CrossPoint Christian Reformed Church (Chino, Calif.) has completed construction of a new building and has installed an Allen & Heath ML4000 mixing console with 44 mono and six stereo inputs in its sanctuary, which seats more than 1,200 congregants. The Allen & Heath desk is the centerpiece of a sound system designed, supplied and installed by AMT Systems Inc. (Santa Clarita, Calif.).
Explaining the choice of mixing console for the new sanctuary, AMT Systems executive VP Tim Carlson explains, “I’ve always thought that Allen & Heath is one of the best bangs for the buck. We’re very happy with the relationship between sonic quality and price point and feel. In the worship market, these boards represent a good value for the performance.”
“We needed a left/center/right-capable board and we are using all 12 aux sends, so the board’s feature set was something that we needed, as well as the sonic quality,” Carlson says. The ML4000’s 12 auxiliary sends generate eight monitor feeds and three mono effects sends and a subwoofer send. “In my opinion,” says Carlson, “it’s the best way to drive your subs because you can tailor your system to get rid of low frequencies that aren’t really needed for vocals, piano, strings and so on. The church use their subs for bass guitar, kick drum, keyboards and playback devices. This method is a good way to keep the overall mix clean.”
The Allen & Heath console drives an LCR main speaker system comprising JBL Precision Directivity PD5322 enclosures and EAW subwoofers. The console also controls eight onstage EAW wedge monitors. All amplification is QSC CX Series.
All of the rear panel connectors on the ML4000 console are wired to a patchbay, apart from the direct outputs, which are not required, explains Carlson. “The monitor mix signals are routed to an Ashly Protea [digital graphic EQ/processor]. The remote control for the Protea lives at the board, so the FOH engineer, who’s also the monitor engineer, can control the wedges without having to run backstage. The monitor amplifier outputs and the number of lines coming from the stage are feeding a custom speaker level patchbay built by AMT. Using simple NL4–to-NL4 cables, the church staff can patch any monitor mix to any floor box onstage.”
The Allen & Heath console’s main LCR outputs to the main speaker system go into a Yamaha DME processor, which applies DSP and routing. A center cluster of three JBL PD Series cabinets is supplemented by two downfills. The left and right clusters comprise two long-throw and one short-throw box, plus sidefill.
“The sidefills are helping the center cluster cover the really wide house left and right short throws,” elaborates Carlson. “There are also six delay speakers for the balcony, which are set up from a matrix so they have a feed from center and as a feed from left and right. This processing is done inside the digital signal processor, so everything is time-aligned from its original source.”
For more information, please visit www.allen-heath.com.
