Word of Life Church in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, has developed a worship service style that brings together families and friends from across generations. When the building’s original sound system failed to keep up with the church’s growth, lead pastor and music director Jachin Mullen realised it was time for an update.
Brendon and Aaron Gerber – brothers, church members, and principals of boutique A/V company Absolute Music – have installed an L-Acoustics dV-DOSC line array system with dV-SUB and SB28 low-end to give the church a pristine voice for its musical focus.
With dark décor, theatrical lighting and stage enough for a full band, Word of Life’s 1,300 capacity auditorium is reminiscent of a theatre or music club. A temporary back wall had been removed to provide 50% more space, but the sound system, which had always been somewhat lacking, had not been upgraded, and the added seating was receiving limited audio coverage.
The Gerbers demo’d systems from three different manufacturers. The only one that met their sonic expectations was the dV-DOSC system. “The room is more wide than deep, so given where the speakers would have to be located, we had a very short distance to the front row of seating and an exceptionally wide distance to cover,” says Brendon Gerber. “There are few speakers out there with that kind of horizontal directivity coverage. In conclusion, we decided the L-Acoustics system was absolutely the best solution for the room.”
The system was designed by Vaino Gennaro, business director, live sound products, from L-Acoustics’ Canadian distributor, Sennheiser Canada, using the manufacturer’s SOUNDVISION proprietary acoustic modelling software. “The nature of the room was quite challenging,” says Gennaro. “The short throw and very large left to right coverage required the use of dV-DOSC technology featuring 120-degrees horizontal directivity. All the parameters were validated through SOUNDVISION, resulting in a perfect installation front to back and left to right.”
The installed system is comprised of five mid-high modular dV-DOSC units in left and right stereo clusters. The top cabinets hit the back rows and the bottoms cover the seating a few rows from the front. The system’s substantial low-end is generated by two L-Acoustics dV-SUBs and two L-Acoustics SB28s per side. Four L-Acoustics four-channel LA8 integrated amp/DSPs provide the system with ample power and processing.
One L-Acoustics 12XT coaxial on each side of the stage provides side fill, while four 8XTs placed discreetly on the stage steps provide front fill. “The 8XTs are small, but excellent sounding speakers,” said Brendon. “Their purpose is to provide coverage to the first few rows. The big advantage of including them in the design is that when the main system is not being used, they can be easily moved and used elsewhere in the building or on remote engagements.” A single L-Acoustics four-channel LA8 provides power and processing for the fill speakers.
“Computer technology continues to grow exponentially, and many audio companies have taken advantage of the new analysis and engineering tools that are available,” says Brendon. “L-Acoustics is at the forefront of that trend. A lot of science goes into its products, and you can really hear the difference. The strategically designed L-Acoustics system reproduces a complete audio spectrum that is so clean and precise; so much so that you can have a conversation even when the system is pushing high decibels. The church family at Word of Life is overjoyed to have a new voice for their musical passion; our auditorium simply comes to life with sound!”
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