Watermark Community Church Updates L-Acoustics Sound System

Dallas-based church hires Georgia-based integration company Clark to transition from Kudo PA to L-ISA Hyperreal Sound and L Series system.

Watermark Community Church, founded in 1999 as a nondenominational evangelical house of worship, has launched several campuses now serving over 9,000 weekly attendants. The church’s leadership understands that the clarity of its message – both literally and conceptually – relies in large part on sound quality. For years they have been L-Acoustics users, starting with a Kudo PA system that served them well for more than a decade. This January, Watermark’s team headed into the next chapter with the adoption of L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology with L-Acoustics L Series loudspeakers, sold and installed by Clark, an integration company based in Alpharetta, Georgia.

“Watermark is definitely unique,” says Clark Business Development Executive Noah Hawley. “The moment you walk in, you are riveted by the church’s nearly 100-foot-wide video wall made up of more than 1,000 half-meter-square LED tiles. And that massive scale is indicative of how they approach music and video production – there’s a lot of creative horsepower at work there. But amazing visuals aside, the single most important element in a house of worship is the sound, being able to effectively communicate the message to everyone in attendance. This is why they stayed with L-Acoustics and chose L-ISA and L Series – for the exceptional coverage, consistency, and clarity that these technologies deliver.”

The church’s recent switch to L-ISA paired with L Series arrays was made to provide improved intelligibility and fidelity throughout the entire seating area. The main Scene system is comprised of five arrays of one L2 over one L2D. Four Extension arrays to the far left and right are made up of Kiva II, with eight enclosures per hang closer to the Scene system and seven enclosures per hang further out. Arrays of 10 Kara II each provide out-fill, with low-end coming from a center deployment of 10 KS28 subs flown in two hangs of five KS28 in cardioid mode.

Seventeen compact coaxial X8 enclosures are evenly distributed across the lip of the stage for spatial front-fill, while three KS21i subs per side are mounted into the face of the stage to supplement the room’s low end. Arrays of two A15i Wide per side provide extreme left and right over-balcony delay, while a dozen X8 serve as under-balcony delays. The entire system is powered and processed by 16 LA7.16i amplified controllers and three LA12X. These are driven via Milan-AVB with L-Acoustics LS10 switches, while an L-ISA Processor II with a 64-output license is driven over MADI from the church’s SSL L350 Plus FOH console.

Hawley says the sanctuary’s acoustics are magnificent. “Coupled with the acoustics and L-ISA, for the first time everybody could see, “Wow, this is how the room is designed to be heard,’” he says. “This is what the intended experience was supposed to be. Now the room’s complete, the vision’s been accomplished.”

“While I think most people don’t really understand what a spatial system does, they do know that it sounds clear and amazing, which is what we were shooting for,” says Bekah Winans, Watermark Community Church’s Audio Director. “They’re now able to pick out distinct instruments instead of just hearing a wall of sound. For them to say that it sounds fantastic means we’ve accomplished our goal to become more engaging.”

She adds that the use of L-ISA technology has dramatically expanded sound coverage in the room, with at least 80 percent of the seating areas getting a fully immersive experience. “One of the main things that we kept hearing from our leadership was that they wanted consistency of the sound. They wanted the largest number of seats in the house to have the same great, immersive experience as possible,” she says. “And they do!”

Operationally, Hudson Horsley, the church’s Systems Engineer says L-ISA easily integrates into the church’s workflow, and can be controlled via either an external L-ISA Controller display or directly from a touchscreen of the SSL house desk. “Some of our operators prefer to use the L-ISA software interface, while others use the integrated L-ISA page on the console, so it comes down to preference, but the integration has been seamless,” he says. “At first, I think it can be a little bit intimidating, but once people hear it and get used to working with it, it’s quite easy and intuitive. It has simplified the workflow, with less effects in the chain, by using the room engine. The team has adapted to it rapidly.”

He adds the greatest accomplishment has been the enhanced sense of community with L-ISA making the venue feel more intimate. “Whereas a lot of other systems divert attention to the speakers, L-ISA pulls your attention to the stage, and connects the audience with the communicator. It really gives everyone a sense of being more engaged with what’s happening on stage.”

For more information on Watermark Community Church, visit www.watermark.org. Clark can be found online at www.clark.is.

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