FORT WORTH, TX — Acoustic Dimensions and Ford Audio-Video Systems designed and installed the sound system for the newly constructed J.W. “Jack” MacGorman Chapel on the campus of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS). The installation includes EAW QX Series, AX Series and UB Series loudspeakers.
The EAW systems are configured in a central cluster with delays, under-balcony/front fills and choir monitors in the 3,500-seat auditorium. Additional systems are installed in the chapel building’s choir and orchestra rehearsal rooms.
The new 106,000-square-foot chapel was designed to serve primarily as a training venue for expository preaching, but also features musical performances, noted Casey Sherred, Acoustic Dimensions senior consultant.
“The EAW QX speakers allowed us to design a speaker cluster that delivered natural speech reinforcement with great pattern control,” Sherred said.
“This is a very substantial project, and a lot of this chapel is being built around the audio-video systems,” added project manager Jon Pidgeon, who is based at the Denver office of Ford AV.
Along with two 24-foot by 13.5-foot rear-projection screens, the new chapel features HD video and audio production suites, music and theatrical production rehearsal rooms that can accommodate over 200 people and more.
The EAW speakers supplement the chapel’s main left-right arrays. “We have a total of five QX units hanging in one cluster, covered with a fabric orb,” said Pidgeon. “There are two QX side fills and five upper balcony delays that are also QX speakers.
“The center QX cluster is being used for vocal reinforcement only, but they have the option in the DSP to also use it for live performances,” Pidgeon added.
The full range, three-way model QX564 and QX596 speakers provide coverage over a 60×45-degree and 90×60-degree dispersion, respectively.
“We’ve also installed some two-way, full range UB52 speakers for under-balcony and front fill,” noted Andrew Welker, Ford AV’s engineer on the project. “We have four AX Series units for choir monitors, and there are two rehearsal rooms that have other AX speakers in them.”
SWBTS, an outgrowth of the theological department established at Baylor University in Waco, TX in 1901, was placed under the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1925. The seminary has trained and sent more than 40,000 graduates to serve in local churches and on missions around the world.
For more information, please visit www.eaw.com.
