It’s been almost 140 years that St. John’s Lutheran Church of Orange has been serving California’s Orange County. For the last 105 years, the church has remained in its current location in the historic center of the town of Orange, and it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. As the building reached its 100th birthday, church leadership embarked on a major renovation project to ensure that the facility would last another century so that it could continue to serve generations to come. The overhaul involved several facilities on site, including St. John’s 700-seat sanctuary.
The overhaul involved several facilities on site, including St. John’s 700-seat sanctuary.
Ken Pummill, project manager at Hofmann Finn Development Company Inc., the Costa Mesa, Calif.-based construction firm charged with the sanctuary’s restoration, was director of facilities at St. John’s for almost a decade––including during this project. In his role at the church, he oversaw not only traditional facilities-related responsibilities, but the audiovisual technology as well. He recounts that when it came to audio, the St. John’s sanctuary was in dire need of a makeover.“
The audio task at hand
[The sanctuary ceiling] is at 45 feet [at its highest point], the walls are plaster, there are stained glass windows, everything was at a sharp angle, everything was a hard surface, and the sound was horrible,” Pummill explains. Not to mention the reverberation, which made it difficult for congregation members to hear what was going on during services.
Velocity Productions, an audiovisual technology design and integration firm headquartered in Atlanta, oversaw the deployment of new AV systems for the project. The team selected a Bose RoomMatch loudspeaker system to address the issues that Pummill describes.
“Speech intelligibility is super-important, and this room is very reverberant––if somebody on one side of the room says something, you can hear it on the other side,” explains Brian Morrison, director of integration at Velocity. “I think what we were able to achieve with the Bose system was fantastic. We modeled everything with their software and hung it the way it was supposed to be hung, aimed it, and tuned it, and it did exactly what Bose said it was going to do. The results we got were phenomenal, especially for a historic building where we didn’t have the ability to mask some of the room’s issues with acoustical treatment.”
"The results we got [with the Bose system] were phenomenal, especially for a historic building where we didn’t have the ability to mask some of the room’s issues with acoustical treatment.” Brian Morrison, Director of Integration, Velocity Productions, Atlanta, GA
“The beauty of Bose RoomMatch is they have such a large selection of boxes with different sound field directions, so for the lower boxes that are front-facing, you can have a 120-degree-wide sound field in order to cover all the seats, but as you move up the line array towards the back, you can narrow the sound field to keep the sound off the walls but also throw the energy far enough back into the room so that everyone is receiving the audio in the same way,” adds Scott Carman, president and COO at Velocity.
In addition to the main PA, the firm installed a choir monitor that, thanks to its asymmetrical form factor, offers this same directivity. “That allowed us to pinpoint where we wanted the sound to be without worrying about it spraying onto the side walls,” Carman says, adding that the Bose system was also an aesthetic fit, since it was custom painted to match the sanctuary.
Video integration
The integration of a new video system was another priority: St. John’s leadership wanted to begin streaming services, which resulted in the integration of a Vaddio streaming system and Sony cameras. It was also necessary to overhaul the video display inside the sanctuary: the stand-mounted, roll-down projection screen the church had been using was ineffective, largely because of its location next to a stained glass window.
St. John’s leadership wanted to begin streaming services, which resulted in the integration of a Vaddio streaming system and Sony cameras.
“[We told Velocity]: ‘We have to take care of our video. Everybody has to see it from wherever they are, and we have to deal with these stained glass windows because we can’t cover them,” Pummill recalls, acknowledging that these requirements didn’t make anyone’s job easier, seeing as the sun blares through that exact south-facing stained glass window from October to March.
Based on these variables, Velocity recommended moving away from projection in favor of integrating an LED wall. Carman admits that he and his colleagues met with some pushback on this, until he brought in an LED display for church leaders to try out during their meetings. “We often bring in technology and allow [our clients] to use it over the course of a weekend or two in order to get buy-in, and it also helps for fundraising on occasion,” he explains.
Carman adds, “This is what allowed us to incorporate an LED wall, and it [eliminated the need] for a lot of the other infrastructure that would have to be in place for a projector and screen, and cleaned up the overall look.”
In the end, the church agreed to the installation of a 4mm Barco LED display. Custom casework frames the display, and Velocity’s content department created graphics that can be shown when the LED wall is not in use--the design of which is a nod to the old hymnal board that used to hang in its place.
Custom casework frames the [LED] display, and Velocity’s content department created graphics that can be shown when the LED wall is not in use--the design of which is a nod to the old hymnal board that used to hang in its place.
The sanctuary renovation was completed in 2015, and St. John’s celebrated with a special service attended by not only members of the congregation, but community officials as well. This was just before its first Thanksgiving service in the newly restored space, followed by a week of Christmas concerts during the beginning of December and, of course, Christmas. As is the case for many churches, Christmas services are well-attended, and St. John’s hosts seven (including one in German) on Christmas Eve, and then one of Christmas Day.
Pummill remembers the tight schedule leading up to Thanksgiving, with the church re-opening its doors just two weeks before: “It gave us about a week to get things settled, get the teams trained, and figure out how we were going to set up and how we were going to decorate,” he says. “Everything was new that year. Every time we did an event, it was like: Okay, how do we do this now? Because it was all new.”
Aesthetics and hidden technology
While the leadership at St. John’s was enthusiastic about showing off the church’s new look, it didn’t want the results of the renovation to be all that noticeable. “There were quite a few changes being made and people were very nervous about that, so at every meeting [during the project], we would ask ourselves: if we do this, will it look like it did when we started? Will people feel like it’s the same place when they come back? That’s what drove our decisions every time, with everything we did,” he explains.
Everyone agreed that there was a need to incorporate new technology into this historic space, but not by compromising what longtime members knew and loved, and Pummill believes that in this, St. John’s and its team of consultants and contractors succeeded.
“I was director of facilities for three years after that project was over, and people would walk in and say, ‘Wow, this is exactly how I remember it.’ It just looked cleaner and fresher and newer. But they couldn’t really tell what had changed, which was a complete validation of what we did.”
Equipment List
Main Sanctuary
- Video Destinations
- Barc V4i 4mm LED Wall
- 40” Sharp TV (with Chief Munt)
- 85” Sharp TV
- Video Distribution
- Matrix Switch Crporation MSC-1624S (Router)
- Matrix Switch Crporation MSC-CP16x24 (Control Panel)
- Lynx Technik HD-SDI t MultiMode Fiber
- Lynx Technik MultiMde Fiber to HD-SDI
- Camera System
- Vaddi Production View HD-SDI MV (Switcher)
- Vaddi TeleTouch 22” HD Touch Screen
- Vaddi Sony BRC-H900 PTZ Camera Setup
- Vaddi WallView CCU H900 Camera Controller
- Lighting, Control
- ETC Nmad Puck 256
- ETC Universal Fader Wing 2x10
- Audio, Console, Racks, Processing
- Yamaha CL5
- Yamaha Ri3224-D
- Yamaha Ri Ri8-D
- Symetrix Radius 12x8
- Audio, PA
- Bse RoomMatch (Main PA and Choir Monitor)
- Room Match 70x20
- Room Match 90x20
- Room Match 120x20
- Room Match Asymmetrical
- Bse RoomMatch Utility (Delay, Under Balcony, Lobby)
- Room Match Utility RMU105
- Room Match Utility RMU206
- Bse PowerMatch 8500N with Dante
- Audio Infrastructure
- Cisc SG300-20 Switches for Dante Distribution
- Ace Backstage Flor Pockets SL124SLK
- Ace Backstage Custm Floor Pocket Inserts
- Audio, Wireless Microphones
- Shure ULXD4Q
- Shure ULXD2/B58
- Shure ULXD1
- Shure UA874
- Audio, Hearing Assist
- Listen Technlogies IDL 1000G – Inductive Loop
- Listen Technlogies LP-IL-1 – Inductive Receiver
- Listen Technlogies LT-800-072 RF Transmitter
- Listen Technlogies LR-400-072 RF Receiver
- Audio, Communication
- ClearCm MS-702 Base Station
- ClearCm CC-26K
- ClearCm FL-7
- ClearCm HS-6
- Sequencing Control
- Furman CN-2400
- Racks
- Middle Atlantic DWR-21-22
- Middle Atlantic DWR 12-22
- Middle Atlantic BGR-19-SA27
Walker Hall
- Audio Infrastructure
- Cisc SG300-20 Switches for Dante Distribution
- Yamaha Dante-MY-16-AUD fr Owner Furnished Yamaha PM5
- Audio, Console
- Yamaha CL1 fr overflow room
- Audio, Wireless
- Shure ULXD4Q
- Shure ULXD2/B58
- Shure ULXD1
- Video Distribution
- Matrix Switch Crporation MSC-08x32B
- Lnyx Yellbrik MM Fiber to SDI
- Lynx Yellbrik SDI to MM Fiber
- Audio, Communication
- ClearCm HS-6
- ClearCm RS-701
Family Gathering Space
- Video Destinations
- 43” Samsung TV (with Chief Munt)
- 90” Sharp TV (with Chief Munt)
- Video Distribution
- Atlna AT-UHD-SW-500ED (Matrix Router)
- Atlna AT-UHD-EX-100CE-RX (Receivers)
- Atlna AT-HDVS-TX-WP (Wall Plate Input)
- Audio
- Bse DS100F with Pendant (Speakers)
- QSC CXD4.2 (Amplifier w/ Prcessing and Routing)
- Rack
- Middle Atlantic DWR-21-22
Youth Space
- Video
- 70” Sharp TV (with Chief Munt)
- Video Distribution
- Atlna AT-UHD-SW-500ED (Matrix Router)
- Atlna AT-UHD-EX-100CE-RX (Receiver)
- Atlna AT-HDVS-TX (Media Converter)
- Apple iMac running Renewed Visin ProPresenter (Owner Furnished)
- Audio
- Bse F1 Model 812 Loudspeaker
- Bse F1 Subwoofer
- PreSnus Studio Live 16.4.2 (Owner Furnished)
- Lighting
- Jands Stage CL
- Chauvet Lighting Ovatin E-190WW
- Elatin Opto Branch 4
- Elatin Six Par 200
- Elatin Six Bar 1000
- Rack
- Custm Built Furniture by Contractor
[Editor's note: Equipment list courtesy of Brian Morrison, Director of Integration, Velocity Productions.]
