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Hermitage Hill Baptist Church, Hermitage, TN.
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"the progressive directivity arrays of the RoomMatch system provide the most effective way to cover the room. By my calculations, to get the same sound over the required 105-degree vertical range, a typical array system would require 14-plus array elements compared to only seven RoomMatch modules." Scott Clark, Engineer, Blue Hat Design, Norcross, GA.
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Representatives polled some of the church’s senior members about the new sound system and were not entirely surprised to hear that all of their responses were positive. One of the senior members even reported, "I think you could turn it up a bit."
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"Of course, we want to reach young worshippers, but we don't want to be focused on just that target group. It's important for our older generations to be around to impact the younger ones." - Dan Arterburn, Associate Pastor of Administration, Hermitage Hills Baptist Church, Hermitage, TN
When Hermitage Hills Baptist Church christened its 1,500-seat sanctuary in the spring of 2005, they installed the best sound system they could afford. “At the time, our services were very traditional,” recalls Dan Arterburn, associate pastor of administration, “with choir, orchestra and organ.” While the system was serviceable for the spoken word, it struggled to cover the wide, fan-shaped sanctuary. “The money we had set aside for sound was just not enough,” says Arterburn. “We knew that we would have to address our sound issues in the future.”
In recent years, the church, located in the Nashville, Tenn., suburb of Hermitage, has shifted to services built around more varied and contemporary musical styles—and has realized dramatic inconsistencies in the room's audio landscape. Even with improvements made by outside consultants, services were still generating regular complaints with some seats being too loud and others where things couldn't be heard. “That's when people began to hear and understand the reality. We needed better sound,” says Arterburn.
What accelerated the need for better audio was a series of moves the church made in early 2014 toward more modern services; with changes including moving the choir from a loft area to risers, changing to more contemporary set and lighting designs, as well as embracing musical changes for a more band-driven service. Hermitage Hills' 'blended' services feature contemporary musical styles with acoustic and electric guitars, electronic keyboards, bass, and drums. Its two Sunday morning services average 850 in attendance, and the sanctuary floor seating and balcony area are often filled for special services, concerts and recitals during the week.
Seeking a Solution
To help with the search for a new sound system, Arterburn enlisted the help of a volunteer, Bob Clark, a veteran Nashville sound engineer. Clark, who cut his teeth mixing sound on the road, was hired by a Nashville studio in 1974 and has been mixing sound ever since. He also has 30 years of experience consulting for churches. Clark recalls his personal experience running sound in the Hermitage Hills sanctuary as frustrating: “There were obvious places in the room where people just couldn't hear,” he recalls, “and with only a basic center-hung cluster it was always too loud on the center section of the main floor. Adding subs just exacerbated the situation.”
One of Clark's first actions was to round up seven knowledgeable church sound designers and explain the challenge in hopes of finding both the right technology and design expertise. When bids were returned, what impressed Clark and Arterburn most was some companies' attention to detail and the lengths to which some had gone to understand the challenges of the room. What impressed them the least was a contractor who generated a final price with only minimal information about the room. “That's a bid we couldn't trust,” says Clark.
One bid that clearly stood out came from Blue Hat Design, a subset of Technical Innovations based in Norcross, Ga. “Blue Hat's engineer, Scott Clark (no relation to Bob Clark), showed great interest in our project from the very first meeting,” recalls Bob Clark. “Before he left, Scott had a three dimensional rendering of the space and precise measurements.”
Scott's attention to the details and comprehensive proposal that outlined several alternatives won Blue Hat the business. “He knows numbers inside out, but he is also 'artistic' and uses his ears,” says Clark. “Scott starts with the science, then he works with the sound in room.”
"By my calculations, to get the same sound over the required 105-degree vertical range, a typical array system would require 14-plus array elements compared to only seven RoomMatch modules."
Scott Clark
Engineer, Blue Hat Design, Norcross, GA.
Drawing from Multiple Perspectives
It is no surprise that Scott's approach to sound is both analytical and artistic. In addition to designing sound, he is also an accomplished professional trumpet player with years of performing experience. Scott honed his musical and audio skills as he grew up in Oakland, Calif., and by high school was working with local sound engineers, measuring and tweaking systems. He describes his audio education as years of self-study classes and projects. His experience led him to open a recording studio in Knoxville, Tenn., before finding work with an integrator. As it turns out, integration work makes the best use of all Scott Clark's abilities. “I love to discover what is unique about a product so I can find the best fit for a particular space and what works best for my clients,” he says.
With his musician's perspective, Scott knows what sounds good, but has learned that knowing the science can help you make better decisions. He is quick to remind young design engineers that there's a lot of hard work that goes into designing systems. “I see too many mistakes made with software,” he says, “since so often the fundamentals haven't been learned.” Scott Clark says that he has a heart for getting it right for customers and, as a result, he has become used to handling situations that other contractors have deemed difficult or impossible.
For the Hermitage Hills installation, one of Scott's main goals was uniformity. Where other consultants had told the church that even coverage and effective stereo couldn't be accomplished affordably in the church's sanctuary, he believed there was a way. He culled through his industry experience to find a combination of gear that would provide the right combination of coverage patterns and power to service the sanctuary's large vertical space, as well as sufficient control to keep sound off the walls and where it was needed.
The assessment of the sanctuary at Hermitage Hills indicated that a point-source system would not deliver the image and localization that arrays could provide. “Especially in a space that requires large vertical coverage,” Blue Hat's Clark observes, “a point-source solution can quickly take you over budget.” The search for a loudspeaker solution led to the Bose RoomMatch modular array loudspeakers. According to Clark, the progressive directivity arrays of the RoomMatch system would provide the most effective way to cover the room. By his calculations, to get the same sound over the required 105-degree vertical range, a typical array system would require 14-plus array elements compared to only seven RoomMatch modules. With 42 full-range array and asymmetrical module designs available, RoomMatch systems can be designed to provide very specific room coverage where each speaker in the array does not cross another's path. “It's a more effective way to cover a room,” he reports.
Implementing Answers
To uniformly cover the sanctuary, the Blue Hat designer planned two arrays based on extensive room modeling using Bose Modeler software. “Modeler software models a space in three dimensions,” he says, “but also takes into account borders and boundaries that block direct energy. That makes the model extremely accurate.” He adds that his method of collecting data and using Google SketchUp then importing the result into Modeler makes Modeler fast and easy to use.
Clark's design specifies left- and right-side arrays that provide all the necessary coverage without impinging on sightlines for the church's three video projectors and screens. Each array hang consists of one RoomMatch RM7505 module, one RM9005, two RM12010s, one RM12020 and one RM9040 module. Three Bose PowerMatch PM8500N (network model) power amplifiers are used to power the arrays. The design delivers less energy directly to the seats closest to the arrays, so there is no need for gain-shading the array. In addition, there are no delay speakers needed for the balcony, which gets a great stereo from just the two arrays.
Four Danley DBH-218 subwoofers were added in cardioid pairs flown with the arrays to cover the low frequencies. Their locations were carefully calculated to prevent loading surfaces behind the subs, as well as to reduce SPL on stage. Subs are powered by two Crown IT9000HD amplifiers. Scott especially likes Danley subs for this installation saying, “The 218 hits unlike any other 2x18-inch subwoofer on the market. Plus a cabinet that puts out 149 dB SPL gets you lot of bang for the dollar.”
Ten Danley model SMLPM stage monitors provide full-range sound on stage. A monitor wedge version of Danley's SM100 loudspeaker with an eight-inch coaxial driver, the SMLPM speakers were chosen for its consistent off-axis response, high gain-before-feedback, and cost effective wedge design.
In-ear monitoring is accomplished with eight Axiom A360 Personal mixers connected with a D800 A-Net Distributor, with A-Net Bridge and Dante interface along with four Shure PSM 1000 Wireless Systems each with two bodypack receivers and two Shure SE425-CL Sound Isolating earphones.
For the main console, Blue Hat specified a Yamaha CL5 mixer along with a smaller QL1 mixer. With similar physical characteristics and interface, the smaller QL1 makes for logical extension to add channels and flexibility mixing live sound. I/O is supported by Yamaha R series racks: two RIO3224-D racks providing 32 inputs, 16 outputs, and four AES/EBU outputs; and a RIO1608-D rack providing 16 inputs and 8 outputs. A BSS London BLU-100 DSP was installed for the sanctuary's signal processing. “We find that Yamaha consoles are the most logical for many users to train on,” says Scott, who is able to impart many valuable tricks of the trade learned behind the console at his home church.
As an audio engineer who mixes sound before and after the upgrade, the church's Bob Clark says the results have been remarkable. “The coverage is very even with the steerable Bose Match arrays,” he says. “It's a clear, warm sound with plenty of low end and in its flat configuration the system is very natural. It really complements the church's contemporary music.”
Arterburn knows that the new audio installation is helping with the church's transformation to reach a new generation of worshippers, but his long history with Hermitage Hills (he first served as leader of the music ministry before serving 22 years as worship pastor and, now, administrator) has shown him the power of worship in a multi-generational church community. “Of course, we want to reach young worshippers,” he says, “but we don't want to be focused on just that target group. It's important for our older generations to be around to impact the younger ones. We enjoy and value the variety found in all musical and worship styles. We finally have a system that supports that.”
Arterburn polled some of the church's senior members about the new sound system and was not entirely surprised to hear that all of their responses were positive. One of the senior members even reported, “I think you could turn it up a bit.”
