Since founding Eastpoint Christian Church in 2004, Lead Pastor Scott Taube has been blessed with a rapidly growing congregation, so rapidly, in fact, that he found himself holding four completely full Sunday services at his 16,000-square-foot facility. With the building at capacity and never wanting to turn anyone away, Taube and his staff decided it was time to find a larger space. When the chance to purchase a 92,000-square-foot former big box store presented itself, church leaders say it was the perfect new location for the church.
Taube contacted Events United, a full-service audio-visual production company, to handle the church’s AVL needs for the new space.
“Eastpoint Christian Church had a vision for a community center with a 1,600-seat auditorium/concert venue, indoor soccer field, basketball courts and community rooms,” says Donald Van Slyke, operations manager and audio engineer, Events United.
“We provided AVL design and build services for the entire project focusing on the worship center. They wanted the auditorium to be used for weekly services and for touring acts that needed space for concerts. One of our main goals from an audio perspective was to deliver crystal clear sound reproduction in the auditorium so everyone attending services would not miss a single word. In order to achieve this, we relied on DPA Microphones’ d:fine™ Headset and d:facto 4018VL Linear Vocal Microphones.”
Van Slyke first used DPA’s d:fine 4066 headset microphones back in 2005 while working as the technical director at a church in Scottsdale, Ariz. Since that time, the d:fine 4066 has been his first choice for spoken word. Van Slyke has also used DPA’s d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones on everything from piano to strings and is consistently blown away by the sound quality.
To Van Slyke, the main benefit of using DPA is its turnkey operation. “DPA microphones sound fantastic out of the box,” adds Van Slyke. “Many other manufacturers’ microphones require significant EQ to get the sound like the original source, but DPA mics require minimal equalization and they have much more flexibility than many competitors. The mics sound very natural and clear, which allows the audio engineer to focus on using equalization and dynamics for color and balance in the mix.”
For Eastpoint Christian Church, Events United specified four d:fine 4066 Dual-Ear Omni Headset Mics with hardwired TA4F connectors and four d:facto 4018 Linear Vocal Handheld Microphones used with a Shure ULX-D wireless system. The d:fine and d:facto mics serve as the auditorium’s primary microphones for speech and vocals.
“We also chose to use DPA because of its unrivaled sound quality,” adds Van Slyke. “The DPA d:fine headsets are the best sounding headsets in the industry. For spoken word, they have a smooth, clear response and plenty of gain before feedback, even when the presenter is in front of the installed d&b audiotechnik audio system. The d:facto 4018VL has a clear and open sound, even with singers who have a high SPL. The off-axis rejection of the d:facto 4018VL microphone is also very impressive in a live environment with drums and percussion.”
Transforming a space of this size is not easy and the install was not without its obstacles. According to Van Slyke, “Eastpoint Christian Church converted a very challenging big box store into its auditorium. Fortunately, DPA microphones work very well in all audio environments whether the room sounds great or if it is a more challenging room. The combination of acoustical treatment, a properly designed audio system and DPA microphones for speech and vocals allow for a high level of performance in what was once a very reverberant space. This was a wonderful project to work on and thanks to DPA, the church sounds great.”
