Brisbane school hall converts with Nexo
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In the suburbs of Brisbane, Life Church purchased an old school hall and set about turning it into a new worship facility that could also house their own existing school.
With the help of Forefront Productions, they set about converting the original school hall into a multipurpose church auditorium. Forefront was contracted to help design and install comprehensive audio, lighting and video systems as well as offer advice on stage construction, venue layout and acoustic treatments.
Whilst church activities account for most of the venue usage, the school also utilises it for assemblies and performances. The audio system, therefore, needed to be flexible and forgiving, all the while providing clear, consistent coverage to the space. As a growing, influential church in the city, Life Church also has international speakers and artists come through, requiring an appropriate level of audio reproduction.
Several options were proposed and, in the end, the Nexo Geo S12 line array found the right balance between performance and budget. As Matt Wever, senior engineer at Forefront Productions states, “We’re always impressed with the accuracy and full, rich near field sound of the Nexo Geo S12 system.” Main PA for the auditorium comprises three Geo S1210 plus one GEO S1230 per side.
Along with a high standard of sound reproduction, there was strict criteria for the choice of sub and frontfill – these had to be the right size to squeeze into a pre-existing stage structure, and remain hidden from view. These questions were comprehensively answered by four of Nexo’s new super-compact ID24 elements as front-fill, and four Nexo LS18 subs deployed in a steered array configuration.
The main system is capable of delivering an impressive 111dbA to the seated area, with less than 1.5dB fluctuation across the room. Level is not the major feature: consistently, the comments from the church leaders have focused on the impressive clarity and the sense of energy in the system.
Lee Blight, senior pastor at Life Church, also praised the skills of Forefront Productions in managing the project. “We would not do this any other way, having Forefront oversee all aspects of our AV project meant that we caught many of the potential integrations issues early.”
Life Church’s new venue has already facilitated a major conference, and shows by UK guest artists Martin Smith and Army of Bones.
(Jim Evans)
