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Gulf Breeze Church Rocks Its Contemporary Service With QSC Line Array

Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church, situated near Pensacola, Florida has installed a QSC Audio WL2082-i installation line array with PLX Series amplification and an SC28 DSP processor in the main sanctuary at its Fairpoint campus. The new system is part of a renovation of the church’s aging audio-visual systems.

Michael Evans, vice president of Satsuma, Alabama-based ALPHA Sound & Lighting, the design-build company that installed the system, says, “In the contemporary service they use electronic drums, electronic keyboards, guitars, bass guitar and praise singers. Bo Parker, the church’s director of worship, felt the current sound in the house lacked definition.”

Walthall & Associates, a design-consulting firm located in Pensacola, FL that specializes in acoustics, audio, video and digital technologies, was called in by Evans to redesign the system. Founder Chuck Walthall was already familiar with the church, having installed its original sound system over 15 years ago when he was managing a contracting company.

As part of the redesign, Walthall, recommended the removal of the old main system, which over time had undergone modifications that adversely affected its performance.

“A single point source was definitely the choice for this room, which is rectangular-shaped with a balcony,” says Walthall. “Mike and I were impressed with the performance of the QSC ILA system on another project and felt that this design called for it as well. We went with nine WL2082-i elements, four on top for the balcony and five below for the main sanctuary. Now the coverage is great, with maybe 2 dB of variation.”

“We’re very proud of the way it looks; Kenny & Kris from ALPHA did a great job flying the cluster, using an FB2082-i frame and flying hardware.” says Evans. He also notes, “We had to stay within a budget. The church had quite a few of the older QSC MX Series amplifiers which were still working, so we left them in place for the monitors. But we replaced the main speaker amps with three PLX2502s and two PLX3102s, and installed an SC28 processor. They were also using some boxes for front fills, which we left in place.”

“We performed a dual FFT tuning, and the ILA system responded with accuracy,” adds Walthall. “The system is compact, it sounds great, the coverage is great and coupled with the controller it does what QSC says it’ll do. I like it when things just work.”

ALPHA Sound & Lighting
Walthall & Associates
QSC Audio

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