathan Ihlenfeldt. ‘They first contacted us about this new-build church two years ago. I spoke with Stefan Goertz at d&b’s Education & Application Support department, and we designed a sound solution using d&b V-Series loudspeakers driven by D80 amps. Then AP [ArrayProcessing] arrived – it had the potential to directly address that sense of engagement, which the Oliviers so clearly desired. Initially the additional amplifier channels required to implement AP made the cost prohibitive, then d&b’s new 30D install amps came along. What was once financially out of reach suddenly became entirely possible.’
To understand why ArrayProcessing should prove such a critical factor it’s important to understand how the church operates: ‘We are busy for most of the week,’ Illgner says. ‘On Wednesday evening we rehearse the weekend service. Across our campuses we have a membership of almost 20,000, so on Sunday there will be three services, two in the morning, one in the evening. Once a month there is the sister’s ministry for the women, another for the men, and there are volunteer nights for specific projects, plus youth conferences and the like, so there are plenty of demands upon the audio system. For the smaller meetings we might just use the floor section below the balcony.
‘When Nathan presented the concept of AP to us it was out of our budget, but the attraction was immediate; a means to ensure all seats throughout the church had the same experience as those in the front rows, no matter what the configuration. When the new installation amplifiers became available we accepted Stage Audio Works’ generous offer to fly to Mannheim in Germany and experience AP first hand at the special launch event presented by d&b. At the demonstration we immediately walked to the back of the room; when they compared the system with AP switched on and AP switched off, we directly experienced the massive difference - it’s like being in the near field wherever you are. That’s exactly what has now been achieved within the church, front to back; when I’m mixing from around the middle of the floor area I know that everyone throughout the auditorium can hear what I’m hearing; they all have that same experience.’
The improved engagement was quickly evident, and consequential: ‘We soon found that elated congregations, especially the younger members, are more frequently attracted to stand up and approach the dias,’ Illgner says. ‘This creates its own problems, not least blocking the d&b E12-Ds installed for front fill. A quick solution easily implemented by Nathan’s team, was to add a pair of flown V7Ps, the point source V variant. By getting these cabinets flown above head height the problem has been solved. Myself and Ed Helliwell our Technical Director got to hear the V7P at Mannheim along with the AP demo, so we knew what we were getting.
‘That illustrates what a great job Stage Audio Works does – other suppliers can often just sell you a product and then walk away. We have multiple venues in South Africa and find with Stage Audio Works’ approach it’s not just product led, they bring their experience and knowledge to aid us in achieving a full solution. The support is unbelievable. A big thing for us is to provide the best experience. What we do is quite different from many other churches, and the flexible and continuing support from Stage Audio Works is a big contribution to that. Since we’ve moved to the new church quite a few people have come to me after the service and commented on the difference of experience. They use words like “connected” to describe what they hear, ‘it’s as if the Pastor is stood right in front of us’, they say. So in that sense AP has delivered exactly what we were all looking for.’
