MARTIN AUDIO WAVEFRONT PRECISION INSTALLED AT HOPE COMMUNITY CHURCH
Apex, NC––When the Hope Community Church decided to replace their recently installed sound system because of severe reverberation issues, David Price of DP Design in Milwaukee, WI proposed a Martin Audio Wavefront Precision system based on its control and coverage capability.
Hope Community is housed in what was a large warehouse and distribution facility that was completely renovated to convert the building into a church. According to David, “they ripped out everything except the concrete pad and the ceiling.
“The main worship area is a multi-purpose space with a recessed gym floor the size of two basketball courts laid side to side surrounded by seating and a raised six-foot wide track area that runs around the room. The proscenium stage is off center and the recessed floor creates a nice little bass trap that can be an issue for a PA.
"The Wavefront Precision system sounds phenomenal––it’s a night and day difference from the older one and it blew everyone away.”
“That said, the main problem with the original system––which was only a year and a half old––was the fact the space is so mammoth and echo-ey,” David explains. “They did treat the walls well acoustically but nothing was applied to the ceiling where there was a ridiculously long five second reverb time that muddied everything up. The original PA didn't have the directivity control to avoid the ceiling and was too small and underpowered for that big a room. There were constant sound issues, coverage was poor and too many people were complaining about not being able to hear anything.”
To cover the worship area that seats approximately 1500, David recommended a Martin Audio Wavefront Precision Compact system “as the optimum solution because it didn’t require additional ceiling treatment based on its exceptional control capability, which made it much more cost-effective from the start. It also offered even coverage throughout the space and the exceptional clarity and audio quality required for both speech and the electric music in the contemporary worship service the church likes to run loud.”
The system consists of nine flown WPC enclosures a side as the main array with four WPM in the center for some additional fill and two flown DSX subs a side between the side and center arrays to avoid the recessed ground area in front of the stage. All cabinets are powered by iKON amplifiers on one box resolution (one amplifier channel per enclosure) providing the ultimate in control capabilities for the system. As David adds, “the boxes are bi-amplified with the iK42 powering two enclosures so we could ensure maximize avoidance of the ceiling. It works incredibly well and it’s truly remarkable how low the reverb time is now.”
“We needed some additional side fills so we flew two Martin Audio CDD15’s on the left and right for that far outside area where they do some table seating on the upper raised area which runs almost 170 degrees horizontal in front of the stage. There are also eight CDD5’s as lip fills mounted to the front of the stage.”
Asked about reactions to the system, David enthuses, “Everybody who walked in immediately noticed how much better the new system sounds, even if they weren’t a tech person. It was fun to watch people’s amazement when they walked the room. They couldn’t find a place that wasn’t covered with sound or a bad seat in the house. They loved it. The Wavefront Precision system sounds phenomenal––it’s a night and day difference from the older one and it blew everyone away.”