After a comprehensive loudspeaker shootout, Oliver and the church's decision makers homed in on a suitably simple, but immensely powerful, system composed of a stereo pair of Danley SM-100B full-range loudspeakers extended by a single flown Danley DBH-218 subwoofer. Unlike sanctuaries, each of which has the virtue and curse of being unique, Oliver's high-impact design for Hendersonville First United Methodist is now practically plug-and-play for any standard, single-court gymnasium.
"When they first got the idea to start a contemporary service, they didn't know how it would go, and so they sensibly started with a temporary sound system that they could set up and strike every week," explained Oliver. "But it caught on in a big way. Attendance quickly swelled to one hundred fifty people and is now up to three hundred people. They bought chairs for five hundred and called us to make the whole thing permanent. We put in a lot of effort - including thorough EASE modeling and a live loudspeaker shootout - to make sure Hendersonville First United was getting the very best system at a reasonable price. And now we're in a position to replicate this design for other churches that wish to convert a standard gymnasium into a contemporary worship space."
In addition, Centerline AV treated the walls with Primacoustic Broadway Panels, which, together with Danley's excellent pattern control and the acoustical absorption of the congregants, gives the room a tight, impactful sound. A new Midas Venice FOH provides the user interface, and an utterly transparent Danley DSLP48 DSP conditions the system in front of a bank of repurposed Crown XTi amplifiers.
"The Danley processor sounds great, and in all my years of installing them, I have never ever had one fail, either out of the box or after years of service," said Oliver. Chauvet LED lights paired with an LSC Clarity console give Hendersonville United Methodist a cool look to match its sound.
(Jim Evans)
