Calvary Baptist Church, Canton, Mich. Solves Audio Challenges

Calvary Baptist Church in Canton, Michigan is an 800-member congregation that focuses on contemporary and modern worship while striving to maintain its rich heritage of the past. The church programs encourage young children to learn about their faith, youth groups help teens through the challenging years, and there are a variety of classes and groups for adults as well. Four rotating bands consisting of guitars, keyboards, drums, percussion, wind and string instruments, and vocals utilizing music that is relevant today accompany Sunday services.

The church has been at its current location since 1968, and in 1988, the existing loudspeaker and amplifiers were installed with an analog console added ten years later. "We were experiencing constant feedback problems with our old system," states Aaron Welch, Pastor of Worship Arts. "There wasn't a Sunday that didn't go by without some kind of squealing or ringing."

The auditorium was not designed for the type of programs the church offers today. The main structural challenge was that of electrical power and adequate room required in the snake for lines to run up to the stage. So, when Calvary Baptist Church reached out to Thunder Audio Group of Taylor, Michigan to find a solution, the challenge would be for Thunder to find lines that were usable and power that was accessible.

The church also wanted an audio console that would recall settings from each band and work in tandem with an Aviom in-ear monitoring system that they desired. "Our decision to go digital was based on our need for flexibility, memory and expandability," says Welch. "Our musical style has evolved quite a bit from the 1980s and 1990s where we were mainly a traditional worship setting⎯piano, organ, and choir. Today, we utilize a rhythm section, horns, and lead vocals. We also have several bands that rotate throughout the month."

"The new sound system recommendation we presented to Calvary Baptist was a no brainer," states Paul Owen, Vice President of Thunder Audio Group. "Yamaha Commercial Audio's complete system solution approach enabled us to not only meet the church's criteria, but to stay within their budget. The Church is a very unusual shape⎯the auditorium is semi circle, and the stage is rectangular, so there are points on the stage that put the artist in front and under the PA," notes Owen. "The NEXO GEO S was a wonderful choice due to its very high rejection of feedback in these circumstances. Cosmetically, the system was able to be pulled quite high into the roof and still give amazing coverage with out loosing any SPL."

Owen and crew installed nine Nexo GEO S 805 line array speakers, six GEO S830s, an NX242 processor, three Yamaha PC9501n amplifiers and a Yamaha M7CL-48 digital audio console. "The new Nexo GEO line array system is superb, the ease of use of the M7CL, and the high-quality sound have brought our services to a whole new level," says Welch.

The church is a very unusual shape. The auditorium is semi-circle, and the stage is rectangular, so there are points on the stage that put the artist in front and under the PA.

The GEO S805 has consistently demonstrated a remarkable ability to project coherent sound over long distances. The GEO S830 has proven the value and effectiveness of both vertical and horizontal tangent arrays. Calvary Baptist Church chose a white cabinet system to blend with their ceiling. "We are achieving coverage right down to the first few rows without any additional front fill; this was pre-determined by using the Nexo GEO Software room measuring program," adds Owen.

The Yamaha M7CL with its CentraLogic interface takes the most direct approach to providing maximum ease of use and efficiency. A touch-panel display combined with Yamaha's selected channel concept and straightforward navigation system enables instant operation. Owen personally trained the volunteer audio engineers on the M7CL and continues to support them with various techniques like gates and mixing an acoustic drum kit. "Our volunteer sound technicians have absolutely loved the flexibility and power of the Yamaha M7CL. We couldn't do what we do today without it." An ADAT slot in the back of the M7CL is used for the church's Aviom personal listening monitor system so musicians now have individual control of their own situations, increasing the musicality of the bands. 12 AudioTechnica wireless mic systems are also used.

Calvary Baptist utilizes an Alesis HD24 24-track digital recorder for the recording of special concerts and worship albums. They typically do a live video and audio mix of regular worship services and have a 15-member volunteer video team that record each Sunday to DVD using a Videonics MXProDV four-channel video mixer along with two Canon XL1 and two Sony DVCam video cameras.

"Our congregation was floored the first Sunday we ran with the new sound system. The clarity of sound and room dynamics is unmatched from what we previously had; it's like going from Fred Flintstone to James Bond."

For more information on Calvary Baptist Church, visit www.cbcjoy.org.
For more information on Thunder Audio Group, visit www.thunderaudioinc.com.

For more information on NEXO and Yamaha Commercial Audio products, visit www.yamahaca.com.