Church Sound: A Tale Of 600 Seats,
Four Speakers, & Total Coverage
By Keith Clark
Install Sound Editor

Four NEXO PS10 full-range loudspeakers were recently specified and installed to supply complete sound reinforcement coverage in the 600-seat worship sanctuary of Urbana Assembly of God (UAG) church, located in Urbana, Illinois.

Pryor Productions, a leading central Illinois-based event production company headed by Chuck Pryor, recommended and installed the new loudspeakers at the church as the cap to a complete renovation of the room. They serve as the only upgrade necessary in the existing sound system and have produced a dramatic improvement in its overall performance, according to Pryor.

Perspective of the sanctuary and loudspeaker arrangement above the front edge of the platform. Each PS10 is assigned to cover a specific seating section.

UAG offers contemporary worship services to a diverse, multinational congregation (many from nearby University of Illinois), and is also home to the renowned Flaming Missiles for Jesus gospel choir. Therefore the house system is required to supply both exceptional vocal intelligibility and full-range dynamic for diverse musical styles, and in a difficult acoustical environment.

“This room is extremely wide, much wider than it is deep,” explains Pryor. “In addition, the entire back wall is made of glass, while all walls are hard, reflective surfaces and the pews are wood. Fortunately, the floor is carpeted, which helps a bit, but most of the problems have to be overcome through use of loudspeakers with exceptional pattern control, and then careful positioning to keep sound focused on the audience area as much as possible.”

The four PS10's are mounted along the curving "perimeter" of the front platform, approximately 16 feet above the floor level. Each loudspeaker is assigned to fully cover its own respective seating section, each defined by aisles.

A look at the mounting hardware.

Any transition points between cabinets are confined to these aisles regions. They loudspeakers are positioned horizontally, with mid/high frequency horns rotated to optimize the coverage pattern to its assigned coverage zone, and all are flown with OmniMount 100 Series hardware, as recommended by Nexo.

Mounting locations were limited, dictated by aesthetic preferences of the client. While the inner two PS10’s are located at the same point as their predecessors, the outer two aren’t quite centered as optimally as Pryor would have liked.

The view from the platform, looking into the sanctuary and coverage area.

“The coverage is still pretty much impeccable. A good thing about all PS loudspeakers is the rotatable horn,” he says. “This proved especially handy in helping to address a previous ‘dead spot’ at the front of the coverage area. Attaining 100-degrees horizontal coverage helped us blanket this wide space, while the 55-degrees vertical coverage, aimed carefully, kept excess energy off the walls.”

Largely for budgetary reasons, the previous system’s control and power amplification facets were retained. Pryor notes that this has not impacted loudspeaker performance, and in fact, has resulted in more efficient use of these existing components. The amount of power dedicated to the loudspeakers, for example, has been cut in half. (And yes, he adds, processor settings are correct!)

Final tuning was done via a combination of Pryor’s Gold-Line real-time analyzer and his experienced ears. “These cabinets needed very little in the way of tuning,” he concludes. “My only regret is not being able to do a total turnkey system, but just adding these loudspeakers has made a world of difference in terms of even coverage, with only a dB or so difference measured between the front rows and the back.”