"The room had a three-second reverb time, and the musicians loved what it did for the sound," says Gallagher. "But for the pastor, anyone more than about 20ft away could barely get a word out of the sermons. We had to find a way to improve the intelligibility factor without resorting to any acoustic treatment that would impact the room's resonance."
Gallagher found the solution in Community Professional's new ENTASYS column line array system. "We looked into using a steerable array, but it wasn't really practical for their budget, and was almost a bit of overkill for a 400-seat room," he observes. Using a combination of ENTASYS full-range and low-frequency columns, he was able to provide even coverage across the entire area with minimal impact on the church's budget, or the sanctuary's aesthetics.
"The columns are less than six inches wide, and most of the congregation didn't even notice them," says Gallagher. "We mounted one full-range and two low-frequency units on either side of the chancel, and one more full-range unit up high and a bit further back to cover the balcony, and that's all we needed."
A single Community SLS920 cabinet provides monitoring for the musicians. Crest amplification powers the system, and a single RANE RPM88 unit provides signal processing for the entire system.
(Jim Evans)
