NLFX Professional recently installed an extensive new sound system headed by Electro-Voice components at Creekside Christian Fellowship, a church located southeast of Houston, Texas.
With the help of EV’s IRIS-Net remote-control and supervision software, NLFX continues to monitor the performance of Creekside’s new system from its offices nearly 1,500 miles away in Bemidji, Minn. NLFX’s Travis Scharn described the project:
“Creekside is really in the first of three stages of completion. At this point the main, 450-seat worship space acts as a large, multi-purpose room, and will remain in use while they complete an adjacent, much larger permanent sanctuary. Anything and everything takes place in the current space, in addition to housing their Sunday services.
“It doubles as their youth facility, a venue for trade shows and concerts, and even as a site for volleyball practices. We were referred to Creekside by a Houston-area building contractor, and began the project with a few conference calls to determine exactly what kind of sound system they needed to address such a multi-purpose space.”
NLFX arrived at a system design including Electro-Voice FRi+ main loudspeakers in two clusters of three boxes – two full-range boxes flanking two FRi+181S low-range boxes.
“Basically a 60-degree planar array with a biamp operation on the tops and mono subs,” says Scharn, “powered by TG5 amplifiers with onboard DSP/control modules. Creekside’s prior system consisted of powered speakers on sticks, so the prospect of a networked, professional-quality EV audio system was enthusiastically received by the church’s staff, some of whom had heard FRi+ boxes at another local church.
“Plus the whole package came at a surprisingly competitive price, in relation to what it can do, and, as we consistently hear with all the EV gear we use, it sounded great right out of the box – we barely needed to make any adjustments.”
NLFX kept standards high with an input-to-output spec from across the Bosch Communications Systems Division family of brands, including a Midas Venice console at FOH, five EV SxA250 powered stage monitors, EV RE-2 systems for all wireless mic applications, with RE410 handhelds and a beige RE97Tx headworn mic for the pastor, an array of hardwired EV mics including RE410s for vocals, Cardinals, and Ravens for instruments, along with Klark Teknik DI boxes.
“The use of TG amps loaded with RCM-26 modules and a UCC1 Can-bus converter allows NLFX engineers to control the entire sound system via IRIS-Net from our headquarters in Minnesota,” Scharn adds. “Creekside’s AV team can fine-tune on-site in IRIS-Net as well, having access to certain layers to ensure that the system runs smoothly. We gave them the ability to run monthly tests to make sure everything is running properly, which is really important to the church, as they’ve never experienced this type of technology before.
“We can do some pretty cool stuff with IRIS-Net, and the TG amps are easy to program, lightweight, super-efficient, and sound excellent – and all in addition to their remote-control facility. The church loves them. I was making some changes to the system from my office the other day, and the fact that we can do that from half way across the country is awesome. I was at Creekside for their first Sunday service with the system, and it couldn’t have sounded better.”
