Myriad terms have been used to describe live audio systems, but rarely has anyone chosen the word “inspiring.” But that’s exactly the word that JP Dutton, worship director for the Valley Bible Fellowship in Las Vegas, used to describe the VUE Audiotechnik system recently installed in the main sanctuary.
The church recently turned to H.A.S. Productions (Las Vegas) to install a new system based around the VUE al-Class, moving the previous system to a separate youth room.
“This new system is so clear and present that it has changed everything for the worship team,” Dutton says. “There’s not been a single service where I have not been stopped by members of the congregation and told not only how great it sounds but how clearly they could hear each individual instrument. I was so inspired to sound as good as possible that I even went out and bought a new guitar.”
The VUE rig is exceeding standards in a room that is not audio friendly. The building that Valley Bible Fellowship occupies was not originally designed as a worship space, unless the devotion is focused on footwear. Before the congregation moved in, the building was home to the largest shoe store in the Las Vegas Valley. While some acoustic treatment has been done on the sidewalls, it is more like audio first-aid than starting with a space optimized for amplified sound.
The system itself is a novel approach that was designed by VUE’s Mike Adams and deployed here for the first time. It combines a pair of al-4SB compact flyable subwoofer boxes hung in an end-fire configuration above each of the 8-box hangs of VUE al-4 compact line arrays. These are supported by three powered hs-28 subs installed below the stage.
“The al-4 boxes are a lot bigger sounding than their size would imply,” says Jay Easley of H.A.S. “But when coupling them directly with the hs-28 subs, in some cases it can feel like the middle is less present. The al-4SB boxes flown above the arrays, really help fill that out, this system is about one-third the size of the one it replaced and provides all the impact they need along with much more clarity.”
For Dutton, it’s about a full sound at a much lower volume. “The old system was made to sound best at about 110 dB. So we were dealing with constant complaints about the volume. With the VUE system we get a sound that is really full and present but at a lot lower volume.”
The church also hosts regular concert performances by some of the biggest names in the Contemporary Christian music space, including Audio Adrenaline, Phil Wickham and Trip Lee, and that’s also generated positive review. “We’ve had performers come to us after their show raving about how great the room sounds and how much better it is now with the VUE system installed,” Dutton says.
While music is a crucial part of services at Valley Bible Fellowship, like most houses of worship, the most pressing audio need of for complete clarity and comprehension of the message, mostly passed along through spoken word. The VUE system also shines in that capacity.
“We have had requests for things we were never able to do before since we had the VUE system put in,” Dutton concludes. “Last Sunday, we had a speaker delivering a message and he asked if I could just play in the background behind him to kind of fill things out. We never could have done that with our old system. The music would have made the words impossible to understand for many people in the room. But with this new VUE system it was not a problem. I played and he spoke and everything was crystal clear.
