RIO de JANEIRO, Brazil — The evangelical Nova Igreja da Barra church here is noted for services featuring rock bands and prayer through music. The church’s sound engineer, Wagner Pedretti, got acquainted with K-array gear at AES Brasil in 2012 and has since adopted the gear for use at the church.
More details from K-array (www.k-array.com):
Everybody remembers James Brown’s famous performance as the Reverend Cleophus James in the American musical comedy The Blues Brothers. The Reverend’s sermons got the congregation, including the notorious Blues Brothers, clapping, singing and playing music. The contemporary church is built around communication — verbal, musical, and emotional — as well as worship. Music attempts to communicate ideas and concepts while it simultaneously enhances the worship experience through emotional involvement – as is the way at the Evangelical Church Nova Igreja da Barra in Rio de Janeiro. The congregation enjoys the liturgy with intervals of music which are performed by a real rock band made up of a drummer, a base player, a guitarist and singer. Mauricio Fragale, Nova Igreja’s Reverend, shares Cleophus James opinion of prayer through music, and he steps up to lead the improvements of the church’s acoustics because an acoustically balanced space is essential to convey the message and mission of the church in sermon, in music, and in congregational interaction.
The meeting between Nova Igreja’s sound engineer, Wagner Pedretti, and K-array took place at the AES Brasil in 2012 where Gobos do Brasil, K-array’s Brasilian distributor, exhibited and had an outdoor demo space. Listening to the KH15 left a strong impression on Pedretti, who immediately put an order on standby for Nuova Igresja’s new sound system. A great sounding church inspires and supports both intellectual and emotional involvement, leading the congregation to unity and dedication. After a thorough site inspection, Gobos do Brasil drafted a project using EASE and handed it in to Pedretti.
From among K-array’s wide product range, Pedretti picked up the KH15 which he had heard at AES. According to the project, the installation called for 3 KH15 on each side of the altar in order to evenly cover the whole space (the church can fit up to 1000 people), 2 KO40s to sustain the low frequency, 4 discreet yet powerful KK50vb piloted by a KA10-10 amplifier were used as a front fill to ensure that the front rows also benefitted from the contemporary sound system. Pedretti had already worked on improving the church’s acoustics in the past and eagerly approved the project. The installation was carried out last march by Framklin Garrido, in close collaboration with Esteban Risso from Gobos do Brasil and his “old friend” Marcelo Claret (also an old friend of this newsletter’s readers), the Director of Sao Paulo’s Audio and Video Institute.
We caught up with Esteban at the PL+S in Frankfurt, who told us that “the result is satisfactory to everyone, especially to Pedretti because today, the Nova Igresja has a system fit enough for a recording studio.” When we asked Esteban why K-array was chosen, he simply replied “the quality of the sound”.
For more on AES Brazil, go to www.gobos.com.br
