When Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida decided to completely overhaul their aging audio system and embrace 3D audio, they contacted Washington Professional Systems (WPS), Wheaton, MD to assist in designing a completely new audio system for the sanctuary that would improve the overall sonic quality within the acoustic limitations of the space. The church wanted to improve the connection and engagement with its 10,000-member congregation in-person and online, using d&b Soundscape as an enabling technology.
d&b Soundscape increases spatial detail and headroom beyond a traditional system while reducing the burden to the mix engineer. The system is optimized to allow each loudspeaker to automatically handle a different mix of signals, adjusting both level and delay which effectively enables the loudspeakers to work as a cohesive group. The audience receives accurate localization, and the engineer often requires less channel processing and plugins because the system doesn’t require as much mix processing. Adding surrounds then elevates the capabilities even further.
There were challenges that needed to be addressed in the church sanctuary: poor audio coverage throughout the space; significant drop-offs in bandwidth; considerable quality variations from seat to seat; substantial comb filtering during musical acts; and poor intelligibility of spoken word and band vocals. The sanctuary was initially designed as a traditional fan-shaped auditorium with a minimally raked, single bowl seating section.
“Using the DS100 signal engine combined with the d&b En-Scene algorithm and d&b loudspeakers, listeners seated in any location of the sanctuary receive an accurate audio picture, reducing phase cancellation and increasing clarity throughout the frequency range, giving excellent intelligibility of spoken word and band vocals from the stage,” states Keith Neubert, Executive Director of Engineered Systems, Washington Professional.
The complete d&b configuration includes: 20 x Ali60 loudspeakers in 5 horizontal arrays of 4 cabinets each; 2 x KSLi-SUB, 2 x 21S SUBs, 7 x 44S loudspeakers (flush mount), 4 x 40D amplifiers, 2 x 10D amplifiers, a DS10 audio network bridge and DS100 Signal engine with En-Scene.
“We liked how user-friendly the Soundscape system is and that it can be controlled from the platform or from front of house,” states Lead Pastor and Administrator, Thomas Price.
Price shares that while congregants had never complained about the former system as it degraded over a long period of time, they were immediately uplifted by the new system on the very first Sunday.
“In addition to congregants, church staff noticed an immediate difference with the immersive quality of the d&b Soundscape audio system and its ability to deliver a natural, realistic experience for the entire congregation,” adds Neubert. “For speakers, vocalists, and performers, stage monitoring quality has also improved significantly, allowing them to hear themselves without intrusive feedback, echoes, or phase cancelling.”
