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Third Church Pella upgrades with Martin Audio Wavefront Precision

Advanced Audio and Lighting recently completed a technical redesign of the Third Reformed Church in the city of Pella, Iowa, opting for a Martin Audio line array solution.

The integrators were re-engaged, having successfully carried out an earlier sound and lighting installation for the client. Explaining the necessity for the upgrade at the Pella facility, the company’s president (and senior design engineer), Graeme Brown, says, “As so often happens, the existing system was a case of fine products having been installed, but completely misapplied within the environment, so that coverage was extremely inconsistent.”

He notes that the building’s unusual geometric had provided challenges in this regard: “The space is quite unique - a modified fan-shaped building with lots of ceiling angles and a massive custom centre truss that required outfills and delayed loudspeakers to evenly cover all seating.”

The new PA would not only need to address these issues but also have the capability of reinforcing a variety of events and source inputs. “While the Church’s main focus is contemporary music, it does have a choir and mixed quartets on a regular basis for the early service. The client was requesting very hi-fidelity, with extended sub-bass, rather than necessarily high SPL”, explains Brown.

His solution was to designate a main PA comprising the scalable resolution of the Wavefront Precision WPS compact line array, which features 2 x 8’’ LF drivers, 4 x 4’’ midrange drivers and 4 x 1’’ exit HF compression horns. To this he added centre flown SXC118 cardioid low frequency enclosures, as well as a further SXH218 subwoofers on the floor for added sub-bass.  Additional fills were provided by Martin Audio’s CDD series.

The new Martin Audio system also meets all the requirements for weight loading and general aesthetics. “The original system was the typical ‘flying junkyard’, so popular at the time. It consisted entirely of front-loaded, point source powered enclosures, whereas the new system is based on line array technology and cardioid low frequency control”, says Brown.

The 800-cap congregation in the main sanctuary now receives the exact same signal wherever they are seated, and when the doors open out to engage a further 100-seat overflow, whenever capacity is reached, these worshippers too will be immersed in an identical audio experience.

“The steerability and design of this PA allowed us to create intentional ‘PA Silent’ areas on the sides of our room”, says a church spokesman. “This allows us to better serve our congregation with prayer and communion ministries during our worship services.”

(Photos: Martin Audio/Advanced Audio and Lighting)

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