Founded in 1964, Oakmont Baptist Church in Greenville, North Carolina, has a rich history of serving the local community with services that are both traditional and contemporary.
Music plays a vital role in Oakmont Baptist Church’s worship services and, to ensure the best possible audio quality throughout the sanctuary, the church recently upgraded its sound reinforcement system from WorxAudio.
Greenville, NC-based design/build firm Hi-Tech Electronics was selected to handle the deployment of the church’s new sound system.
“The sanctuary at Oakmont Baptist Church measures 28,000 square feet and has fixed seating for 900 – 1,000 worshippers,” explained Hi-Tech company owner David Williams. “The space has an arched ceiling that measure 42 feet high at the center peak and includes a U-shaped balcony that encompasses the sides and rear of the room.
“Each Sunday, there are two services—one traditional in nature, followed by a contemporary service – both which rely heavily upon music. The traditional service uses a good sized choir while the contemporary service that follows uses a praise vocal team and band.
“With that said, it was essential for the new system to deliver a high level of speech intelligibility and big, natural sounding music reproduction.”
After a demonstration of the WorxAudio TrueLine X1i passive loudspeaker enclosures, church management gave Williams the green light. Williams then proceeded to install a center cluster loudspeaker system consisting of eight WorxAudio X1i-PAS passive enclosures.
The WorxAudio X1i is a 2-way, high efficiency, ultra compact loudspeaker system that incorporates a 1-inch exit high frequency compression driver and dual 8-inch cone transducers for the low frequencies.
The 8-element loudspeaker cluster was flown over the front edge of the stage / pulpit area using WorxAudio’s TrueAim®; Grid.
Mounted at the rear of the center loudspeaker cluster, Williams installed another X1i loudspeaker. This enclosure is not visible from the congregation’s perspective. Instead, this loudspeaker is angled down at the area where the choir is located and serves as the sole monitor system for the choir. Both the forward facing X1’s and the single unit for the choir are powered by WorxAudio’s PXD8080 power amplifier, which provides 800 x 800 watts.
Low frequency reproduction is handled by a pair of WorxAudio UltraWave 118S-P powered subwoofers. Each model is positioned at the far edges of the stage area, underneath covered communion tables so as not to be visible.
The WorxAudio UltraWave 118S-P consists of a single 18-inch transducer and is powered by the company’s PSD700 power amplifier.
In order to ensure proper coverage for those members of the congregation sitting under the balcony, Williams and his crew installed two WorxAudio TrueLine V5M passive enclosures—one each near the front left and right ends of the balcony area.
The WorxAudio V5M is a two-way, high efficiency, line array loudspeaker incorporating a 1-inch exit compression driver for the high frequencies and dual 5-inch neo magnet cone transducers for the low / midrange frequencies. These loudspeakers are powered by QSC Audio power amplifiers.
“The WorxAudio X1i has a very broad, 160-degree horizontal dispersion pattern,” Williams said, “and this was precisely what we needed for this particular space. Even those congregation members sitting on the front sides of the balcony area report the sound is perfectly clear.
“When you consider that from that section of the room, you’re looking at the side of the loudspeaker cluster as opposed to the front, it’s really impressive to have such clear, natural sounding coverage from that angle. The broad dispersion pattern makes all the difference on a project of this nature.”
The Oakmont Baptist Church installation project was completed in April and the equipment was placed into service immediately afterward. Since that time, Williams reports his client couldn’t be happier.
“Everyone at the church is really pleased with the new system’s performance,” he says. “I’ve received numerous compliments from church management. Of particular note, my wife and I attended a service after the new system went in and I had numerous people approach me and shake my hand because the sound was so clear and natural.
“Several people told me this was the first time they could understand the pastor and hear the lyrics clearly. Further, this project has already led to new business—and it really doesn’t get much better than that.”
