Raleigh, NC – August 2008… As a well established church with a blend of progressive and traditional programs, Mid-Way Baptist Church recently completed a significant facility upgrade that included the installation of a new and considerably more versatile sound reinforcement system. Music plays a vital role in the church’s worship services, so to accommodate a choir of roughly 70 voices, a praise and worship band with six to eight vocalists plus electronic drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, and horns, church management sought to install a sound system with concert level performance attributes. They found what they were searching for with a series of loudspeaker enclosures from D.A.S. Audio’s Variant product line.
Orlando, FL-based Owens Audio Video Design, Incorporated, a design/build firm dedicated to providing quality audio, video, and lighting systems for performance stages, sporting facilities, and themed attractions, was contracted to handled the design and installation of Mid-Way Baptist Church’s upgraded sound system. Bob Owens, Designer and President of Owens Audio Video Design, discussed the challenges presented by this project.
“Mid-Way Baptist Church’s sanctuary is a square with walls that are approximately 115 feet in length,� explained Owens. “As the stage is located in the corner, the sound system’s dispersion needed to fan out through the room to provide even coverage. The issue was compounded by the fact that there is a large balcony that extends roughly 35 feet into the space. This required a main loudspeaker system that not only had broad horizontal dispersion characteristics, but it also needed to have solid vertical throw capability in order to reach the rear of the room.�
To address the sanctuary’s unique characteristics, Owens specified D.A.S. Audio’s Variant Installation Array loudspeaker systems and proceeded to design a three cluster setup (left-center-right), with each loudspeaker cluster consisting of five Variant 112a elements. The Variant 112a is a compact, self-powered, 2-way design engineered to provide concert level sound for small to medium sized rooms. With a congregation size of about 1,200 people, the match was an excellent choice for Mid-Way Baptist Church.
Low frequency support is provided by four D.A.S. Audio Variant 18A self-powered subwoofers—consisting of a single 18-inch LF transducer coupled with a class D amplifier rated at 2500 watts peak power. Two of the Variant 18A subwoofers are flown adjacent to the left and right clusters while the remaining two units reside on the outer corners of the stage. Loudspeaker processing is provided by two Biamp Nexia SP DSP loudspeaker processors using the NexLink digital audio networking system.
When queried about his selection of the D.A.S. Audio Variant system, Owens offered the following, “This particular room begged for wide line array coverage. Since the balcony had longer throw volume requirements, we decided having separate control with the self-powered enclosures would better allow for custom tailoring of the sound in the balcony while still enabling us to hit the floor almost directly below the speakers. The Variant has the capability to be a 12 to 15 degree box in terms of its vertical dispersion and I really needed to cover this space vertically as much as horizontally. So, three arrays covered the horizontal, and the 73 degrees that I splayed the five boxes in each cluster provided the perfect vertical coverage. Additionally, we hit the top two boxes with a different signal path, EQ, and level, etc. to make the balcony sound like the floor.�
“Of equal importance,� continued Owens, “I also needed that vertical coverage in a package that was small enough and aesthetically pleasing to both the Pastor and the congregation. Further, the enclosures needed to be white so as to blend with the room and not get in the way of the projectors and screens. The D.A.S. Audio Variant system does a great job of addressing all these issues.�
Mid-Way Baptist Church’s new system was installed in July 2008 and was immediately placed into service—with glowing results. “Everyone has been extremely complimentary about the new system,� notes Owens. “The AV/Media Director, the Pastor, the Worship Leader, and the entire congregation are extremely happy. Based upon the success with this system, Pastor James L. Upchurch has asked me to attend a Baptist Pastor Conference in September to speak about sound, video, and lighting. On a regular basis, I hear, ‘You’ve finally fixed the sound in here!’ We’re extremely happy with the results using D.A.S. Audio.�
For additional information about Mid-Way Baptist Church, visit them online at www.mid-way.com. For more information about Owens Audio Video Design, visit the company online at www.owensavdesign.com.
About D.A.S. Audio
Headquartered in Valencia, Spain and having additional offices in Miami, FL, Frankfurt, Germany and Singapore, D.A.S. Audio is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of loudspeaker systems, power amplification, signal processing, and related components. For better than thirty years, D.A.S. Audio products have been found on tour with the world’s greatest performing artists and installed in many of the most prestigious facilities. For additional information about the company, visit them online at www.dasaudio.com.
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