Parkway Electric & Communications of Holland, Michigan provided the design and integration of the new system, which replaced an outdated PA rife with hot/dead spots and uneven low frequency coverage. The installation and commissioning process took Parkway only four days, which also included repurposing the previous rig for the church's youth facility.
Today, the main sanctuary system features left and right arrays each comprised of four ARCS Focus enclosures flown in front of two SB18 subs per side. A single ARCS Wide system is vertically hung on the outside of each array to address the far left and right seating areas of the wide-yet-shallow sanctuary, while two centrally-flown SB28 augment the low end reinforcement. Four LA4 amplified controllers drive the entire system.
According to Parkway's Gary Zandstra, the new ARCS WiFo system resolved two major challenges. "Radiant's audio crew previously had a difficult time creating a mix that the whole room could enjoy; there were numerous hot spots where low frequencies would overpower the listener and distract them from the music and message," he says.
"The second issue was that a large amount of audio energy was being misdirected into the ceiling and back wall creating a muddy sounding room with unwanted reflections. ARCS WiFo offers a -10dB sharp cutoff outside of the 15 [Focus] or 30 [Wide] degree pattern, which nicely provided smooth coverage throughout the entire seating area while very effectively keeping the energy off of the reflective surfaces."
Radiant Church Production Director Thayne Asaro notes that the new L-Acoustics system completely changes the feeling of the room. "There is not a bad seat in the sanctuary now and the crossover between boxes is impressively transparent," he enthuses. "In worship, we're able to have distinct intelligibility between various instruments and vocals creating a unique stereo separation, which leads to a more immersive worship experience."
(Jim Evans)
