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May 2012

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Christian Life Center Audio Overhaul a Pleasant Surprise

Overall overhaul takes a turn toward audio-only with church's goals to improve intelligibility and sound coverage.

Church may not be the usual venue for car shows, pageants and police awards ceremonies, but at the Christian Life Center (CLC) of Port Orchard, Washington, multi-purpose worship space means just that.

For over 80 years, this church has been a fixture on Washington’s Kitsap County. Over the years, the ministry has expanded and worship has become ever more contemporary. In addition to their own services, praise concerts and old-fashioned hymn nights, CLC also functions as a center for community events; hosting evangelical community outreach efforts such as their regular August Cruisin’ Sunday car show and food drive, local police awards ceremonies, as well as various pageants, dinners and guest speakers.

Recently, CLC began to take stock of their existing A/V infrastructure to better serve the growing congregation. Initially attention was centered primarily on video, but as the church investigated, leaders realized it was the audio system that needed the most attention. In a congregation that hovers between 700 and 800 people on any given weekend, transparent communication is key and that can be difficult if people can’t make out what others are saying.

Chad Rose of Poulsbo, Washington-based A/V design/build firm, Rose Media has maintained a three-year relationship with CLC in an effort to determine the priority. “Clarity of sound and not being able to hear was becoming an issue during services,” Rose says, “so audio quickly rose to the forefront as the priority when funds became available.”

Designed and installed by Rose and completed in September 2010, the systems specified for CLC do include some video upgrades, but Rose’s primary focus was a comprehensive overhaul of the audio infrastructure in the CLC’s main auditorium. The installation of a system featuring key components by Tannoy and Lab.gruppen, included Tannoy’s VQNET line of full range loudspeakers. While Rose’s firm has specified Tannoy product for distributed audio applications previously, this was his first use of the product in this type of application, and his first experience with the VQNET.

One of the reasons Rose chose Tannoy VQNET 60s for the project was the requirement for a loudspeaker that offered both highly intelligible reinforcement of speech as well as clear, detailed and distinctly musical reinforcement of live and recorded music. With a decidedly contemporary music program, often featuring various incarnations of full electric praise bands and an acoustically demanding environment, achieving this was not without its challenges.

“The room is a big rectangular box with lots of reflective surfaces,” Rose says, adding that no acoustic treatments were installed when it was first built. “Even when you don’t have the sound on and you’re just talking to someone, the room is very live – so to find a speaker system that could perform well in there was challenging.” As was finding a place to put them, he adds. “There aren’t many rigging points in the ceiling – it’s not designed to support external weight.” As a result Rose called in the structural engineer who had worked on the original construction to source out just where they could hang the speakers.

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