Mexico. Surrounded by panoramic views of Alamogordo, New Mexico, the 800-seat Community of Christ Church struggled to provide quality audio with its old PA and broad, but shallow, sanctuary architecture.
With the decision to upgrade his system, Technical Director Jacob Pierce took it upon himself to find a modern solution capable of delivering excellent sound evenly across all seats.
With great help from industry experts Michael Garrison Associates (MGA), Pierce found the solution he was looking for with a custom ADAPTivo system from Anna and Otto of Eastern Acoustic Works, EAW.
The new EAW upgrade consists of a total of 12 sets of Anna speakers and four Otto subwoofers, as well as eight EAW JF8 2-way speakers, which are used as front speakers and evenly distributed from the back of the platform in trapezoidal shape. The new EAW ADAPTive PA system works through an Allen & Heath dLive console.
"We couldn't just install an online fix because it wouldn't cover the room properly," Pierce said. "We are now playing much more contemporary and modern worship songs with louder guitars and drums, and the original sound system was not cooperating with us. We had blown up drivers, poor coverage and complaints that the music was too loud or not loud enough just three seats apart. Our Church leadership realized it was time to improve it and gave me the go-ahead to find our new PA."
Determined to find the best sound system for the Church's needs, Pierce worked with MGA to discuss how to best solve the buildings' challenging acoustic problems. The team decided on a multi-phase implementation, with acoustic treatments as part of Phase 1 and the speaker part falling into Phase 2. Pierce instructed MGA to design a "stereo" speaker system; Given the very wide and shallow seating area that partially enveloped the stage, this was a challenging proposition.
"We prepared multiple design options, with multiple brands, matrix schemes and cost levels for consideration," recalled Michael Garrison of MGA. "One exercise we did was to compare the percentage of seats in which a person could perceive realistic spatial images, knowing that some of the outer and wraparound seats would inevitably have a monaural listening experience. We confirmed that EAW's ADAPTive technology achieved the widest and most uniform coverage, as well as the highest percentage of seats to enjoy stereo sound."
With the new EAW ADAPTive PA installed, Pierce shares that "we didn't realize what we were missing until we heard the Anna system. We were surprised at how inferior our original PA was; It's a difference of day and night between what we had and what we have now. The ability to have full coverage and not have to worry about sound bouncing off the back walls is a game changer. The amount of matrix spilled on the stage that we got rid of was staggering. We had problems every week and now we don't have problems with feedback anymore, ever."
"With our new EAW Anna ADAPTive system, no matter where you're sitting, you'll get the same volume and mix," Pierce concluded. "We don't have broken drivers anymore. In modeling, we went from +/- 7.2 dB to +/- 1.5 dB, which is much better than we could have expected. Our parishioners don't complain anymore and are very happy."
