SystemMax AVL reports being brought in to the Church of the Saviour United Methodist Church in Cincinatti as consultants for a needs assessment and design, working with local contractors. But as is often the case, the company ended up doing much more.
As SystemMax’s Darryl Johnson explains, “We ended up redesigning and installing the audio system for the worship space, which is now doing split services with contemporary Christian worship and electric bands, as well as traditional services with organ and choir.
The room reportedly had severe acoustic anomalies, so SystemMax brought in an acoustic consultant, Haverstick Designs from Indianapolis, to do room measurements and recommend treatment for the space to bring it within viable parameters. SystemMax then installed a Martin Audio CDD/CSX speaker system with Elation pro lighting.
"Sixty percent of the back wall is glass with a large stained glass window in the wall behind the platform, all of which created a four- or five-second delay." Max Maxwell, SystemMax AVL
Max Maxwell, Johnson’s partner adds, “Church of the Saviour is in a modern structure built in the late eighties, early nineties and the worship area had a lot of drywall ... 60% of the back wall is glass with a large stained glass window in the wall behind the platform, all of which created a four- or five-second delay. The glass is particularly challenging because there isn’t a way to treat that."
Audio solutions
Maxwell adds, “Based on the consultant’s recommendation, we put in ProSoCoustic 2-inch wall panels in different lengths and sizes on the side walls specifically sized to the areas where they were being used. With the treatments, we were able to get the decay time down to less than two seconds."
David Sass
The Martin Audio system included CDD12 and CDD8 speakers in tandem with CSX212 subs. “The way the structure is built,” Johnson points out, “there was no place to ground-stack the subs or build them into the stage, so we flew two left and right with one of the CDD12s in the center section of the room that has a higher ceiling. Then we flew a CDD12 on the outside right and left of the room which has a lower ceiling. In the rear of the church, there’s a delay ring of three CDD8s across the upper and lower portions of the ceiling. Luckily, the space is wide enough to rig all the speakers across the church.”
End results
Asked about the system’s performance, Maxwell responds, “It sounds phenomenal. We used a matched pair of Earthworks choir microphones and the CDD speakers clearly reproduced all the clarity and quality those mics offer. The church uses a Roland electronic drum kit and all the drums are perfectly reproduced through the system with significant bass response."
Maxwell further reports that even though he and Johnson are musicians, the main things they focused on were clarity and articulation for the sermons, which is critically important. "If the pastor speaks and no one understands what she’s saying, we’ve pretty much missed the boat," he says.
“We felt that because of the CDD’s pattern control, wide dispersion and the way the high frequency drivers function, it was the most appropriate choice for the install and it turned out great. Speech intelligibility with the CDDs is amazing,” Max concludes, “and when you factor in the CSX subs, music reproduction is everything we could have hoped for. Our client is ecstatic with the system ... we’ve gotten other jobs because of how great it sounds.”
