San Jose, CA (March 1, 2019)—Cathedral of Faith in San Jose, CA recently updated the audio system in its 2,200-seat sanctuary after 15 years. A prime concern was the aging PA which was out of date not only in terms of technology, but also in regard to desired aesthetics and how the oratory styles used in the facility had changed.
Technical director pastor Rick Robinson, says, “The building was built in 1983 [and] about fifteen years ago, we redesigned the sanctuary with a center cluster PA system, but with recent modifications we’ve made on the inside including a new 65 ft. wide by 35 ft. deep stage and a streamlined modern layout, the previous sound system just wasn’t working for us anymore, especially in terms of coverage and feedback.”
Sound Image (Escondido, CA) came up with a comprehensive Martin Audio system based around eight flown Wavefront Precision Compact (WPC) cabinets on each side of the stage, two of the original subs flown in the ceiling for the balcony, and four SX218 subwoofers, two side by side per side, under stage extensions beneath the line arrays. The Martin Audio solution also includes two WPM cabinets per side for balcony fills, six CDD5s under the front stage thrusters for lip fills and two CDD12s for under balcony fills.
The system is powered by six Martin Audio iK42 4-channel amps for the arrays and one iK81 eight-channel amp for the subs with two-box resolution, all with Dante capability for more flexible networking.
Cathedral audio engineer Roberta Starr noted, “The most noticeable difference was the intelligibility and even coverage throughout the space. And articulation is a very big deal because of the message in terms of speech and the music where you want to hear the distinction between different instruments.
“The placement of the original PA cluster was too far above and behind the talent,” she added,”and we had to tweak out certain frequencies from the bottom boxes to avoid feedback and it never sounded as good on the floor as it did in the balcony where we were mixing. Now, the live music reproduction sounds wonderful, which is also critical because we have a top-notch 9-piece band with horns and four to eight vocalists. Now we get excellent audio quality and all the separation we need between the different instruments and voices with plenty of headroom.”
Robinson added, “Our worship leader wanted a system that was warm and worked well for contemporary worship music services and in that respect, it has definitely met our needs, so we are very happy with it.”
Martin Audio • www.martin-audio.com
Sound Image • www.sound-image.com
