New Life Covenant Oakwood Church’s Tabernacle, home to an LA8-powered KUDO loudspeaker system
Sound Of Authority specifies L-ACOUSTICS loudspeakers and amplified controllers for acoustically challenging sanctuary retrofit
CHICAGO — When Pastor John Hanna of New Life Covenant Oakwood Church called upon Sound Of Authority President and CEO Ernest Greene to provide a sound system design for his 800-seat Tabernacle on Chicago’s south side, the loudspeaker choice was a simple one: L-ACOUSTICS KUDO.
Greene, himself the owner of several dozen KUDO enclosures for his successful concert sound company, knew that the arrays would be ideal for New Life’s East 78th Street parish because of the difficult acoustical nature of the room.
According to Project Manager Aaron Johnson, then with Integrity Systems, the integrator that Sound Of Authority brought into the project, “When we first came in, the Tabernacle had previously been an old Catholic church with lots of highly reflective surfaces and a reverb time of six seconds. With the installation of acoustic panels in the ceiling, carpeting on the floor and padded pews, the reverb was brought down to less than half that, but it was still a challenging environment. The adjustable directivity of the KUDO enclosure very effectively allowed us to focus the energy into the seating area and keep it off of the plaster, wood, marble and glass elements of the room.”
With the assistance of the L-ACOUSTICS US team in Oxnard, California, Sound Of Authority and Integrity Systems mapped out a SOUNDVISION model of the room that showed optimal coverage would be achieved via two six-KUDO arrays, left and right of the stage, powered by a total of four LA8 amplified controllers.
“With the room being more than 150 feet deep, I was actually surprised that only six boxes per side were going to do it, but they covered it very well,” Johnson notes. “From the rear entrance of the sanctuary all the way up to the front of the stage, the level is probably only about 4dB different. That really impressed me.”
Nelson Robinson, Steven Johnson and Craig Laskowski prepare to fly one of New Life’s L-ACOUSTICS KUDO arrays
Johnson was equally awed with KUDO’s ease of set-up and tuning. “The box’s captive rigging is fantastic; flying the arrays didn’t take long at all. And it was effortless to get massive volume out of the system right from the start, without any compression, edginess or distortion. Although I had heard V-DOSC in concert many times before, this was one of my first experiences with KUDO and I was impressed with its power. This is a gospel church with truly concert-level sound–I would say that 110dB is average for them–and the sound quality and performance of the loudspeakers and LA8s are both absolutely top-notch.”
Providing sound systems for regional and national concerts, tours, festivals, theater and corporate events since 1976, Sound Of Authority can be found online at www.soundofauthority.com. Integrity Systems can likewise be found on the Web at www.integav.com, while Aaron Johnson’s new company, Johnson AV Engineering, is located at www.johnsonavengineering.com.
L-ACOUSTICS is a leading innovator and manufacturer of high-performance loudspeakers, amplifiers and signal processing devices for touring and installed sound markets. Known around the globe for pioneering and championing the modern line array loudspeaker concept with V-DOSC, the company has received numerous accolades for its K1, KUDO, KIVA, ARCS, XT coaxial loudspeaker systems and SB line of subwoofer enclosures, all powered and processed with the LA4 and LA8 amplified controllers in fulfillment of a “total system approach.” L-ACOUSTICS products for the US market are distributed by L-ACOUSTICS US of Oxnard, California.
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Tel: 805.604.0577 / Fax: 805.604.0858
Email: [email protected] / Web: www.l-acoustics.com
