When it’s time for church leadership to replace an aging sound system, the considerations are multifold. Intelligibility, architectural style, support for the congregation’s style of music, FOH preference, and rider friendliness for those churches that host visiting musical artists. Beyond that is an intangible, which is the worship experience itself and how the sound system supports community connection, reflection, and personal growth. Some churches want their systems to be as invisible as possible. Others want the technology to assert its presence and may choose large format arrays that evoke concert experiences. Two recent Meyer PANTHER installs provide some insight into why church leadership decides to go for the big voices, and how the combination of marquee line arrays and point-source components can bring the right tone to a space of worship.
New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore will celebrate 50 years of pastoral leadership this year. As a congregation that prioritizes the sonic experience, the church leadership was ready to replace an outdated system with a custom-finish sound solution tailored to meet the demands of the sanctuary. The new system, installed by Charlotte, North Carolina-based integrator WAVE AVL, was designed to suit the 3500-seat, multizone environment.
The primary function of the design is to support the weekend services and conferences at New Psalmist. The sanctuary seats more than 3,500 people and is broken into main floor seating, additional seating in the balcony, and stadiumstyle seating in the side loges. To cover all the seating areas, the loudspeaker system design is a mix of line array and point-source components. The loudspeakers combine to form a unique stereo cross-matrix system, which was designed by WAVE and modeled in Meyer Sound’s MAPP 3D system design and prediction tool.
Two main left and right arrays comprise PANTHER loudspeakers. Two shorter arrays of LEOPARD compact linear line array loudspeakers provide side coverage. The point-source loudspeakers for over- and under-balcony fills are a combination of UPQ-D3 full-size loudspeakers, ULTRA-X40 compact loudspeakers, and ULTRA-X20 compact wide-coverage loudspeakers. ULTRA-X20 loudspeakers are also incorporated as front fills. The low frequencies are supported by 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements. The full system is managed by Galileo GALAXY 816 and 408 network platforms. New Psalmist also requested the loudspeakers to be painted a custom white. The church streams all of their services to YouTube, adding to the importance of having a system that looks as good as it sounds.
WAVE handled most of the design, with input from the Meyer Sound team for the AVB networking and RMS Remote Monitoring System. Deaven Wood, Production Coordinator for New Psalmist Baptist Church explains: “With this Meyer Sound system and Milan, which is the application layer built onto the AVB network protocol, it adds a framework of interoperability for professional A/V devices. With our RMServer,
which is our ‘Remote Monitoring System,’ we have the ability to monitor the health of every single device in real time. That allows us to troubleshoot and diagnose an issue with precision. Overall, the combination of AVB, Milan, and the RMServer provides a robust and efficient solution for professional audio networking. By addressing key requirements such as reliability, stability, scalability, and audio quality, this technology enables the creation of large-scale, high-performance audio systems.”
“The system turned out phenomenal,” says Rob Bender, Chief Executive Officer of WAVE AVL. “It’s a large room with very high ceilings so we knew it was going to be a challenging installation, but our team made it happen. We were able to leverage existing power in the ceiling, and the new Meyer Sound system was lighter than the previous system, which helped with ceiling loads and structural approval.”
“The reactions to our new PA were beyond expectation,” Wood says. “As we lowered the old system and hoisted the new one into place, onlookers were captivated. The first time we powered it up, everyone was truly amazed by the clean, crisp, and well-rounded sound.
“This entire experience has provided us with fresh inspiration for future endeavors in all areas of our AV infrastructure,” adds Wood. “It has fueled our excitement for the future of live production technology.”
Serving over 18,000 congregants across seven campuses and a thriving streaming channel, Sun Valley Community Church (SVCC) has always been at the forefront of using cutting-edge technology to enrich its services.
SVCC’s main campus, which seats 1,200, previously housed a Meyer Sound LEOPARD system. “SVCC was ready for something special—a state-of-the-art system that would support expanded programming,” said Chris Gille, creative solutions engineer at Kentucky-based integrator HouseRight, which supplied and installed the church’s new system to meet those goals
As it happens, Matt Kotthoff, production and integration lead director at SVCC, heard a Meyer Sound PANTHER and 2100-LFC system in action at an Ed Sheeran concert, and was soon convinced of the system’s capabilities.
“Listening to the varying dynamics in a stadium, we decided, ‘Let’s create a mini version of this.’ We aimed to provide a capability that no other medium-to-large-sized room offers,” he said. As a result, SVCC now has PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeakers and 2100-LFC lowfrequency control elements and has relocated the LEOPARD system to the South Gilbert campus to make way for the PANTHER upgrade at the broadcast campus.
SVCC’s new system is centered around two suspended arrays of seven PANTHER loudspeakers, supported by 10 2100-LFC low-frequency control elements, which are both hung and set on the ground. “We have six 2100-LFCs suspended, following the recommendations from HouseRight and Meyer Sound Engineers. This setup allows us to deliver a controlled low end that projects over the congregation, creating an immersive, clean bass-heavy experience that has definition in low-end frequencies that everyone can feel and hear,” Kotthoff said. Four 2100-LFC low-frequency control elements on the ground act as a sub-boost.
“It was inspiring to calibrate and tune with fewer building blocks than had made sense in the past and have the system respond with unprecedented detail,” he continues.
HouseRight and Meyer Sound’s engineering team used Meyer Sound’s MAPP 3D system design and prediction tool to model cohesive coverage. “While designing in MAPP 3D, front-toback frequency, smoothness, and low-mid beam control seemed a bit too good to be true, with only seven primary elements per stack, with AVB affording 1:1 drive resolution,” Gille said. “However, the reality was as predicted, and frequency banding fell tightly in line.
“With girthy power and headroom, smooth accuracy, and dynamic range, paired with the tight and boldly musical 2100-LFC, PANTHER is a great fit,” he says. When it comes to low-frequency extension, “the 2100-LFC has so much musical power and such a broad bandwidth. Because of that, you can shape it to be whatever you want.” This May, Gille had an opportunity to mix on the new system at SVCC. “It was one of the best-sounding experiences I’ve ever had,” he says. “This is the first system I’ve been in front of where I thought, ‘There’s something special, something different,’ and I’m telling everyone that it’s the sound of headroom.”
“We’re five weekends in, and although most people might not pinpoint the changes, we’ve only received positive feedback, a lot of it,” said Kotthoff. “Wherever you sit, you get stereo imaging with the musical dynamics PANTHER provides. It is an immersive experience from the moment people enter the room.”
“Worship is about being together in a community,” he adds. “PANTHER creates an immersive experience from front to back, left to right, transforming the worship culture entirely.”
