Hope Church upgrades audio with JBL
- Details
Founded in 1988, Hope Church is located in the Memphis suburb of Cordova and is a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Although Hope Church already had a robust JBL VTX Series audio system in its main 5000-seat sanctuary, the church’s technical staff wondered how a different speaker configuration could benefit the worship experience with improved impact and clarity while retaining an intimate feel.
Hope Church’s audio director Tim Kanter reached out to Jeff McOlgan of Diversified Systems and - with help from the Harman Professional Applications Team -conducted a system review to see if they could improve the worship experiences with more JBL speakers. The team utilised Ease and Line Array Calculator software to design and implement a new audio system configuration that resulted in more comprehensive coverage and clarity than they previously thought possible in the challenging acoustic space.
“I have been a big fan of JBL since the beginning of my career in the late ‘80s,” said Jeff McOlgan, account executive, Diversified Systems. “For me JBL is the perfect mix of quality and value. Harman’s Jay Fullmer and his team are an added bonus when I need assistance supporting the client. Our client is exceedingly pleased with the performance of the new array configuration at Hope Church.”
The sanctuary sound solution installed by Diversified is based on a traditional left-right system configuration of two ten-unit arrays of JBL VTX V20 speakers, with two out-fill arrays of ten V20 speakers each to increase the horizontal coverage in the large room. Five AE Series speakers were added in delay-fill positions to cover the separate rear raked seating areas. A high-output centre-fill enclosure also offers a strong focal point for the front-centre seating area.
Finally, 12 VTX S28 subwoofer enclosures in 3-box cardioid groups were also horizontally steered for more even lateral coverage. Hope Church’s newly upgraded audio system ensures the ability to address all seating areas with consistent SPL distribution and less unwanted dispersion.
During the commissioning phase, the Hope Church resident audio staff - Tim Kanter and Eric Albers, both of whom have many hours of both live and studio engineering experience - made for a knowledgeable team working with the JBL Pro senior applications staff, who prepared Ease files and provided LAC3 and Performance Manager software files to develop the refreshed system concept.
“There are huge improvements noticed by everyone we have talked to,” said Tim Kanter. “The biggest system improvements include more clarity, punch, better sound at lower SPL levels, with a lot less sound on stage.”
