USA - Just a short drive from the Mexican border and southeast of the city of McAllen, Valley International Christian Centre (VICC) recently opened a new, almost 70,000sq.ft sanctuary. This state-of-the-art church is the largest house of worship in the Rio Grande Valley and, in 2013, was recognized as one of the fastest growing churches in America by Outreach Magazine.

Music plays a vital role in VICC's worship services and, to ensure a high level of speech intelligibility and excellent music reproduction characteristics, church officials recently gave the green light to the deployment of a new sound reinforcement system drawn from the catalogue of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio.

Simon Estrada Jr. serves as VICC's campus sound engineer and the church's Praise and Worship leader. He also operates a sound services company under the name Supernatural Designz of Brownsville, Texas. Being intimately involved in both sound reinforcement and the musical requirements of the church, Estrada was well suited to guide church management through the sound system selection process in addition to overseeing its deployment.

Ultimately, Estrada installed a system consisting of D.A.S. Aero 12A line array enclosures and LX-218CA subwoofers from the company's Aero Series 2 product line, along with Road 12A floor monitors and Artec 508A point source loudspeakers.

"The sanctuary accommodates 2,000 people," Estrada Reports, "and this is comprised of moveable seating both on the main floor and on risers. Further, the room has an arched steel ceiling with a maximum height of 40ft, so it's a good-sized room. VICC offers a contemporary worship experience and the Praise band consists of about 50+ volunteers, so music is really important."

(Jim Evans)


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