Taylor Church in Jacksonville, Fla., is a full gospel, Pentecostal church and offers a wide range of ministries designed to help attendees experience meaningful worship. Recognizing the need for a better sound reinforcement system, church leaders recently elected to upgrade their sanctuary with a new system that draws from the Event Series catalog of Valencia, Spain -based DAS Audio.
BDH Technical Systems of St. Augustine, FL, a full-service audio – video design / build firm that services both the worship and commercial markets, was contracted to design and deploy the church’s new sound system. Working in close cooperation with their business partner, Invisible Audio of Jacksonville, Fla., (an authorized DAS Audio dealer), BDH Technical Systems penned the new loudspeaker system design that incorporated DAS Event208-AW 3-way powered line array enclosures mated with DAS Event218-A sub bass enclosures. Craig Bruce, a partner at BDH Technical Systems who also serves as the company’s primary system designer, discussed the project.
“Taylor Church offers a unique blend of both contemporary and traditional worship,” Bruce explains. “For the most part, services are contemporary and include the use of a sizeable praise band that is supported by an 8-member vocal team. The sanctuary itself has a good-sized stage area facing the congregation, which is accommodated by fixed seating.”
Bruce adds, “The new sound system setup encompasses three line array clusters for a total of nine DAS Event208-AW loudspeakers, flown in a left – center – right configuration at a height of 14 feet, with each hang comprised of three boxes. For low frequency support, these three clusters are augmented by a pair of DAS Event218-A powered subwoofers, which are positioned on stage at the left and right sides.”
When asked why the DAS Audio Event Series was chosen for the Taylor Church project, Bruce says, “Given the very limited height we had to work with, we needed a compact, full range loudspeaker enclosure that could deliver the required SPL. The sanctuary is quite wide, so we realized early on that a center hang would be required. We liked the self-powered nature of the Event208-AW, as there was no space for a separate amp room. I was quite impressed with the overall sound quality of the Event208-AW’s compact form factor. The gain before feedback with a lapel microphone on the pastor is like night and day compared to the previous system, so the pastor can now walkout into the room and sound close to the congregation.”
Bruce is also complimentary DAS support services. “DAS was a solid partner every step of the way on this project,” he says. “The sales team even drove a demo rig up from Miami to the church for the client to audition. That’s a level of customer support we don’t see very often.”
Taylor Church’s new sound reinforcement system was installed during June 2020 and was placed into service immediately afterward. Since that time, Bruce reports his client is very pleased, “This was a rewarding project for everyone involved. Pastor Mark Woods has been very complimentary of the system’s high level of speech intelligibility and its full, rich sound for music reproduction—with the result being that the congregation is more engaged than previously. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Andrew Douglas at Invisible Audio for helping us secure the equipment, along with Lead Audio Tech Phillip Allison and the Jacksonville local union install crew from IATSE Stagehands Union Local 115. Together, we had an incredible group of people come together and create a sound system that is without parallel in this area!”
To learn more about the services of BDH Technical Systems, visit the company online at www.bdhtechnicalsystems.com.
For more information about Taylor Church, visit https://www.taylorchurchministries.com/.
For additional information about DAS Audio, visit the company online at www.dasaudio.com.
