Word of Life Church in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, has developed a worship service that brings together families and friends from across generations.
When the building’s original sound system failed to keep up with the church’s growth, Brendon and Aaron Gerber – brothers, church members, and principals of A/V company Absolute Music – installed a new L-Acoustics dV-DOSC line array system with dV-SUB and SB28 low-end to give the church’s music a voice
With dark décor, theatrical lighting, and stage enough for a full band, Word of Life’s auditorium is reminiscent of a theater or music club.
It seats approximately 1,300 people within a space that is wider than it is deep. The building was constructed when the congregation was considerably smaller, but poised on future growth, the church had the foresight to build the back wall as a temporary structure.
The back wall came down several years ago, adding fifty-percent more space. But the sound system, which had always been somewhat lacking, had not been designed to accommodate the new space. As a result, the added seating received limited audio coverage.
The brothers have been operating Absolute Music for over a decade, providing sales, rentals, and installations of premium pro audio equipment from Red Deer, Alberta, midway between the metropolises of Edmonton and Calgary. They demoed 3 systems and the only one that met their sonic expectations was the dV-DOSC system.
“Given where the speakers would have to be located, we had a very short distance to the front row of seating and an exceptionally wide distance to cover. There are few speakers out there with that kind of horizontal directivity coverage. In conclusion, we decided the L-Acoustic system was absolutely the best solution for the room.”
The actual sound design for the church was prepared by Vaino Gennaro, business director, live sound products, Sennheiser, Canada.
“The nature of the room was quite challenging,” said Gennaro, “the short throw and very large left to right coverage required the use of dV-DOSC technology featuring 120-degrees horizontal directivity. All the parameters were validated through the L-Acoustics SoundVision software, resulting in a perfect installation front to back and left to right.”
The installed system consists of five mid-high modular dV-DOSC units in left and right stereo clusters. The top cabinets hit the back rows and the bottoms cover the seating a few rows from the front.
The system’s low-end is generated by two L-Acoustics dV-SUBs per side and two L-Acoustics SB28s per side. Four L-Acoustics four-channel LA8 integrated amp/DSPs provide the system with ample power and nimble processing.
An XTA DP448 speaker management system sits between the existing console and the LA8s to provide matrix control.
One L-Acoustics 12XT on each side of the stage provides side fill, while four L-Acoustics 8XTs placed discreetly on the stage steps provide front fill. “The 8XTs are small, but excellent sounding speakers,” said Brendon.
“Their purpose is to provide coverage to the first few rows. The big advantage of including them in the design is that when the main audio system is not being used, they can be easily moved and used elsewhere in the building or on remote engagements.”
A single L-Acoustics four-channel LA8 integrated amp/DSP provides power and processing for the fill speakers.
Said Lead Pastor and music director Jachin Mullen, “The church family at Word of Life is overjoyed to have a new voice for their musical passion; our auditorium simply comes to life with sound!”
