The worship sanctuary on the Dover, OH campus of NewPointe Community Church recently received a audio upgrade headed by the d&b Soundscape platform working with supporting components that include 24S-D point source loudspeakers to deliver spatial sound to a weekly congregation of 2,000.
The Dover campus broadcasts its services to five other campuses. On average, all six campuses together attract a congregation of 4,000 worshippers over two weekly services, a number that has seen steady growth since the end of the pandemic.
When NewPointe Church production experience director Ben Abbott approached integrator MediaNet AV about upgrading the sanctuary’s existing large format line array system, head of installation Alex Earnhardt identified some design improvements. Coupled with the age of the current system, this paved the way for a modern system design approach, with Earnhardt proposing Soundscape.
In a live demo in Pittsburgh, Abbott recognized that the approach could provide the worship experience they desired. Earnhardt states that implementing the Soundscape system along with 24S and 44S loudspeakers presented no significant challenges due to the ease of rigging, predictability, and accuracy of the system components.
The 24S two-way loudspeakers with two 12-inch woofers in a dipole arrangement for added directivity control serve as mains, while the 44S compact enclosures with flexible mounting, including a recessed flush-mount option, deliver front fill. A 180-degree configuration that utilizes lateral loudspeakers to extend the system into the congregation was implemented for NewPointe Community Church.
“After hearing it at a demo in Pittsburgh, I knew instantly that it was the future of live sound,” Abbott says. “The Soundscape system, with its immersive experience, stands out in the church world, where most PA systems resemble rock shows, bombarding you with sound from the front with little to no spatial awareness. We see the Soundscape system as the future of the worship experience.
“When we embarked on this project, our primary objective was to enhance the worship experience. While it’s not our official mission statement, our guiding motto is to ‘create irresistible experiences.’ To achieve this, we believe in leveraging technology that truly engages our congregation. Soundscape, with its immersive technology, combined with engaging video content and lighting, plays a pivotal role in realizing that vision.”
Specifically, the new system at the church includes sevel 24S-D point sources for mains, 12 44S for front fills, eight Bi6 in a flown SUB array, five 10S-D for delays, four 8S for lateral enhancement, a DS100 signal engine with En-Scene processing, two DS10 Dante network bridges, five 40D amplifiers and three 5D amplifiers.
