Calvary Church in Clearwater, FL has implemented the d&b audiotechnik Soundscape immersive audio platform, along with a range of d&b loudspeakers, in its 2,000-seat worship sanctuary in a project headed by Washington Professional Systems (Wheaton, MD).
Soundscape is at the heart of a new sound reinforcement system the church has implemented to improve connection and engagement with its congregation. It replaces the previous system serving the traditional fan-shaped auditorium that was plagued by considerable quality variations from seat to seat, comb filtering during music performances, poor vocal intelligibility and more.
“After exploring a variety of different audio solutions, the church ultimately decided to implement the d&b Soundscape system to individually time-align input sources to each speaker within each of the system arrays,” explains Keith Neubert, executive director of engineered systems for Washington Professional Systems. “Using the DS100 signal engine combined with the d&b En-Scene algorithm and d&b loudspeakers, listeners seated in any location of the sanctuary receive an accurate audio picture with Soundscape, reducing phase cancellation and increasing clarity throughout the frequency range, giving excellent intelligibility of spoken word and band vocals from the stage.”
Soundscape is designed to increase spatial detail and headroom, optimized to allow each loudspeaker to automatically handle a different mix of signals, adjusting both level and delay to help enable them to work as a cohesive group. The audience receives accurate localization, and the engineer often requires less channel processing and plugins because the system doesn’t require as much mix processing.
“We liked how user-friendly the Soundscape system is and that it can be controlled from the platform or from front of house,” states lead pastor and administrator Thomas Price. “The cost-to-value made purchasing Soundscape and the A-Series loudspeakers from d&b the right call for us. The audio clarity was significantly and noticeably improved on the first Sunday the new system was commissioned. People who never commented about the poor quality of sound coming from the older system realized they had become accustomed to it. With Soundscape, they could hear how far from quality audio we had drifted.” Deployable in vertical or horizontal arrays with adjustable splay angles, the d&b A-Series augmented array extends flexibility beyond its usual limits and is ideal for mid-size venues.
The new system incorporates 20 Ali60 loudspeakers in five horizontal arrays of four cabinets each, two KSLi-SUB and two 21S SUB subwoofers, and seven 44S loudspeakers. They’re driven by four 40D and 10D amplifiers, a DS10 audio network bridge and a DS100 Signal engine with En-Scene.
“In addition to congregants, church staff notice an immediate difference with the immersive quality of the d&b Soundscape audio system and its ability to deliver a natural, realistic experience for the entire congregation,” Neubert concludes. “For speakers, vocalists, and performers, stage monitoring quality has also improved significantly, allowing them to hear themselves without intrusive feedback, echoes, or phase cancelling.”
