Rooms that work on Sunday morning.

The room

Palm City’s family life center has volleyball and basketball teams in it all week and a contemporary worship service in it on Sunday. That is a hard brief. Gymnasiums are reverberant by nature, and anything mounted at head height has to survive being hit by a ball. They also run a traditional service in the sanctuary across campus, so we took on both rooms.

The system

Meyer Sound Lena line arrays, seven boxes a side, with 2100-LFC subwoofers flown in the center. A line array loses about three decibels each time the distance doubles rather than six, so the back of the room hears what the front hears and no delay ring is needed. UP-M1P front fills cover the first rows. Acoustic treatment went in at listener height, rated to take an impact, and an eighteen-foot LED wall changed where the whole room points.

Why it holds up all week

An Allen & Heath Avantis runs Sunday. Behind it, an AHM matrix and a ten-inch touchscreen give the building a second, simpler mode. Someone can walk into a Tuesday event, pick up a wireless handheld, play audio from a phone, and never wake the console. The four Canon PTZ cameras sit on a shelf that lifts into a protective box in the ceiling when the gym goes back to being a gym.

Across campus

The traditional sanctuary is a different problem and got a different answer. Motorised screens and 9,000-lumen rear-throw projectors so the technology disappears between services. Canon CR-N700 cameras in white, which most of the congregation still has not noticed. Fourteen Pro Wash Max fixtures for an even front wash, no haze and no movers, because the point in that room is simply that you can see the pastor and the choir clearly.

System summary

• Meyer Sound Lena line arrays, seven per side
• Meyer 2100-LFC subwoofers, center flown
• Meyer UP-M1P front fills and X-20 booth delays
• Allen & Heath Avantis plus AHM matrix
• 18ft x 9.8ft LED wall on a NovaStar MX20
• Four Canon PTZ cameras in a motorised enclosure
• Chauvet and Portman stage fixtures, Meteor house lights
• Lyntec relay and power sequencing

The room

North Metro wanted a PA that sounded better. What they actually needed was a room that worked every week: reliable on Sunday, simple enough for a Tuesday Bible study, clean enough that the stage stopped collecting cable, and flexible enough for a thrust that moves.

Coverage before volume

Fulcrum Acoustic constant curvature arrays with fifteen and thirty degree elements, CC118 subwoofers inside the arrays and further eighteens hidden in the soffit. RX6 front fills sit in the thrust, because the closer you get to the front corners the more likely you are to fall out of the main coverage pattern. The goal was never a louder room. It was the same listening experience in every seat.

The rack is the project

The front of the rack carries a lot of blank panels. The back is where the work is: an Allen & Heath GX4816 stage box, an ME-U for personal monitoring, BitTree patch bays, network switching, DMX distribution, wireless and in-ear transmitters. The patch bays are the part that pays off weekly. A stage input normally lands on its matching channel, and when it needs to go somewhere else the team moves it at the rack instead of rebuilding anything.

Making Sunday easier

An AHM processor gives them a control layer for events that do not need the console at all: one microphone and basic PA control from a phone, no trained engineer required. An EFNOTE PRO 700X kit dropped the stage volume without putting a drummer in a box. A Rupert Neve 5045 keeps the pastor’s headset clean now that the thrust carries them further into the PA’s coverage. At front of house, Adder XDIP KVMs, Mac Minis in Sonnet chassis, and a dedicated support machine our team can remote into without taking over a volunteer’s workstation mid-service.

System summary

• Fulcrum Acoustic constant curvature arrays, 15 and 30 degree
• CC118 subwoofers in-array plus soffit-mounted eighteens
• Fulcrum RX6 front fills in the stage thrust
• Allen & Heath Avantis, GX4816, AHM and ME-U
• BitTree patch bays throughout the rack
• EFNOTE PRO 700X electronic drum kit
• Rupert Neve 5045 Primary Source Expander
• Adder XDIP KVM and Sonnet-chassis Mac Minis at FOH

The decision behind the room

Next Community could have expanded the building. They decided they would rather send part of the congregation out to plant. That choice set the brief for everything else: make this space work, do not build a new one. The space was a commercial office, which meant reverb that would wreck intelligibility and a ceiling too low for most of the usual answers.

Acoustics first

We started with a balloon pop and an impulse response, measured the RT60, and worked with Primacoustic on the right quantity of treatment to bring it to about two seconds. Two-by-four panels through the room, larger squares where they were needed, and cloud panels in the structure above. That one step is what made the room suitable for both spoken word and a live band.

Everything flies

With no height available for ground-stacked subwoofers, the whole system flies from the center. Two twenty-one inch Fulcrum subwoofers, DX15 mains, CCX12 outfills for the wide sections, Profile front fills for an unusual stage shape, and twelve-inch coaxials as delays around the perimeter. Walk the room and there is not a seat that is not covered by the mains, a fill or a delay. Powersoft UNICA amplification keeps all of it inside three rack units.

The lyric banner

The screen layout took real 3D modelling. A twenty-foot lyric banner runs above a center screen, with flat panels on the side walls for the seats that lose line of sight. ProPresenter drives all three independently, so lyrics, background and slides each land where they belong rather than fighting for one canvas.

System summary

• Fulcrum Acoustic DX15 mains and CCX12 outfills
• Two 21in Fulcrum subwoofers, center flown
• Fulcrum Profile front fills and 12in coaxial delays
• Powersoft UNICA 8M and 4L amplification
• Primacoustic treatment to roughly a two second RT60
• 20ft lyric banner over a 6.5 x 11.5ft center screen
• Allen & Heath Avantis Solo, GX48 and ME-U
• Two Middle Atlantic BGR racks with Bittree patching

The room

Agoura’s building is forty years old and the arches spanning its ceiling are the best thing in it. Their PA had passed twenty years and the rest of the infrastructure was heading the same way. The brief was a full technical overhaul that left the architecture completely alone.

They had already done the hard part

The team had built and hung their own mineral wool absorption panels down the sides of the congregation and behind the tech booth. It was good work, and it meant the budget could go into the system rather than into fixing the room first. No speaker sounds like itself in an untreated space.

The system

Fulcrum Acoustic point source coaxials, passive, on Powersoft amplification. A dual eighteen-inch cardioid subwoofer pushes energy toward the congregation instead of into the stage. CCX15 mains, CCX12 delays at the back for the rear third and the tech booth. The RX8 front fills got a rethink during install week: local carpenters cut pockets under the stage lip and we angled them upward, which gives away a little coverage and looks a great deal cleaner. Modelled in EASE and Fulcrum One, then tuned zone by zone through the amplifier DSP.

Lighting a low room

Eight Pro Wash Max fixtures handle the front wash. Six Chroma-Q Colorado 1 Quads uplight the walls, and because the ceiling is white and low, that bounce becomes the hair light. No kick lights, which is one less system for the team to own and aim.

The screens

Altitude LED at 1.9mm pitch: a 2.5 by 1.5 metre center canvas with one by two metre portrait panels either side. Choosing LED over projection is what lets the stage lighting stay bright without washing the image out, which is the whole reason the room reads as well as it does.

“You can go to an integrator and get the same product, same systems, same labeling schemes. But those people don’t know ministry. Churchfront’s really special because you guys understand ministry. You guys are church people.”

Justin Audia Tech Director, Agoura Bible Fellowship

System summary

• Fulcrum Acoustic CCX15 mains and CCX12 delays
• Dual 18in cardioid subwoofer
• Fulcrum RX8 front fills in custom under-stage pockets
• Powersoft amplification with Dante
• Altitude LED at 1.9mm, center plus side portraits
• Existing Midas M32 retained, DL32 stage box
• SoundTools CAT Drops and Elite Core stage boxes
• Lyntec NPAC networked power sequencing

The room

First Baptist Pontotoc’s contemporary service had outgrown its space. Rather than build, they took the old basketball gymnasium and turned it into a 600-seat worship center: new floor, new paint, and a serious quantity of acoustic treatment.

Treatment that reads as architecture

Primacoustic Broadway panels went in throughout, two feet by four, wrapped in linen with bevelled edges. The bevel is a small decision that matters. It reads as architecture rather than as a recording studio, which is the difference between a room that looks treated and a room that looks finished.

The system

Fulcrum Acoustic FL-283T arrays, five boxes a side of dual eight-inch cardioid elements, with six RX-6 front fills underneath. An Allen & Heath SQ-6 on Dante at front of house. A Goblin 2.5 enclosure takes twenty-five to thirty decibels off the drums, which is what makes a comfortable room volume achievable in the first place. Two discreet hanging condensers capture the congregation singing, because a broadcast without the room in it sounds like an empty building.

Screens and light

An eighteen by ten foot center LED screen with four vertical strips and two side screens, each addressable separately in ProPresenter. Barbina linear fixtures in four-foot sections handle the house light and double as an architectural element. Ten Ovation E-910s front-light the stage, with Rogue and Maverick fixtures on the back truss.

Supported from anywhere

A Lyntec N-PAC sequences the power over the network. The practical version of that is our team can bring the system up, take it down, or diagnose it from Florida. Pontotoc is a small church in a small town, and that is exactly where remote support is worth the most.

System summary

• Fulcrum Acoustic FL-283T arrays, five per side
• Fulcrum RX-6 front fills
• Allen & Heath SQ-6 on Dante with DT-168 stage boxes
• Goblin 2.5 drum enclosure
• 18ft x 10ft center LED plus four vertical strips
• Barbina linear house lighting
• Chauvet Ovation E-910 and Maverick fixtures
• Lyntec N-PAC networked power sequencing

The room

St. John’s is a traditional sanctuary in Napa: timber, stained glass, and a room that rings for more than three seconds. The brief was a serious step up in audio and video without altering anything about how the space looks, and without handing the volunteers something they could not run on a Sunday morning.

Small boxes, precise coverage

Fulcrum Acoustic coaxial speakers put the tweeter and the woofer on the same axis inside one compact box, and here the size is the point: the smaller the box, the less it argues with the architecture. Two CCX1226 twelve-inch boxes cover the main congregation with eight-inch models filling the rear, and a single eighteen-inch subwoofer carries the low end for the whole room. We left the space untreated on purpose. With an organ and a choir they want the life in the room, and a coaxial is precise enough about where it throws that the mix stays under control regardless.

Past the sanctuary doors

An upgrade is not only the main room. Six-inch Fulcrum boxes cover the lobby, and the outdoor speakers and the nursing mothers’ room tie into the same system through a Symetrix Jupiter DSP and Powersoft amplification. Several of their existing amplifiers stayed exactly where they were and were simply brought onto the new DSP, which is cheaper and works just as well.

Built to be run by volunteers

An Allen & Heath SQ7 with Dante, a GX4816 stage box, and an ME-U hub driving ME-500 personal mixers so every musician saves and recalls their own mix week to week. Shure ULXD wireless on charging docks, which ends the weekly battery routine. A Lowell rack on casters with a sequencer at the top, so one switch in the morning brings the building up in the right order and nothing thumps. And a remote node, so our team can service the system from Florida.

“The neat and tidy setup is less of a distraction, which lets people focus on worshiping God. The new system has made our job as volunteers easier.”

Jacob Bartelt Worship tech volunteer, St. John’s Lutheran

System summary

• Fulcrum Acoustic CCX1226 mains with 8in rear fills
• Fulcrum 18in subwoofer
• Symetrix Jupiter DSP and Powersoft UNICA 8M
• Allen & Heath SQ7 with Dante and GX4816
• ME-U hub driving ME-500 personal mixers
• Shure ULXD wireless on charging docks
• Altitude LED screens on a NovaStar processor
• Lowell rack with sequencer and remote support node

The room

Trinity wanted more than new equipment. They wanted systems that improved worship without changing how the room feels, which meant every component had to be judged on how it looks as well as what it does. The whole installation took one week on site, which only happens when the planning is done properly first.

Acoustics and aesthetics in the same decision

Primacoustic panels on the sanctuary walls and four-by-four clouds overhead. A slat wall treatment runs through the building as a design language: behind the stage, in the tech booth, even on the keyboard and drum cable stands. The speakers were painted white to disappear into the room, and the RF antennas are architectural units sitting flat against the ceiling.

The change that mattered most

It was not a product. The mix position came out of the tech booth and onto the main floor, where the congregation sits. An engineer who hears what the room hears makes better decisions, and no amount of new equipment fixes a mix position in the wrong place. The new position is a sit-stand desk with an Allen & Heath SQ6 on Dante, and a repurposed podium microphone doing talkback.

The whole building, not just the sanctuary

Lobby speakers time-aligned to the mains, so walking in does not smear. Ceiling speakers with local volume control in the nursery and the cry room. Distribution to the kitchen and fellowship hall for the volunteers preparing food. Fulcrum RX699s in the overflow space. Wherever someone is in the building, they are still part of the service.

The screens

An Altitude LED wall replaced an ageing rear-projection system, which matters a great deal in a room with this much natural light coming through stained glass. Before the service it displays digitised versions of the church’s own windows. That is not a feature anyone sells you. It comes from paying attention to the building.

System summary

• Fulcrum DX12 mains with 1226 outfills, painted to match
• Dual 18in Fulcrum subwoofer
• Allen & Heath SQ6 with AR2412 and AR84
• ME-500 personal mixers and PSM300 wireless IEM
• Shure SLXD wireless on architectural RF antennas
• Altitude LED wall replacing rear projection
• ATEM 2 M/E Constellation HD with PTZOptics cameras
• Pro Church Lights package with LightKey and wall panels

The room

Faith Covenant outgrew a 200-seat building and expanded to 500. We came in before the walls went up, which is the best possible time to arrive on a project. Every conduit path, every speaker position and every cable run got decided while those decisions were still cheap to make.

The system

Dual eighteen-inch subwoofers under four dual fifteen-inch coaxial mains, with delays and front fills placed so the back row and the front row get the same experience. Primacoustic treatment through the room brings reverb under two seconds. A Behringer Wing console, Powersoft amplification and Dante across the whole system, with Sennheiser wireless on RF Venue distribution.

Knowing where not to spend

The centre of the room is a 3.5 by 2 metre Altitude LED wall. Either side of it, short-throw laser projectors onto Screen Goo painted surfaces. That decision cost roughly four thousand dollars a side against the sixty thousand another pair of LED walls would have run, and from a seat you simply read three screens. Deciding where the money stops working is as much a part of the design as deciding where it goes.

Built to be run by volunteers

Four PTZ cameras into an ATEM Constellation 2 M/E, with BoxCast handling the stream. The production booth has standing desks and KVMs. ProPresenter triggers LightKey, a Stream Deck sits across both, and a wall panel gives anyone access to the lighting presets without going near a computer.

System summary

• Four dual 15in coaxial mains with dual 18in subwoofers
• Delay speakers and front fills for even coverage
• Primacoustic treatment to under a two second RT60
• Behringer Wing console on Dante with Powersoft amps
• Sennheiser wireless on RF Venue distribution
• 3.5m x 2m Altitude LED wall
• Short-throw laser projectors onto Screen Goo
• ATEM Constellation 2 M/E, four PTZ cameras, BoxCast