It’s a familiar story that happens to a lot of churches. A congregation starts off in a smaller facility, eventually outgrows the sanctuary and moves to larger space, which may not have the warm, intimate acoustics of the original church. And so it was with the Clinton Frame Mennonite Church of Goshen, Indiana.
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There’s no doubt that audio installations and upgrades within large sports facilities typically present integrators and sound designers with severe challenges. Perhaps by far the most formidable is the sheer scale of multiple coverage areas. The latter not only entails the enormous, cavernous open-air spaces, but also delivering an acceptable listening experience to everyone occupying in the seats, whether fans are courtside or in the upper “nosebleed” seats of an arena or — in a stadium project — on the grandstand, bleachers, end-zones or beneath the second/third deck.
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Located in the mountains near Howard’s Knob in the North Carolina High Country, Boone United Methodist Church has a variety of ministries that address a wide range of worshippers. To ensure their message is delivered clearly and that musical performances are reproduced naturally, the church recently completed a substantial AV upgrade that encompassed a significant sound reinforcement system.
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Once considered a dying art, live performance theater today is a thriving and growing industry. And where once a simple sound system would suffice in a theatrical setting, venues have been upgrading, expanding and enhancing their audio capabilities. This stems not only from the high standards set by Broadway-caliber productions — both in established theater centers such as London, and New York, but also from myriad touring casts that bring recent hit shows and original casts to secondary markets.
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No matter what anyone may tell you, getting great sound in a house of worship environment is no picnic. Besides the “it’s too loud” complaints from the old folks who insist on sitting in the front row — even in churches presenting modern music at rock concert levels — there are also certain acoustical difficulties that are near-insurmountable. Let’s face it, many sanctuaries are “blessed” with copious amounts of marble, wood and glass surfaces, which are anything but audio friendly. Other groups may meet in converted gymnasiums, storefronts and the like, which were rarely designed from an acoustical standpoint. The bottom line? It ain’t easy.
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Webster Hall, the venerable music venue in New York City’s East Village, has been many things to many people over the years. Starting in the late 19th century as a hub for bohemians, artists and anarchists, it became a hangout for hoodlums during Prohibition, including a purported ownership stint by Al Capone himself. During the 1950s, the facility did a turn as Webster Hall Studios, operating as RCA’s East Coast recording studio, where Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra and countless other icons recorded albums on the Grand Ballroom stage.
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Every year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints present a Christmas show with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra at Temple Square and Bells on Temple Square. The event takes place over three evenings at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. This year’s series of shows included special guest Santino Fontana, the Sesame Street Muppets and also myself. Of course, I wasn’t in the show, but I had an amazing time watching and listening to this incredible event.
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Theaters can exist in an extraordinary variety of forms, ranging from (ancient — yet still used) amphitheaters to storefront conversions to specifically designed modern performing arts centers and repurposed movie palaces, and everything in between. So when it comes to deciding what sound system is best in any particular venue, the answers are as varied as the architecture, seating and decor. More than a few of these were never intended for either high-SPL music programs or even for the needs of traditional theatre, where vocal articulation and intelligibility is paramount.
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The fervor of upgrading sound reinforcement rigs — as well as lighting, video and broadcast systems — in the house of worship market continues at a dizzying pace. Much of this has been fueled by the rise of popularity of high-energy praise bands and choirs that up bring the SPL’s to a level that’s simply heavenly for many parishioners. These days, a 1960s-vintage Lowrey organ and a couple of well-worn Shure Vocal Master columns don’t quite cut it when presenting contemporary music services.
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History was made back in October 14, 1974, when the now-landmark PBS series Austin City Limits kicked off with the taping of its pilot episode, featuring a performance by the then-not-quite-iconic Willie Nelson. After first airing in 1975, the public’s reaction to the show was nothing short of sensational.
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It’s been nine years since Hurricane Katrina smashed into New Orleans and the Gulf Coast (August 29, 2005), killing more than 1,800 people and causing more than 80 billion dollars in property damage. To say that New Orleans was devastated doesn’t begin to tell the story. The catastrophe affected every facet of life in the Big Easy.
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Anatomy of the World’s First L-Acoustics K2 Install
History doesn’t always happen exactly where you’d expect it, which can be both exciting and unpredictable. So when L-Acoustics’ next-generation large K2 line array — which replaces its landmark V-DOSC with a smaller, lighter, more efficient design — made its world debut in a permanent installation application, probably no one guessed it would be in the small town of Valley Center, Calif.
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