Crossroads Church, one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in America, reaches over 34,000 people weekly across nine locations and online. When its flagship Oakley, Ohio campus opened in 2002 with a 1,500-seat auditorium, rapid growth pushed capacity to 3,500 seats just three years later. Scale is a great thing, but it also creates challenges to the kind of intimacy that effective worship requires. In October 2025, Crossroads Oakley addressed that issue by integrating L-Acoustics L-ISA immersive audio technology with its existing L-Acoustics main PA components. The project, accomplished by AVL systems integrator Diversified, now connects the entire congregation—music, message, and every seat—through immersive audio.
“With L-ISA, the localization of the talent on the stage is remarkably realistic,” says Patrick Buescher, Assistant Director of Experience Operations. “Wherever the focus of the moment is, whether it’s a worship leader off to the side of the stage or a vocalist downstage right, we can localize their voice to their position onstage, and it connects in an incredibly natural manner.”
“It creates an amazing space that unites the audience, the stage, and the service,” he says. The engineering aspect impresses him equally. “As a front-of-house engineer, you’re usually carving out space with EQ. L-ISA adds another dimension—you can move sounds around as objects, matching what you hear to what you see onstage. Instead of separating drums at 40-60Hz and bass at 60-100Hz through EQ alone, we can now separate them in physical space. They’re not stepping on each other acoustically; they’re positioned like the team they are onstage.”
L-ISA Offers Effective Solution for Challenging Room Acoustics
Dave Kendall, Crossroads Church Director of Site Audio, notes that the Oakley location’s room geometry was challenging. “It’s very wide, at least 180 degrees, probably more when you’re out on the thrust area, so a stereo system was never really ideal,” he explains. “We previously had kind of a left, right, left, right system, and depending on where you sat, it was a very different experience, so we tended to mix more towards mono than stereo a lot of the time.”
He says the implementation of the L-ISA technology has not only addressed the geometry challenge but has also had the effect of bringing the congregation together in a new way. “One of the things we love about L-ISA is that every seat has the same experience,” he says. “We are so much closer now than we’ve ever been before, so the person in the second balcony and the person on the floor 10 feet away from the stage are having the same experience: they’re hearing the same sound, the same tonality. L-ISA definitely delivers that and we love that about it.”
“And I’ll just go a step further to say the first time I heard the system in the room, I was amazed at the coverage. We have stairwells in the corners that are usually just boomy, no clarity at all. And I was walking up the stairs and noticed, Oh, wait, I can hear things here now! It was something I’d never expected and it took me off guard, in a very pleasant way.”
Forty-six coaxial L-Acoustics X8 speakers, complemented by three A10i, are now spread out around the three seating levels
Crossroads Oakley’s L-ISA design comprises a Scene system of five hangs of one L2 over one L2D, flanked by an Extension system made up of 10 Kiva II flown to both the far left and right of the main Scene arrays. Out-fills use four arrays of eight Kara IIi flown behind the Scene arrays, two per side, covering the upper and lower side seating areas. LFE is provided by 21 KS28 subs flown in cardioid groups of three behind the mains, in an arc.
Forty-six coaxial X8 speakers are spread out around the three seating levels; 18 on the first two levels (Level 0 and 1), and ten more on the top level (Level 2), which are complemented by three A10i for the center seats. Overhead and surround speakers utilize the church’s legacy speakers, while a single L-Acoustics A10i Wide flown above centerstage provides foldback. The system is managed via an L-ISA Processor II and its accompanying L-ISA Controller display, with a P1 processor also in place to offer Milan-AVB signal transport. The audio system is rounded out by a Digico SD5 console for monitors and a Quantum852 at front of house.
Crossroads Oakley’s L-ISA design features a Scene system of five L-Acoustics L Series arrays backed by Kara Iii outfills and arced KS28 subs
The new sound system retaining some of its earlier components was a decision Kendall attributes to cost-savings. “And we were appreciative of L-Acoustics’ willingness to work that into our existing system,” he says. Those components include Kara II speakers installed three years ago when they began transitioning away from another system design that had been in the space for several years. In the process, the church was also transitioning from stereo to a surround-type system, and ultimately to immersive, with the addition of the L-ISA components.
Localized audio fosters a more intimate experience
The system is managed via an L-Acoustics L-ISA Processor II and its accompanying L-ISA Controller display
But as attractive as the immersive effect has been for worship, Buescher says it was the L-Acoustics sound quality that was the clincher. “People talk about PA systems being ‘transparent’ sounding—what you put in is what you get out—but that can require a lot from a front-of-house engineer,” he explains. “Whereas L-Acoustics is a musical-sounding system right out of the box.”
The combination of L-ISA technology and new L-Acoustics components has transformed the worship experience at the Oakley campus. “We love the way it sounds and the intimacy it brings,” Buescher says. “This system does an amazing job of helping our attendees feel connected, which is such an important element of worship.”
For more information on Crossroads Oakey, visit www.crossroads.net. Diversified can be found online at www.onediversified.com.
To learnmore about L-Acoustics, visit www.l-acoustics.com.
