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AUBURN, ALABAMA: This story begins six years ago, when Lakeview Baptist Church, in Auburn, Alabama, contacted dB Audio and Video owner Mike Hedden
to assess their less-than-pristine acoustics.
Church members had been complaining that substantial portions of the Sunday service were
unintelligible and that the music was muddy and uninspiring. Hedden took TEF
readings of the 1,800-seat, 50-ft. ceiling sanctuary and confirmed
analytically what he had suspected intuitively. The room's untreated,
near-parabolic rear wall, nearly 200 feet long and 80 feet from the stage,
was focusing all of the energy from their late-1980s era, "honky-stadium"
compression driver horns back at the stage. He measured higher SPLs in the
choir loft than he did in the middle of the room!
Unfortunately, forces conspired at the time to keep the church from moving
on improvements, and they muddled through with their existing sound system
until a new minister of music arrived in 2005. With an orchestra in place,
Lakeview already offered a decidedly blended style of worship, but the new
director upped the energy, allowing the rhythm section to lead
three-quarters of the service. The long-standing problem had reached its
tipping point. Something needed to be done.
This time dB Audio and Video's system designer, Keith Armstrong, led the
project. Starting with Hedden's original measurements, he laid out a
dramatic plan for improvement. "We always start our jobs by considering the
acoustics," he explained, "because you can't overcome a physical flaw with
electronics. Once the acoustics are well behaved, carefully chosen
reinforcement that complements the space can make an otherwise adequate
system into a stellar system. With Lakeview's situation, it was clear that
we had to do something about the rear wall first and foremost."
Armstrong's solution was to the point, brutish, but singularly effective in
a way that any more nuanced approach would not have been. He covered the
areas above, below, and on the leading edge of the rear wall balcony with 4'
x 4' two-inch thick absorption panels. The panels easily cut most of the
energy above 1kHz and a good deal of the energy below that frequency. "The
rear wall delay that had been the bane of their services was reduced to
almost nothing," Armstrong reported.
There was another acoustical flaw that Armstrong felt compelled to address."The original designer had placed diffusion panels above the stage," he
explained. So far, so good. "But they had been installed upside down!
Instead of diffusing sound away from the stage, their flat backs focused
everything right back at its source. The last thing you want is energy going
straight up and down like that, slapping back and forth." The fix was
obvious and was affected with the help of free church labor.
With the acoustical problems under control, Armstrong shifted his focus to
the antiquated reinforcement system. "Their existing compression driver
horns had no pattern control at all," he said. "They were splashing energy
all over the place. If we had left them in place or settled for their
similarly sloppy contemporary descendants, the side walls would have needed
treatment as well." Instead, Armstrong opted for Danley full-range
loudspeakers, which use proprietary Synergy Horn patent-pending technology
to deliver amazingly steep drop-offs outside their prescribed pattern and
naturally-phase coherent, high-fidelity sound.
Armstrong designed an exploded mono system with a center cluster composed of
two 50 deg. x 50 deg. Danley SH-50 full-range loudspeakers. A single 110 deg. x 110 deg. Danley SH-100 provided front fill for the massive room. A
pair of SH-100s 45 feet to either side of the center cluster provided side
fill. A delay ring of three SH-100s situated between the stage and the FOH
position covered the balcony. Finally, a delay ring of ten Atlas SM52TS
70-volt loudspeakers provided reinforcement underneath the balcony.
Armstrong commented, "The Danleys were perfect for this installation because
we had to be absolutely sure that their patterns would be true to the angles
we set. We've used speakers from other manufacturers who claimed to have
tight pattern control. But when you go below 500Hz, all their pattern
control was lost. The Danleys have remarkably consistent pattern control
across the entire spectrum. We set our angles and kept everything off the
side walls."
In addition to the full-range loudspeakers, Armstrong floated two Danley
TH-115 subwoofers above the center cluster. The TH-115s use Danley's
proprietary tapped horn patent-pending technology, which delivers uniquely
flat, even bass to very low frequencies, even at high SPLs. "Lakeview's
volunteer sound engineer stressed that the new system should have truly
excellent bass," Armstrong added. "The Danley subwoofers are second to none
when it comes to clean, loud low-end. To ensure that their engineer was
happy, I put the sub output on an aux send. If he wants more bass, he has
total control!"
In addition to front-of-house sound, Armstrong revitalized Lakeview's
monitoring system and, per the pastor's request, did away with the clutter
of floor wedges. He flew a Danley SH-100 for the pastor and two SH-100s for
the choir. An eight-station Aviom personal monitoring system provides custom
mixes for the orchestra members.
QSC RMX-Series amps power all of the Danleys and include 5050s for the
TH-115 subwoofers, 4050s for the SH-50s, and 2450s for all of the SH-100s.
An RMX 850 interfaced with a Peavey Automatch transformer powers the 70-Volt
under-balcony speakers. A Biamp Audia Solo 4 x 12 DSP fed by a Yamaha M7
C148 console provides a stunning front-end to the system.
The church and its members are amazed and impressed by the new treatments
and the new system. "It's a completely different animal now," Armstrong
laughed. "Gone are the reflective surfaces and the muddy compression
drivers. Church members have commented that they're hearing things they
never heard with the old system. Beyond sheer intelligibility, the new
system has a lot of punch. A group of kids from Auburn University worship
there on Thursdays, and you know they push it. We easily did 110dB in tests,
and with the Danleys, there isn't a trace of distortion. It's as crystal
clear at 110dB as it is at 85dB!"
Tom Danley is one of the most innovative loudspeaker designers in the
industry today and is recognized worldwide as a pioneer for "outside the
box" thinking in professional audio technology. His legendary designs have
been utilized in projects ranging from ground zero bombing simulation, jet
engine active noise cancellation, and sonic boom generators to critical
listening mastering studios, high-end home theatre, and houses of worship
around the world.
Danley Sound Labs
www.danleysoundlabs.com
