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EAW QX Series Plays Key Role In Recent System Projects At Prominent Churches

Pattern control contributes to success of left-center-right system designs

Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) QX Series loudspeakers have played a key role in revitalized sound systems at several larger-scale houses of worship.

At Westminster Chapel (Bellevue, WA), Morgan Sound employed a left/center/right (LCR) system with a single QX566i module on the left and right and a QX596i in the center.

This 3-box system provides coverage for 80 percent of the chapel, with the remainder handled by a combination of EAW MK8126i loudspeakers for balcony delay, JF60z loudspeakers for under balcony delays, UB52i loudspeakers for front fill and an SB528zP cardioid subwoofer array to support the main system.

“The improvement is night and day,” states Stephen Weeks of Morgan Sound. “The new system provides clarity to every seat in the house. Everyone in the room can hear the pastor speak normally, at a reasonable volume level, but there’s also plenty of power available for higher level music.”

The pattern control of the QX Series proved a valuable asset to the Westminster installation. “I wanted to leave the church a legacy that would last the next 20 years,” states Larry Dragland, former Westminster technical director, who helped oversee the install. “Our pastor is soft spoken, so we needed clarity and headroom. Mission accomplished. Now I can place the vocals over the top of this mix and still hear the instruments without losing the intelligibility.”

Morgan Sound owner Charlie Morgan called Westminster’s old loudspeaker clusters a “flying junkyard.” “The huge center cluster is now gone, and the left, right, center speaker hangs are less visible and much smaller,” Dragland notes. “The EAW team’s design and the install and tuning by Morgan Sound were a home run.”

Pattern control played a key role in another recent system project at Northwest Bible Church in Dallas, along with output, clarity and sound quality. Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams (WJHW) designed another LCR system headed by QX arrays that individually provide over 90 percent coverage to the main floor seating.

“The pattern offerings are very usable for designing cluster arrays that behave well together,” notes WJHW senior consultant Jim Burdette. “When trying to cover a majority of the audience with each of the left-center-right clusters, you need something that arrays well and has minimal phase, off-axis and destructive interference issues. The previous system sounded pretty poor from not having the pattern control or the coverage of the QX. This is a significant step up.”

Burdette also specified EAW KF394 and KF364 compact 3-way loudspeakers for shorter throw. “They have a very similar mid-high profile to the QX500s, so that worked very well,” he explains. Compact UB52i loudspeakers handle side and front fill.

EAW loudspeakers have also been recently implemented in several other houses of worship system projects, including J.W. “Jack” MacGorman Chapel on the campus of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Fort Worth, TX), Village Seven Presbyterian Church (Colorado Springs), The Voice of Evangelism (Cleveland, TN), Northside Christian Church (Spring, TX), and others.

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