PHENIX CITY, Ala. — Golden Acres Baptist Church recently underwent two changes—one gradual and the other abrupt—which necessitated an overhaul of their no-longer-adequate sound system. First, the church slowly introduced contemporary elements into their services, which placed more demands on their old system than it was able to withstand. Second, the church added a 225-seat balcony to its existing 500-seat sanctuary, requiring a complete shift in coverage patterns.
While its story is particular, GABC's requirement for intelligibility, power and flexibility is representative of most mid-sized churches. Bill Manning at Pensacola's All Pro Sound designed and installed a Danley system that sounds clean and articulate for spoken word, and punchy and vibrant for contemporary music, with the capacity to ably deliver on anything else the church should choose to throw at it.
Manning began at the front-end, redoing the church's wiring infrastructure for simplicity and modern connectivity. The band upgraded from wedges to a full-tilt Aviom wireless personal monitoring system. From there, existing inputs fed a 48-channel Yamaha M7 digital console with full automation and recall. Ashley processing and QSC PLS and PL series amplifiers rounded out the electronics.
The acoustics of the space required careful consideration of speaker selection and placement. "As with any job, we wanted to keep energy off the walls and focused on the seats," said Manning. Here, the tall ceiling and retrofitted balcony, combined with the much higher SPLs that the new system would be asked to deliver, served to underscore that mantra.
Just a single flown Danley SH-96 covers most of the seating area. The SH-96 is a new model that includes four 15-inch drivers, six mid-frequency drivers and one high-frequency driver. Unlike the flagship SH-50, which possesses a 50 x 50-degree beam width, the SH-96 possesses a much wider 90 x 60-degree beam width.
Three compact Danley SH-95s with 95 x 55-degree dispersion patterns provide side and down fills to cover most of the remaining seats. A handful of EAW JS50S tucked underneath the balcony completed the coverage. To convey the satisfying low-end that so eluded GABC with their old system, Manning flew two Danley TH-115 subwoofers with the SH-96.
The Yamaha digital console allows the church's sound engineer to store inputs and levels for both the traditional and contemporary services. With a push of a button, the console is ready for the next service, allowing him to focus on getting the right microphones and inputs set up on stage.
"Golden Acres Baptist Church is enjoying the fidelity and robust, yet flexible operation of their new sound system," reported Manning. "Like most churches in their position, they benefited by focusing on the fundamentals and investing in good equipment instead of chasing after gimmicks."
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