Twin Cities-based Audio Video Electronics (AVE) signed on to the project mostly after the facility layout was planned and designed. The architect for the project was Architecture Inc, based is Sioux Falls, SD with Derrick Knight, Derrick Knight Acoustics, as acoustician.
"American Reformed Church is definitely big into music," said Stefan Svärd, owner and president of AVE. "They have a progressive, contemporary worship style, but their old sanctuary had a distributed system that didn't have a lot of impact. They were looking forward to getting a great sound system with their new worship centre, and it really helped that they invited us to the project early in its development." Citing superior sound quality, pattern control, and amp-channel-saving passive crossovers, AVE specified Danley Sound Labs SH-60 and SH-95 loudspeakers.
"I've been a fan and supporter of Tom Danley's designs for a long time," said Svärd. "At American Reformed Church, we needed great pattern control to deliver great speech intelligibility. Moreover, we could close-pack the Danley boxes with the assurance that they would operate acoustically like a single point source, that is, without any comb filtering that would mess with the system's clarity and fidelity. The Danley design was also cost effective - where other manufacturer's boxes require bi- or tri-amplification, each efficient Danley box only needs a single amp channel."
The church's stereo sound reinforcement system comprises of two Danley clusters. Each cluster contains two Danley SH-60s for main coverage and a single Danley SH-95 for down fill. A Yamaha LS9 console provides the necessary user control, with QSC processing and amplification providing the back-end support.
(Jim Evans)
