WALTHAM, MA — The Ministerio Evangelico Rios de Agua Viva (River of Living Water), an evangelical church led by Senior Pastor Daniel Teo that conducts services in both Spanish and English, recently remodeled with an expanded sanctuary. The new sound reinforcement system installed by Orlando, Fla.-based Advanced Audio Company included loudspeakers from D.A.S. Audio, and the benefits in terms of speech intelligibility and SPL performance are clear in both languages. “Pastor Teo and the entire congregation have been very complimentary,” said Jose Nazario, owner, system designer and lead engineer for Advanced Audio. The project, however, was not without its challenges.
“The church’s new sanctuary was built in the 1930s,” said Nazario. The building was originally a theater with a small arena configuration that had a main floor surrounded by tiered seating on both sides and at the rear of the room, Nazario noted. The remodeled facility, which measures 105 feet by 80 feet with a 40-foot ceiling, provides approximately 300 moveable chairs on the main floor, while the permanent, tiered seating areas accommodate 900.
The church’s services regularly include a full praise band and praise chorus, Nazario added, and as a result, it was essential that the sound system be able to competently manage high sound pressure level (SPL) music performances. A high level of speech intelligibility was equally important.
After taking a variety of acoustic measurements and modeling the sanctuary with EASE Focus, Nazario and his crew deployed a D.A.S. Audio Variant Installation Array system consisting of eight Variant 112A self-powered compact array elements—flown four per side in a left-right configuration at a height of 25 feet—coupled with two Reference Series Sub-218G subwoofers for low frequency support.
The Variant 112A is a two-way full range system powered by 500 watts for the LF section and 100 watts for the HF section. The Sub-218G subwoofer is a high efficiency bass-reflex subwoofer system using dual D.A.S. 18G low frequency transducers with 4-inch edge-wound flat wire (EFW) voice coils. The two subwoofers are placed one per side underneath the front of the stage / altar area and are powered by a D.A.S. Audio PS-2400 high power stereo amplifier.
When asked about what made the D.A.S. Audio Variant and Reference Series products the right choice for this particular project, Nazario pointed to several factors.
“The Variant line arrays offer high output, they’re visually discrete, and they sound terrific,” Nazario said, also crediting the gear for its combination of speech intelligibility, SPL performance and ease of rigging. “We had just four days to install the system in preparation for the grand opening of the church’s new sanctuary in early November, so we really appreciated the advantages this rigging system provides.”
“We’ve received numerous compliments about both the even coverage throughout the space and the fact that the system is both extremely clear sounding and potent. Once again, D.A.S. Audio’s products proved to be the perfect solution for our projects.”
For more information, please visit www.advancedaudioco.com and www.dasaudio.com.
