After struggling with an outdated sound system that was insufficient for the size of the space, church management at Bethany Grace Fellowship elected to upgrade with loudspeakers from PreSonus Audio Electronics in Baton Rouge, LA.
Horizon AVL of Blackwood, NJ, a full service audiovisual integration firm that services the worship, broadcast, and commercial markets, was contracted to design and deploy the new sound system at Bethany Grace Fellowship. After consulting with church management to ascertain their goals and expectations, Joshua Kell, chief executive officer of Horizon AVL, penned a system consisting of six PreSonus CDL12 constant directivity loudspeakers augmented by two CDL18s active subwoofers. He discusses the project and his reasons for deploying the PreSonus CDL Series:
“The sanctuary at Bethany Grace Fellowship is 100 feet wide and 58 feet deep from the front of the stage to the rear of room while ceiling height is 26 feet,” Kell explains. “The stage faces into the length of the room and seating is fixed—designed to accommodate 500 people. Services include teachings from the Bible—focused on Jesus, life, and how to live life to the fullest. As part of this, there are vocal performances with musical accompaniment by a band as well as a variety of announcements, a greeting, an offering, and a variety of video clips and related media.”
It was crucial that the new sound reinforcement system offer a high degree of speech intelligibility in addition to excellent music reproduction capabilities,” Kell adds, “and this is precisely what led us to select the new PreSonus CDL Series loudspeakers. The CDL loudspeakers are extremely versatile—making them a great choice for a wide range of installed sound applications. For this space, we painted the enclosures white so that they would blend seamlessly into the aesthetics of the room.”
The loudspeaker design at Bethany Grace Fellowship was penned by Kevin Cermak, Horizon AVL’s senior design engineer and Kip Kipphorn, the company’s account executive. The mono setup / end fired configuration consists of six CDL12 Constant Directivity Loudspeakers—flown three each for the left and right sides over the front edge of the stage area, with each array pointing out from center 20 degrees. For low frequency support, the CDL12 arrays are augmented by two CDL18s active subwoofers. For each CDL12 array, a CDL18s is flown in an end fire position behind the loudspeaker cluster. The system is interconnected via a LAN.
When queried about those attributes that made the PreSonus CDL Series loudspeakers well suited for this installation project, Kell offers the following thoughts, “First and foremost, the CDL Series sound terrific. The CDL12 delivers a highly focused pattern with consistent SPL throughout the frequency response range, both on- and off-axis. With its 120˚ horizontal dispersion pattern, coverage is consistent from one side of the room to the other—and this was a crucial consideration in a space that is considerably wider than it is deep. Equally important, the CDL12’s low 420 Hz crossover frequency minimizes comb filtering and doesn’t compete with conventional vocal range. And the fact that you are able to individually control the shade of each box was a tremendous benefit.”
With many installation projects, questions arise, so responsive support services are vitally important. In this regard, Kell rates PreSonus highly. “As usual,” he says, “PreSonus’ customer and technical support were spot on. All questions were answered quickly and thoroughly. Kudos also go out to Lienau Associates’ Chris Hutnick for providing us additional assistance along the way.”
The Bethany Grace Fellowship installation took place in January 2019 and the equipment was placed into service immediately. According to Sheldon Reiff, Bethany Grace Fellowship’s Technical Director, “I’m impressed with the system. The sound is a major upgrade that I think will really be an asset to our worship and Sunday service ministries. Thanks to everyone at Horizon who were involved. I appreciate the effort to get everything done inside of a week and I know there were some long hours put in by the Horizon AVL crew.”
Kell adds a few thoughts of his own, “The customer originally wanted to complete this job before Christmas 2018, but was willing to get in line and wait for the new CDL Series to be delivered and painted. While there are many choices in an ever-expanding loudspeaker marketplace, the PreSonus CDL stands out—and adds another satisfied customer in the process.”
