Discussion with Cathy Hutchison

Cathy Hutchison

In this edition of Church Production Magazine Online Update, we speak with Cathy Hutchison, Director of Connection with Acoustic Dimensions in Dallas, Texas. The discussion follows up on Hutchison's article, "Church 2.0", which appeared in the January/February 2008 issue of Church Production Magazine. The concept of Church 2.0 provides for a much more interactive worship environment than what would be experienced in a "traditional" service.

For more information on Acoustic Dimensions, go to www.acousticdimensions.com.

Equipment for the interview was provided courtesy of D&M Professional
(www.d-mpro.com) and Audio-Technica (www.audio-technica.com).

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Crown Powers The Underground

St. Pius X

Audiomaster of Pau, France, recently completed an upgrade of the existing sound system at the Basilica of St. Pius X in Lourdes, which included 17 Crown XTi 2000 and four CTs 2000 power amplifiers.

St. Pius X, the largest Catholic basilica in Europe, is a modern concrete building that is almost entirely underground, spawning its widespread nickname as the 'Underground Basilica'. Construction of the facility was completed in 1958 in order to accommodate the enormous crowds that would be making a pilgrimage to Lourdes for the centenary of the Apparitions, the 18 visions of the Virgin Mary by Saint Bernadette.

Designed by French architect Pierre Vago, the oval structure is 625 feet long by 200 feet wide with sides that slope gradually upwards from the sanctuary in the center. With a ceiling supported by 58 concrete pillars and 29 concrete beams, the basilica has certainly served its purpose in welcoming large numbers of visitors, simultaneous accommodating as many as 25,000 people within its nearly 130,000 square-foot space.

interior

As one can imagine, a structure composed almost entirely of bare, solid concrete creates a poor acoustic environment and the basilica had been in need of an audio upgrade for some time. Prior acoustical research showed that the congregants were in the indirect sound field after 65 feet--a condition less than optimal. Despite the many speakers that had previously been installed, sound in many parts of the structure was often fuzzy and indistinct, making it difficult for parishioners to follow and participate in the ceremony.

After performing considerableacoustical modeling, Francis Larriau of Audiomaster chose to implement a Harman Professional audio solution in which Crown XTi 2000s now amplify JBL VRX Series constant curvature line arrays (in passive mode), which are hung in clusters of two to four speakers to cover the central part of the basilica. The VRX arrays were chosen for their power, compact size, light weight and flexibility while the XTi amplifiers were selected for their ability to drive the speakers to their full performance safely and without distortion. The crossovers for speakers, while capable of being done in XTi, were implemented within the VRX boxes themselves.

Lourdes amps

Reinforcing the periphery of the basilica are 30 JBL JRX112Mi two-way speaker systems powered by the Crown CTs 1200s. There is also a small area for choir and organ rehearsals that is covered by four of the JRX112Mi.

Spread out throughout the facility are a dozen interconnect boxes that allow signals to be routed to and from the control room. The boxes support multiple formats: digital over fiber, RF modulation, networked audio, and analog audio.

The constraints put on the new system were fairly stringent. The architecture required as much as possible to be concealed without having to modify the existing concrete. Furthermore, the original RT60 decay was timed at 17 seconds at 350Hz. However, thanks to Audiomaster, Crown and JBL, this time
was effectively reduced to 10 seconds following the installation.

www.crownaudio.com

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Greensboro, North Carolina, Church Debuts EV Sound System On
Martin Luther King Jr. DaY

The service at Mt. Zion Church was the culmination of a full day of community activities celebrating Dr. King’s life. Greensboro played an important role in the '60s civil rights movement, as the site of some of the first mass "sit in" lunch counter protests. The power-packed event at Mt. Zion Baptist featured special guest artists Phillip Bryant, Lil' Mo, and multiple 2008 Stellar Award winner, Dewayne Woods, backed by a 100-member community mass choir. Dr. John Guns of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida was the featured guest speaker.
 
The event also marked the debut of Mt. Zion's new EV sound system to the community at large. The sound system was designed and installed by local systems integrator CareySound. Company owner Ken Carey, along with VP of Sales Tommy Martin, and John Carey, HE, were on hand to handle the engineering duties for the evening.
 
Ken Carey and Stuart Schatz of Electro-Voice faced several challenges when designing the new sound system: "The 10 year old system we replaced never really addressed the serious issues in the room," Carey says. "Aside from being very wide, this sanctuary is built back to front in comparison to an auditorium, with the tall part of the room at the front and the short part at the rear with a balcony. This arrangement effectively funnels all of the sound down into the back rows, presenting many more reflective surfaces in the process. And all this was in addition to a very loud HVAC system."

The original system consisted of a very large, tightly packed left/center/right trapezoidal speaker configuration with overlapping conical horn coverage. Additionally, multiple smaller cabinets had been added to the space to try and compensate for the very patchy sound distribution in the auditorium. "They drove the system hard to address the seat-to-seat variations in coverage and the loud HVAC system," Carey adds, "attempting to cover the imperfections in sound distribution in the auditorium. These high sound levels very quickly swamped the room, adding to the already complicated acoustics of the space."
 
The solution to this unique combination of issues was the installation of a precisely focusable Electro-Voice XLCi loudspeaker line-array. Dual 13-element Line Arrays, each consisting of eight XLCi127DVX boxes hung under four XLCi215 subs, flank the stage powered by eight Electro-Voice P3000RL remote supervised Precision Series Amplifiers. "Utilizing the great sounding, high performance, XLCi loudspeaker system with the aid of EV's powerful LAPS aiming software, we were able to design a verifiably accurate system with complete confidence," Carey continues. "All of the issues created by the original 32-box, 29-amplifier system, along with the oddly shaped room and loud HVAC system, were overcome with the new system. Everybody in the sold out auditorium tonight had the best seat in the house!"

In addition to the main EV house system, a spread of new VariLine loudspeakers from Dynacord serve as stage monitors. The new wireless microphone system is the EV REV UHF System with RE410 mic capsules.

www.electrovoice.com

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Draper Receives Community Environmental Award

(L-R) Draper Contract Manager Chris Broome, Company President John Pidgeon and Vice-President of Manufacturing Mike Broome accept the Three Rivers Solid Waste Management District 2007 Environmentalist of the Year Award from District Citizen Advisory Committee Chair Linda Tauber.

Draper, Inc. has been recognized for its environmental efforts. Draper received the 2007 Environmentalist of the Year Award from the Three Rivers Solid Waste Management District, based in Henry County, Indiana, the location of Draper’s corporate headquarters. The award cites Draper for exceptional leadership in the pursuit of environmental excellence.

“The more we learned about their green efforts, the more impressed we were with what they have accomplished,” according to council chairperson, Donna Tauber. “For example, to cut demand for virgin materials and divert waste from landfills, many of Draper's gymnasium equipment products contain a significant amount of recycled material—some of them as much as 50 percent.”

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Gibson Guitar and TC Group to Merge

Gibson Guitar and TC Group have announced plans to merge. The announcement was made at the NAMM 2008 show in Anaheim, California by both Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz and CEO of TC Group, Anders Fauerskov.

The TC Group, headquartered in Risskov, Denmark, develops and manufactures audio products. "This merger will revolutionize the music industry for many years to come,"  said Juszkiewicz, chairman and ceo of Gibson Guitar. "The synergy between the two companies will allow us an enormous advantage in the development of new audio technologies and brings together two of the world's most powerful brands."

"The opportunities ahead are very exciting for us," said Anders Fauerskov, Chief Executive Officer of TC Group. “This merger will create exciting new opportunities for all employees within TC Group and Gibson, and in particular, fantastic new tools for our markets and customers. This partnership will allow us to expand our leadership position in the marketplace." 

www.tcgroup.tc | www.gibson.com

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AVIOM LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE

Flexibility and Simplicity Are A Click Away

Aviom website screen shot

Aviom has unveiled its new website (www.aviom.com). Redesigned from the ground up, the site streamlines navigation. It includes additional instructional content and has an increased focus on applications to help users understand how to build the most effective Aviom systems. 

“We’re excited to be launching the next generation of our company’s website,” says Aviom’s Director of Marketing, Chandler Collison. “The expanded content is a reflection of the breadth of applications we’ve seen in the field over the last several years as our global user base has continued to grow in many directions. “

Collison explains that the site is designed to serve a wide range of visitors. “We need to be able to communicate effectively with the most experienced systems contractors designing multi-million dollar systems on the one hand, and at the same time, break things down for the do-it-yourself-er on a praise team in a church, or in a rock band. One of the design goals was to deliver a positive, useful experience to any site visitor, no matter what brought them to the site and no matter how experienced they are with digital audio.”

The current re-launch is the first phase of a year-long effort focused on retooling the company’s web presence. “This stage of the site’s redesign is based on a lot of great input from our users and channel partners,” Collison adds.

www.aviom.com

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Euphonix Offers the Artist Series

MC Control

Euphonix announces the Artist Series, a new line of Ethernet-based DAW control surfaces for the personal studio market.  "By utilizing the knowledge and technology from our large-format consoles, we were able create a DAW controller for the personal studio market," said Martin Kloiber, Euphonix CEO.

www.euphonix.com

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Mitsubishi Digital Electronics Announces XL1550U/XL2550U Installation Projectors

XL1550U/XL2550U

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics Presentation Products Division announces its XL1550U and XL2550U; two new XGA (1024 x 768 pixel) resolution LCD projectors intended for installation in large auditoriums, classrooms, worship halls, churches, and conference rooms.  Equipped with a variety of optional lenses, these projectors can support short throw and zoom lenses to fit any room configuration.

"We're replacing our popular XL25 and XL30 projectors with the XL1550U and XL2550U," said Wayne Kozuki, product manager, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics Presentation Products Division.  "They combine a set of features that offer benefits for those who create mid-sized to large presentation environments."

A side-loading lamp in both projectors makes lamp replacement easier.  Users don't have to remove the whole projector from its mount; they just extract the old lamp from the side and replace.  Network management is also another feature as the projectors are equipped with RJ45 connectivity for LAN asset management and control, while an RS232c connection offers integration with third-party control systems.  An anti-theft security anchor, password menu lock, and programmable splash screen are included to deter unapproved removal.

Both projectors support sRGB, a system of color spaces that defines tone, saturation, and brightness to make color expressions from all imaging equipment consistent from on-computer presentation to projected image.  A picture-in-picture function supports dual imaging.

www.mitsubishi-presentations.com

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Martin Introduces smartMAC

smartMAC

The new smartMAC from Martin is a bright, fanless 150 W profile luminaire. It has a fanless thermal management system as well as a cooling system which uses the aluminum casing and fins to conduct heat away from the fixture head. Optimized optics provide image quality and a depth of field that keeps the image sharp even if the image is projected at a steep angle to the surface. The field angle is 24.5degrees which allows for a greater projection diameter at shorter distances.

With a total output of 4600 lumens, the smartMAC has a 150 W lamp.  In addition, it has a long life (3000 hours) MSD 150/2 lamp and a very long life (9000 hours) CDM 150 lamp is also available. It comes with a profile lens and houses eight interchangeable dichroic colors plus a rotating gobo wheel that houses six interchangeable gobos (pre-installed glass and metal) plus open which can be continuously rotated or indexed to any required and repeatable position. 

The smartMAC is standard DMX-512 controllable or operates in stand-alone or master/slave mode. It meets the new EU RohS standard, meaning no banned substances such as lead solder are used during the manufacture and parts of smartMAC are recyclable.

www.martin.com

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