A recent sound reinforcement upgrade at the 2,000-capacity sanctuary at Light Presbyterian Church in Mississauga, Ontario marks the North American house of worship debut for TW AUDiO VERA20i line array loudspeakers.
The audio environment in the wide, fan-shaped chapel is challenning — the stage is not the most acoustically friendly environment, suffering from plenty of reflections, and a second-floor glass balcony railing adds further acoustic energy back into the sanctuary. This combination meant that the congregation was finding it hard to hear and fully understand services.
To solve these challenges, the church turned Abe Son of locally-based AV integration firm Benabe ProSound. Having worked with the church on various AV upgrades for a number of years, Son was familiar with the challenges the venue presented.
“We needed to design an left-right rather than a left-center-right line array system for the wide, fan-shaped chapel,” Son explains. “The ‘true’ 120-degree VERA20i line array speakers were perfect for delivering even sound coverage across the whole chapel.”
The design incorporates left-right hangs of five VERA20i-120° cabinets joined by three VERA20i-80° enclosures. Four VERA S32i subwoofers flown as a central cluster provide low frequency reinforcement, while a combination of C5, T20i, C5i, C12 and C15 cabinets serve as fills in various areas. Power and processing is courtesy of Powersoft amplifiers and DSP.
“The superb cardioid mode of VERA S32i gave a perfect solution for the reflection issue on the stage,” Son states. “It reduced significant amount of low frequency reflections and created tight and solid low frequency making the sound natural and clear.”
To solve the reflection issue caused by the balcony, Son sought to keep sonic energy off the glass surface. This saw the addition of “dummy cabinets” into the arrays, done in close collaboration with TW AUDiO headquarters in Germany.
“The TW AUDiO support and R&D team were so open minded by accepting and manufacturing VERA20i dummy cabinets to act as a ‘balcony spacer’,” says Son. “In order to solve the reflection problems created by the second-floor glass balcony railing, we asked if TW AUDiO could make VERA 20i dummy cabinets. The team at TW AUDiO went the extra mile and did not just make them but calculated its physical weight and did all the simulations to adjust array angles affected by the lighter dummy cabinets.”
The end result has had the desired positive impact, he adds: “The church was so happy with the result that solved all the challenges. One of the church sound engineers said he had never heard such a crystal crispy yet powerful sound.
“This was the very first installation of the VERA20 series in the North American church market,” Son concludes. “So this project will be a cornerstone of TW AUDiO in Canada.”
