Held in the 3,500-seat Christ’s Chapel, the twice-weekly student chapel services are the heartbeat of spiritual life at Oral Roberts University (ORU) in Tulsa, OK. After years of struggling with mediocre audio, a recent upgrade to Meyer Sound MICA line arrays has brought a revival of musical impact—and spoken word clarity—to chapel services as well as other events in the chapel.
“I sang through the old system for almost a year, and I can tell you it was time for it to go,” says Wayne Lee, Jr., recently appointed as ORU’s director of student worship and media production. “This new Meyer system now gives us a sweet sound that extends to every seat in the building. You feel the energy of our contemporary worship, but there’s no place in the room where your ears hurt.”
Installation of a new Meyer Sound system was due, in large part, to the selection of Mark Rutland, ORU’s new president. When Rutland came to the Tulsa school from Southeastern University in Florida, he convinced Lee—who had held a similar post there—to come with him.
Both were familiar with Meyer Sound, as Southeastern had benefited from Meyer Sound systems installed earlier by Mabe Production and Installation of Lakeland, FL.
“They did consider another system option for Christ’s Chapel,” says Harvey Mabe of Mabe Production and Installation, “which would have come in a bit less. But in the end, the quality of the product tipped the balance. They knew this was a critical long-term investment.”
Installed by Mabe, the new system comprises main left and right clusters of nine-each MICA line array loudspeakers, augmented in the center by a single UPQ-2P loudspeaker. Completing the system are 700-HP subwoofers, eight MM-4XP miniature loudspeakers for front-fills, and eight UP-4XP loudspeakers as under-balcony fill.
Drive and processing is provided by a Galileo loudspeaker management system with Galileo 616 and 408 processors.
“With the Meyer speakers you clearly hear each and every instrument,” says Lee. “Some other loudspeakers will emphasize one frequency range or the other, but with the Meyers you just don’t have that. You have a balance from high to low, so every frequency range has full power and clarity.”
The new system perfectly complements the new team at ORU, observes Mabe. “Wayne is a very energetic worship leader who likes to feel the music and Dr. Rutland is an eloquent speaker, so the intelligibility needs to be there. Using the MICA-based system, we were able to give them everything they needed.”
