Covenant Church of Carrollton, TX has become the first house of worship in the U.S. to invest in new QSC Audio KLA Series fixed arcuate active line arrays, which will be utilized across its five area campuses at indoor and outdoor special events.
Specifically, the new system includes six KLA12 two-way, 12-inch full-range loudspeakers and four KLA181 18-inch subwoofers.
The 20,000-member church also added six K12 two-way, 12-inch active loudspeakers for use as out fill or stage monitors with the KLA Series system, depending on the type and size of the event.
All the five campuses share the new system, which can be reserved by each location for special events such as dances, seasonal festivals and music performances.
Covenant Church bought the KLA Series, introduced by QSC earlier this year, based upon its audio department’s exemplary experience with QSC products.
“We literally bought the KLAs without auditioning them,” notes Slade Goplin, chief technical engineer/project coordinator for the Covenant Church audio department. “We have some of QSC’s HPR Series and quite a few of the K12s, and we’ve always been extremely happy with the products. So we already believed that the KLAs would be great.”
Covenant’s audio team got to use – and hear – the new KLA Series arrays for the first time at the church’s annual Block Party outdoor event in late July. “They set up a big stage and we hung three KLA12 boxes per side off of the truss and had the four KLA181 subs on the ground,” says Goplin. “When we plugged them in, we were really impressed at how powerful they were, and how great they sounded. “
Goplin and the audio team also took advantage of the benefits of the KLA’s SOLO (Single Operator Logistics) rigging system that allows the system to be quickly and easily deployed, and without the need for special tools or hardware.
“I put the arrays together by myself,” adds Goplin. “I hung one box by some straps to the truss, and then I just grabbed a second box, held it up with one hand, and put the two latches down. That was it.”
The KLA Series features efficient 1000 W Class-D amplifier modules, allowing up to five K Family products to be used on a single 15A/120V circuit. At the Block Party, the Covenant audio team took the chance to test this efficiency first-hand. “We ran all the speakers off of four 20 amp circuits, “ Goplin says,” I thought we’d need more but we just plugged it in and see if we blew any breakers – but we didn’t!”
The Covenant team also was impressed with the KLA’s ability to withstand a harsh outdoor environment. “We started setting up at 10 am and were all set up by noon, with all the speakers sitting out in the sun, on a 110-degree day,” Goplin says. “I said to myself—since the KLAs can take this, then we’re good to go.”
