The Hollywood Baptist Church located in Hollywood, Georgia, recently installed a new sound reinforcement system featuring Tannoy VLS 15 loudspeakers.
Doug Ward Integration, located in nearby Demorest, was charged with designing and installing a system for the sanctuary.
The long rectangular sanctuary features stained glass, wooden pew seating for 400 and a low ceiling. The church’s existing system was an out-of-date, center mounted cluster that needed replacement..
“The church is in the process of transitioning from traditional to more contemporary services,” Doug Ward, owner of Doug Ward Integration explains. “Because the sanctuary has a 10 foot, flat ceiling, we were challenged to come up with something attractive that would also keep sightlines to new video screens – installed as part of the renovation—clear.”
In addition to aesthetics, the church leaders were looking for a system that would improve vocal intelligibility while contributing to the musicality of the services.
“We needed something creative to work with the space,” continues Ward. “It had to be attractive and cover the seating area. The VLS column loudspeakers were perfect – the long narrow box is extremely subtle and the dispersion was wide enough that a pair of them could easily handle the room.”
Ward demonstrated the system to the church leadership with one VLS 15 loudspeaker. This allowed listeners to experience the coverage area when walking through the sanctuary. It left no doubt that a pair of VLS 15s would be more than sufficient for the space.
“We sold them on the musicality, looks, intelligibility and coverage,” adds Ward. “We added the VSX 12.2BP subwoofer to provide additional low end for the music portion of the services.”
The VLS 15 is loaded with seven 3.5-inch LF transducers mounted in vertical array with eight densely spaced 1-inch HF transducers mounted co-axially over a section of the LF. The array loudspeakers incorporate FAST (Focussed Asymmetrical Shaping Technology) which delivers improved intelligibility in a typical listening plane and provides greater flexibility in placement.
The loudspeakers are wall-mounted to the left and right of the pulpit with the provided articulating bracket.
Off site, rack mounted Lab.gruppen E Series amplifiers power the system, providing an Energy Star qualified solution which also saves on both installation time and through-life cost for the church. An E 8.2 drives the mains while one channel of an E 12.2 amplifier is dedicated to the subwoofer and the other channel drives the choir monitors.
“Lab.gruppen amplifiers are terrific,” he continues. “They sound great and are absolute work horses – I use them every chance I get.”
A BiAmp Nexia for control and monitoring along with a Roland M200i-ESP digital console set-up to run remote via an iPad completes the new system.
“The idea was to make the it as simple as possible for church volunteers,” Ward says. “We set the console up with all of the presets they could need – so all they have to do push a button and slide volume faders. The Nexia was similar – set it up and let it go. There is nothing complicated about the sound system for them to deal with.”
“Ultimately we built a system that could grow with the church as they move towards even more contemporary services,” Ward explains. “The VLS loudspeakers provide them with plenty of flexibility aesthetically and the high quality sound that they wanted. The entire system has them prepared to handle whatever the future may bring.”
