Article

Friday, May 28, 2010

Profile: Meeting Unusual System Coverage Challenges At Covenant Family Church

An "essential truth" of audio is addressed with an innovative system design by AGI for a large Texas house of worship

In evaluating the success or failure of every house of worship sound reinforcement system, two requirements stand out: coverage and intelligibility.

Does the system provide completely smooth and consistent coverage throughout the entire space? And, can every syllable of every word (and every note of every song) be heard and understood - and even further - within their intended context?

This is the heart of the matter. If a system can’t be heard due to substandard coverage to certain areas, or can’t be understood due to lack of intelligibility, then all other aspects go for naught.

This essential truth of audio most certainly played the starring role in a recent sound system project at Covenant Family Church in College Station, Texas, as well as a sound system for its new sister worship facility located in nearby Bryan, Texas.

AGI Inc., a full-service systems design and integration firm based in Eugene, Oregon, provided complete system and acoustical design services for both venues, utilizing its deep well of collective experience while working closely with church staff in meeting all of their specific goals.

AGI is coming up on the celebration of its seventh anniversary, but the heritage and expertise of the organization goes back a lot further than that.

It’s actually an amalgamation of several veteran Northwestern U.S. firms of various production specialties that decided to unite into a single seamless entity brought together by Kyle Anderson and Steve Diamond. As a result, AGI provides a true turn-key, full-service A/V system design and integration operation to its growing customer base.

“We realized that while we all performed our respective specialties very well, there was a lot of sense in coming together to provide customers with a truly seamless resource to meet all of their system needs,” explains Anderson, adding that the company now has more than 15 full-time staff members and is experiencing very strong growth in providing lighting, video, acoustics, and information technology (IT) design and installation in addition to sound systems for every application.

AGI specializes in working with the church market, which rates as the company’s largest customer base. However, AGI also serves a wide range of other markets, such as business offices, classrooms, restaurants and performing arts centers, with a system project for the 2,500-seat Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene serving as a recent example of the latter.

Anderson notes that AGI receives most of its business referrals via word of mouth and networking, with the Covenant Family Church project proved no exception. While sponsoring and staffing a company booth at a regional “Team Church” conference in Tacoma a couple of years ago, they found themselves engaged in a general system discussion with staff members from the church.

Later, church staff contacted AGI about going forward with their systems projects for the worship center in College Station and a new second worship center project being constructed in a former furniture store in Bryan.

Additionally, Covenant Family was looking for assistance with acoustics, lighting, and video as well as sound for the two facilities.

“We flew to Texas for further discussions and to get a first-hand view of the facilities, and recognized some things that were going to be challenging,” states Diamond. “We ended up in a partnership with them to upgrade the technical systems and acoustical situation in College Station as well as supply the Bryan room with new systems and help with issues like room shaping from the outset.”

One of the primary members of the church staff interfacing with AGI on the project was Jarrod Green, who has the hands-on role with the technical side of the ministry. Green notes that the systems company proved exceptional in handling every aspect of the project.

“AGI anticipated every need and covered every base, bringing so much insight to the table. From our perspective, it was a painless process,” Green says.

The College Station worship facility had started out years ago as a much smaller room, with subsequent expansion efforts helping to create and exacerbate some rather dire acoustical problems.

The expanded room now measures about 60 feet wide and 130 feet deep, with a large platform at one “end” of the rectangle.

The majority of the 800 seats are located on the main floor, which is followed by grandstand seating and then a tiered balcony level. The peaked roof retains a constant height from front to back.

Specifically, both the growth and remodeling of the 800-seat room had created three disjointed areas from a sound reinforcement perspective - main floor, grandstand, and balcony - each with its own unique problems.

AGI studied the problem, and then utilizing detailed modeling and analysis in design, they followed up with implementation of proper acoustic treatments that went a long way in forming a singular sonic space.

For example, the tiered balcony extends up to just eight feet or so below the ceiling. Ceiling panels had been installed above this region to help insulate against the hot Texas sun, but these particular panels were very absorptive, to the point of hampering congregational worship in this area.

AGI replaced the ceiling panels with highly diffusive panels, keeping worship alive, and also worked with the audio system to create a more natural space that blended smoothly with the rest of the sonic environment.

Covenant Family Church worship services are very contemporary, bordering on a rock ‘n’ roll style that’s quite loud and dynamic. Worship leaders “love the kick” - in other words, the impact of low-frequency energy to enhance the emotion of the worship.

This aspect of the former system had proven problematic, with low-frequency energy transference resonating with the building’s beam structure to the point where it was disturbing residences more than 80 feet away from the church.

AGI recommended vaults made of concrete be built under the platform, where the subwoofers reside, in order to cut the resonance, and this approach has proven to solve the problem exceptionally well.

The previous sound system had reached the end of its usefulness in terms of meeting the church’s needs for a dynamic presentation combined with solid, seamless coverage throughout the listening area. Utilizing their extensive experience, combined with an assist from Soundvision and other modeling programs, AGI first addressed the issue of loudspeaker location, configuration, and selection.

“There wasn’t a high level of rocket science in terms of what we needed to do here with respect to the loudspeakers,” Anderson notes. “We could see fairly quickly what would result in optimum coverage, and then it was just a matter of addressing the details with as much precision as possible.”

AGI conceived what Anderson calls a “pseudo” left-center-right (LCR) loudspeaker arrangement above the platform, supplemented with small loudspeakers on delay to extend coverage to the upper portion of the balcony region.

“It’s not a true LCR design, because the center loudspeaker here is not intended to cover the entire room by itself,” he explains. “Rather, this arrangement provides even overall coverage and a way to smoothly attain the sound pressure levels desired by the church.

“That said,” he continues, “the sound operators can mix any way they like. So if they want to put more vocal emphasis in the center, which is one of the strengths of an LCR approach, they certainly can do so. What our approach provides is complete coverage with enhanced flexibility.”

The project also proved an ideal application for AGI to implement Tannoy VQ Series loudspeakers, which they had first noticed at a trade show and then tested at their headquarters, with impressive results.

“We like the overall design of these loudspeakers, they’re a large-format system with exceptional smoothness at the top end, and with high-frequency output that lasts for days,” Anderson says. “They’re also very efficient, with excellent coherence and balance, and the coverage pattern is very even. When you look at our specific coverage and dynamic goals for this project, the VQ Series is an outstanding fit.”

To attain the desired coverage on this project, AIG specified three VQ100 loudspeakers, one each for left, center and right. The VQ100 offers a precision 100-degree horizontal beamwidth, combined with a three-way full-range design that utilizes dual 12-inch woofers for low-frequency reproduction combined with Tannoy’s lauded Dual Concentric transducer approach for mid and high frequencies.

The VQ100 loudspeakers were mounted in a straight line above the platform, attached to a steel beam grid with Tannoy’s VQ Series flying hardware. From this position, they’re able to provide full side-to-side coverage as well as extended reach to the top portion of the grandstand seats.

The extreme side areas of the front platform, occupied by the band and other participants in services, receive additional coverage from Tannoy V12HP premium quality installation loudspeakers that also feature constant directivity Dual Concentric drive units. These are subtly placed, mounted on walls utilizing Tannoy hardware.

Meanwhile, additional mid/high-frequency energy to the very front region of the platform is supplied by single Tannoy VQ DF loudspeakers mounted to the bottom of the left and right main VQ100 loudspeakers.

The VQ DF is specifically designed to seamlessly integrate with the VQ full range models, matching their exact footprint, and with a down-firing configuration that allows them to be tight packed without the need for complex flyware.

“The Tannoy loudspeakers are just outstanding - crystal clear and so present,” states Green. “The voices pop out beautifully, the instruments sound warm and clean. It’s amazing.”

A bit more mid/high clarity to the back rows of the grandstands comes from two more V12HP loudspeakers on time delay respective to the mains, mounted tightly up near the ceiling.

Finally, two more loudspeakers, this time compact Tannoy V8 units also time delayed, extend mid/high reach to the top of the balcony.

“These delay loudspeakers blend exceptionally well with the mains,” Anderson notes. “The conical pattern doesn’t lend itself to a point-source-type effect that can be distracting to the listeners. Rather, what you get is very smooth, very subtle, and solidly present. When we first fired up the loudspeakers for the client after installation, the side-to-side and front-to-back coverage of this entire loudspeaker literally took their breath away.”

Four new subwoofers - 18-inch-loaded EAW SB1000e - are positioned in the new concrete vaults under the platform. These are positioned equidistantly to further enhance the distribution of the low-end.

BSS Audio London BLU digital signal processing ties the entire loudspeaker and subwoofer set together, with a BLU-120 unit and a BLU-160 unit combined to supply all delay and other optimization settings.

These reside with the system’s QSC Audio PLX Series power amplifiers in a room adjacent to the rear of the platform. Video system equipment also specified by AGI is also located here.

“We decided not to provide additional monitoring and control of these devices at this time, even though its available,” Diamond adds. “One of the worst things we can do as systems integrators is to add unnecessary levels of complication that actually get in the way of a church sound team’s goals.

“We also find that newer staff members in particular can get caught up in watching computer screens too much rather than paying attention to what’s sonically happening with the system.

“All of that said,” he continues, “there is certainly the capability to add the additional monitoring and control capability at a future date if they like.”

A Yamaha M7CL 48-channel digital console anchors the system control position, which is located at the rear/center of the main floor.

There are many upsides to this digital board, according to Diamond, including straightforward operation, plentiful channel count, and an onboard quality effects package that eliminates the need for outboard effects gear. In fact, the M7CL is able to accommodate both main and monitor mixing requirements for this client.

“A big plus is that it’s a digital solution, so with multiple services every Sunday, the sound team has the ability to store settings and then instantly recall them, providing a great starting point for sound at each service, rather than having to start all over again each time,” he adds.

The same console model was also specified and installed for the new system at the Bryant facility, making it much easier for the sound team to transition between the two systems.

Another staple at both locations are Sennheiser wireless systems, with EW-365 handheld microphones provided for singers, two SKM5200 transmitters for others speaking, and 3000 Series bodypack transmitters with Countryman E6 headset microphones for pastors.

“We use these systems on a lot of our projects. They’re quite reliable,” Anderson says. “We also like the metal bodypacks, because they don’t break when folks accidentally sit on them.” AGI outfitted both facilities with 3000 Series wireless receivers, so pastors can leave their transmitters attached and be immediately ready to go when transferring on Sunday morning from one church to the other.

Stage sound levels are always a concern, because too much sound coming from the stage can have very detrimental effects on sound going to the congregation.

Anderson notes that the church made a very wise choice in choosing Aviom A-16II personal mixers with in-ear monitors for all musicians, with the added bonus of allowing musicians to tailor their own mixes. Instruments are also on Radial DI (direct input) boxes, further cutting stage noise.

And, this is furthered with the church’s decision to utilize electronic drums.

“We’re delighted to work with a client that is so smart as to understand just how bad too much sound from the stage can be, and further, that they were willing to invest wisely to eliminate the problem,” Anderson says.

“The drummers also deserve a lot of credit for going electronic, because so many won’t do it. It shows real concern and putting of your self aside to adapt to a non-typical instrument to serve your congregation.

“We also love acoustic drums, but in some circumstances the congregation is better served with an electronic kit.”

Vocalists and worship leaders are served by monitor wedges, with Tannoy V12 and V8 loudspeakers ably fulfilling this application, running four open mixes. The V8 loudspeakers are utilized as a stereo pair for a mix with additional depth.

The interconnect capability on the platform was enhanced for more options and flexibility. While the existing copper lines were re-deployed for audio input and microphone snakes, new copper lines were run to all loudspeakers.

Following system installation, AGI performed a thorough tuning and optimization process, with the Rational Acoustics Smaart platform utilized to help verify certain criteria. Going the extra mile, they actually performed the full process twice - once with the room empty and the other with a full house.

“It’s our view that optimization must be done when a room is both empty and full,” Diamond states. “A room full of people can change everything, so we must account for the dramatic differences.”

The overall result is a new sound reinforcement system that has exceeded the client’s expectations for Sunday services, and one that is also capable of supporting full-fledged concerts.

“We were highly pleased with the dynamics and coverage, but the client is even more pleased,” Anderson adds. “They’ve happily settled in, making it work exactly to their needs. The church is in a very good place with this system.”

The perspective of the church team echoes this sentiment, according to Green. “The audience is responding so positively - the difference is unmistakable,” he concludes. “It’s so much more satisfying now, where everyone can pick out the vocals, or a particular instrument, or whatever they like, while also hear it all blend together so beautifully.

“The new system is helping us present praise, worship, and music better than at any time in our history as a church.”

Take the PSW Photo Gallery Tour of this project.

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