As the church's congregation has grown, the 400-seat venue has seen increased demand, including the addition of contemporary services to complement their traditional ones. As Joseph Schwartz of Baltimore-based HP Electronics explains, that demand eventually led to the installation of a new sound system centred around a pair of Community Entasys line array loudspeakers.
"With both traditional and contemporary services now being held in the chapel, the need for a versatile, high-quality sound system became clear," says Schwartz. "We had originally been discussing the idea of a small line array, but during the time the church was raising the funds for the project, Community's Entasys appeared on the scene. We'd heard a demo of it during InfoComm and knew it was worth a closer look."
Crown CDi2000 amplification powers the system, which also includes a Biamp Nexia to provide automatic mixing, levelling, EQ and feedback control. An AKG CK47/GN30 microphone resides on the lectern, just a few feet from the loudspeaker column, and a Shure ULX-series wireless is also in regular use.
"Given the lively acoustics of the room, we were initially concerned about getting adequate gain before feedback, but the Entasys was exceptionally easy to tune," says Schwartz. "The celebrant was boasting to one of the techs recently that he could point his lavalier mic right at the speaker from only inches away and not get any feedback, and happily demonstrated it to him."
For musical performance, a pair of Community VLF208 subwoofers provides bottom end to the system. "We chose the VLF subs for their compact size and ability to easily stack," says Schwartz.
(Jim Evans)
