Orlando, FL-based Owens Audio Video Design was contracted to handle the design and installation of Mid-Way Baptist Church's upgraded sound system. Bob Owens, designer and president of Owens Audio Video Design, discussed the challenges presented by this project.
"Mid-Way Baptist Church's sanctuary is a square with walls that are approximately 115ft in length," explained Owens. "As the stage is located in the corner, the sound system's dispersion needed to fan out through the room to provide even coverage. The issue was compounded by the fact that there is a large balcony that extends roughly 35 feet into the space. This required a main loudspeaker system that not only had broad horizontal dispersion characteristics, but it also needed to have solid vertical throw capability in order to reach the rear of the room."
To address the sanctuary's characteristics, Owens specified D.A.S. Audio's Variant Installation Array loudspeaker systems and proceeded to design a three cluster setup (left-center-right), with each loudspeaker cluster consisting of five Variant 112a elements. The Variant 112a is a compact, self-powered, 2-way design engineered to provide concert level sound for small to medium sized rooms. With a congregation size of about 1,200 people, the match was an excellent choice for Mid-Way Baptist Church.
Low frequency support is provided by four D.A.S. Audio Variant 18A self-powered subwoofers -consisting of a single 18-inch LF transducer coupled with a class D amplifier rated at 2500 watts peak power. Two of the Variant 18A subwoofers are flown adjacent to the left and right clusters while the remaining two units reside on the outer corners of the stage.
(Jim Evans)
