The parishioners at First Baptist Church of Goodlettsville, Tennessee are the first churchgoers to enjoy the fidelity, power, and clean, even coverage of a pair of Danley Sound Labs Jericho JH-90 full-range, point-source loudspeakers utilized in their new sanctuary sound system.
Professional Audio Solutions, Inc. designed and installed the first-of-its-kind project under the leadership of Scott Oliver, director of contracting and engineering. Once Oliver included the costs of labor and amplifier channels, he discovered that purchasing and installing a stereo pair of Jericho JH-90s would be less expensive – and far better sounding – than a conventional multi-box solution.
Like many churches, Goodlettsville FBC transitioned over the years from having only traditional services to offering a mix of traditional and contemporary services. Its old PA system consisted of a pair of two-way cabinets perched up among the organ registers, a location of convenience – not of ideal coverage.
“For a contemporary service, Goodlettsville was terribly under-powered,” observed Oliver. “You might say they didn’t really have a sound reinforcement system at all.”
Most of the direct sound from the instruments on stage came from their amplifiers or, for drums, the acoustic sound itself. Professional Audio Solutions won the bid based on its demonstrable record supplying churches with dimensional, engaging sound reinforcement systems.
Oliver had heard the Danley Jericho JH-90 output on several occasions, including demonstrations in a gym, in a sanctuary, and outdoors.
“The interesting thing that I noticed each time was that its clarity and depth gave me the impression of stereo vitality even when only one Jericho was in use,” he said.
Rather than approach a church sanctuary project as a live sound application, Oliver takes a different tack. He considers the sanctuary to be a critical listening environment, analogous to a studio control room or an audiophile home theater. Consistent with that, he almost always designs stereo systems, and he minimizes response-destroying interactions by using the minimum number of loudspeaker elements.
“People always ask why we install stereo systems,” he said. “To me, it’s like, why wouldn’t we? You enjoy stereo in a studio control room. You enjoy stereo in your car. Your television is stereo. Of course your iPod is stereo. Why would church be the only place you don’t get stereo?
“People rightfully point out that you can’t deliver stereo to every seat in the house. True enough, but if we can deliver stereo to eighty percent of the congregation and the remaining twenty percent doesn’t suffer for it, then why not? Stereo music makes for a decidedly more engaging worship experience.”
Goodlettsville FBC’s sanctuary is approximately 65-feet wide by 90-feet deep and 22-feet tall with a balcony in the back. Oliver modeled the room in EASE and considered a range of scenarios consistent with the “critical listening environment” perspective. There were a lot of good solutions, but the simplest and least expensive to install would be a pair of Jericho JH-90s.
“The Jericho is a truly full-range box,” he said. “No subwoofer is needed except when the music format calls for sub 30Hz extension. We were able to install the entire system in just a day-and-a-half, and because the Jericho is a true point-source box, we didn’t have to fuss with precise angles. It was simple, and the client was able to sink money into the product, not the black hole of labor.”
Six Crest Pro 200-Series amplifiers power the system, with DSP provided by a Xilica XP 4080. In addition, Oliver used a pair of Danley’s smallest speakers the, SH-Minis, for choir monitors.
Measurements of the installed system confirm the EASE predictions. The coverage is even from the front to the back and from wall to wall.
“The Danley Jericho delivers the motivating requirement of the line array system – even SPLs front to back – but because it is a point source, it achieves that even coverage without the fidelity-destroying interference typical of line array components,” explained Oliver. “It has 100dB of clean dynamic range and absolutely phenomenal fidelity. It’s like sitting behind an SSL console and listening to a perfectly aligned pair of Westlake in-wall reference monitors. The pastor’s voice is right in front of you. You can almost see the image of an acoustic guitar floating five feet away, fret noise included.”
Oliver enjoyed a lot back slapping and hand shaking after the first service with the new Jericho Horns. Already, Oliver is working with another church near Atlanta that wants the same system.
“A pair of Danley Jericho Horns will ably cover sanctuaries of 1,000 seats all the way up to 10,000,” he said. “We’re looking forward to making this a new model for churches that really want great audio performance. A system with just two Danley Jericho JH-90s is easy to design, straightforward to install, and, given its phenomenal performance, surprisingly affordable.”
