A new location for Stonegate Fellowship Church in Odessa, TX is outfitted with L-Acoustics ARCS Focus loudspeaker systems to head its main system, specified by Skylark AV of Oklahoma City.
With its main facilities in nearby Midland, TX, Stonegate is using the satellite-church route for expansion, initially choosing a temporary approach rather than investing a new building.
“This is Stonegate Fellowship Church’s first attempt at a new location and there was a lot for them to think about,” observes Steele Beaty, operations manager at Skylark AV, which has also worked with the church at its main campus for audio, video and lighting needs. “Instead of investing right away in a new building, they’re setting up church every Sunday in the auditorium of a local middle school, but that location could always change.
“They also know that the quality of the sound has to be the best wherever they are, so they needed a system that has excellent audio quality, high reliability and is easily portable,” he continues. “The L-Acoustics ARCS Focus is the only one that meets every criteria.”
Skylark AV assembled a system consisting of two stacks of two ARCS Focus modules atop two SB18 subs with a dedicated LA4X amplified controller powering each stack. Beaty: “What’s great about this system is that it’s compact and easily set up and broken down, as it has to be every Sunday morning, and if they were to have to change locations, it can be configured as either ground-stacked, as it is now, or flown.”
That kind of flexibility is important for start-ups, because it means they can take their investment with them as their location needs change and evolve. Beaty also cites L-Acoustics’ Soundvision simulation software, the technical and after-sales support, and ease of use—the church’s staff was able to take over operation of the system after just two hours of training—as reasons he recommended the ARCS Focus system for the church at this critical junction in its history.
“Our current worship venue in Odessa is very challenging because it has a high reverb time; it was originally designed to amplify acoustic instruments and voices, so it wasn’t designed to have a PA in it,” explains Tyler Dodds, Stonegate Fellowship worship pastor. “To maximize clarity in both our speech and music reinforcement we knew that we needed something that would be very clear in the midrange and high end, plus be focused to put the sound exactly where we needed it. With so many hard surfaces in the space, we wanted to keep as much sound as possible off of the back and side walls, and the ARCS Focus boxes allowed us to do exactly that.
“The subs are just as impressive,” Dodds continues. “The low end is extremely punchy and clean—not at all muddy—and the amount of power that they put out for their size is just ridiculous! Combined with the ARCS Focus, the whole system is highly phase coherent and very linear. From the lowest lows all the way up to the top end we are really getting out of it something that we love.”
Beaty is also pleased with how the L-Acoustics system turned out. “The sound quality of the ARCS Focus is legendary,” he concludes. “It means that no matter where this takes them, the church will always have perfect sound even in an imperfect environment, and an investment that will keep paying them dividends for years to come.”
