Tauranga Elim Church turns to JBL and Crown
- Details
Among Elim Church’s several locations throughout New Zealand and other countries, Tauranga Elim recently moved to a new facility. A move that was nearly two years in the making, the new location is much larger than the previous building and includes an auditorium that is able to accommodate 550 people.
Wanting to offer guests and attendees an engaging experience with great acoustics to support the live modern contemporary music, along with crystal-clear speech intelligibility, Tauranga Elim required a premium sound system that delivers consistent tones at all volume levels with smooth, even coverage across the entire facility.
“As a church, we were blessed to have the opportunity to develop the shell of an industrial building into an awesome place of worship that speaks to the flavour and character of our people,” said Sean Verwey, audio/visual coordinator at Tauranga Elim. “For the audio system in our auditorium, our requirements were simple; we wanted a system that sounded great, was punchy yet smooth through the dynamic range of a service, suited our style of music, covered the wide space evenly and overcame the challenging acoustics of the venue.”
After experimenting with various speakers from different manufacturers, Tauranga Elim outfitted the auditorium with two JBL CBT1000 line array column loudspeakers supplied through Sound and Vision Connection. Custom-flown in a left-right configuration, the CBT1000s feature JBL’s Constant Beamwidth Technology, which provides adjustable vertical coverage and a tapered horizontal waveguide to deliver consistent sound across the auditorium. Further ensuring even sound distribution, a JBL CBT 70J-1 two-way line array column loudspeaker was added to provide audio to the auditorium’s mezzanine level.
Complementing the column loudspeakers with accurate, low-frequency performance, the system also includes a JBL VT4883 subcompact dual 12” subwoofer that is used as a flown low-mid extension and a VTX G28 dual 18” ground subwoofer providing a solid low-end for the contemporary worship. To power and process it all, Crown I-Tech 4x3500HD high-powered tour sound amplifiers and CDi 4|300 amplifiers were deployed, providing proven reliability along with the convenience of four inputs per amplifier. OMNIDRIVEHD delivers enhanced performance on the iTech 4x3500HD.
“As a church, we are very pleased with the result. We heard some great systems, but we felt what Harman and JBL Professional offered met our requirements perfectly,” Verwey said. “The JBL CBT1000 loudspeakers provide more than enough grunt for youth services and special events, yet is easy to mix during a regular Sunday service, it simply sounds amazing.”
“The JBL CBT1000 line array column loudspeaker is a perfect solution for customers that are looking for line array loudspeakers but don’t quite have the budget for a fully-fledged line array system,” said Harman church audio specialist Eli Murray from JBL Professional distributor JPRO. “Its consistency in tone from soft levels to loud levels and ability to cover audio over wide and long distances and overcome tricky acoustic spaces make it an asset for church and auditorium environments today.”
