Bethel Auditorium from stage view
Bethel Church in Richland, Washington is a growing body of Christians in the Tri-Cities community. And while their church services were always spirit-filled, their existing sound system in the main auditorium was struggling. Installed roughly in 2010, the existing system was failing one driver at a time with poor coverage and sound quality decreasing by the day. So, technical director Sam Rodriguez and the team began looking for a new sound system.
Over the course of a year, Rodriguez and the Bethel Church staff spent time traveling to sister churches and venues listening to a variety of premium sound systems. They studied coverage graphs created by these prospective manufacturers’ prediction software and spoke to a variety of prospective integrators.
Mounting mains in Bethel auditorium
“After hearing our favorite line array options, we determined our budget and made the decision at the executive level to allocate the funds,” says Rodriguez. “Then, it was up to select which system we thought best. Before making our final choice, Dave Dartnall, CEO and founder of Focus, introduced to Danley Sound Labs and some options which might provide a better system for us.”
Dartnall was not new to sound for houses of worship. For more than 40 years, Dartnall has worked in pastoral and worship leadership experience before founding Focus. His in-depth knowledge of the Church, experience, teaching skills and commitment to his faith are responsible for the Focus reputation.
As the Bethel team continued their speaker review, they listened to Danley Sound Labs products twice falling in love with the sound of the J7-95 loudspeaker combined with Danley’s TH118XL subwoofer. While they found the speakers’ clarity and energy impressive, the accuracy of the predicted audio coverage was critical to selection.
Bethel Technical Director Sam Rodriguez at Allen & Heath console.
“The Bethel team was clear that everything said, sung, played and prayed mattered,” says Dartnall. “Danley offers incredible clarity, exceptional sound quality, best-in-market pattern control, unmatched power, and more. They also offer a punchy, full, resonate and not muddy low end that few, if any other systems could offer.”
“After receiving Focus’ proposal from Dave, we were shocked at how much less the Danley system would cost compared to the highest-end line array systems we were considering,” says Rodriguez. “We were so elated that we decided to upgrade three additional venues in the building with Danley as well as have the best Allen & Heath mixing systems in all the rooms.”
The first installation was the church’s main auditorium, a fan-shaped 1,500 seat facility with a balcony. The church installed three Danley J7-95 loudspeakers for its mains and four Danley TH118XL subwoofers. For coverage under the balcony, 4 Danley SHMini loudspeakers were used and 2 Danley Go2-8CX loudspeakers for front side-fills. The entire system is powered by 4 Danley DNA 20K4 Pro amplifiers for mains, subs, and side-fills and 1 Danley DNA 5K4C amplifier for the SHMini loudspeakers.
Rigging for J7-95s horizontally to evenly cover from front floor row to balcony back row.
For the church’s mixing system, they chose the Allen & Heath dLive platform and selected the S7000 for the main auditorium. For the mixing system Dartnall and the Focus team installed:
- 1 Allen & heath AH-dLIVE-S7 fader surface with dual 12” touchscreens
- 1 Allen & Heath AH-MPS-16 optional redundant hot swappable PSU
- 2 Allen & Heath AH-M-DL-DANTE128-A Dante 128x128 networking cards
- 2 Allen & Heath AH-M-DL-GACE-A 128x128 96kHz gigaACE cards
- 1 Allen & Heath AH-dLIVE-DM32 dLive S Class MixRack 32x16 I/O
- 1 Allen & Heath AH-DX-HUB 4 DX Link port hub, each w/ 32 channels of 96kHz
- 1 Allen & Heath AH-FULLU-RK19 Rackmount kit for DX-Hub
- 1 Allen & Heath AH-DX168 16in x 8 out Stage Box with dLive 96kHz
Because of the cost savings compared to other systems, Bethel installed Danley throughout the church’s other 3 auditoriums as well. The next room to be done was the HUB, a multi-use worship room.
Danley SBH10's and TH Mini in HUB Auditorium
“While the main auditorium was straight forward, the HUB auditorium was more of a challenge,” says Dartnall. “The HUB has a polished cement floor and an HVAC venting system that cuts across the middle of the room hiding the former speakers from half of the seating area. This made front of house mixing positions nearly useless.”
However, Danley Sound Labs offered a solution. The SBH10 loudspeaker was mounted on each side of the stage as well as under the HVAC system obstruction. Because of the speakers “narrow in height, wide in width” coverage pattern, it offered premium sound without reflecting off the floors.
In addition to the two SBH10 loudspeakers as mains, a Danley THMini subwoofer was also installed all powered by a Danley DNA 10K4 amplifier.
For the Kids & Desert View auditoriums, a Danley Mini 180 loudspeaker and Danley THMini-12 subwoofer were used in each room and each powered by a Danley DNA 5K4C amplifier. For the sake of discipleship and training, Allen & Heath SQ5 consoles were also installed in all of the other auditoriums as well.
Bethel Christmas Service
“We got so much more for the money by choosing Danley,” Rodriguez comments. “Coverage is even across all seating areas with the same amazing sound no matter where people may sit, even in or under the balcony, or in the extreme corners up front or in the back of the room.”
Regarding the new system, Dartnall says, “In addition to the dozens of ‘thank you’ handshakes and hugs I received, on the first Sunday with the new Danley system, there was a moment when I knew the new system was the right choice. Bethel’s professional drummer walked into the auditorium during the first song, stopped in his tracks, spread his arms open wide, and looking up with his head tilted back said, ‘oh my gosh! This is unbelievable.’ And he just stood there soaking it all in for a moment before he and his wife went to be seated. They couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”
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