Blackshear Baptist is one of the fastest growing churches in the Atlanta area, with the expansion of the sanctuary from 1,000 seats to more than 1,700 reflecting this growth. The sanctuary now offers theatre-style raked seating and a huge balcony wrapping around three sides of the room. Members enjoy worship services that include spoken word, a large traditional choir, and more contemporary music provided by a rhythm section and brass/reed section.
dB Audio & Video (dB A&V) of Gainesville, Georgia, provided the sound system design and installation, in addition to the acoustical design and a sophisticated video system. dB A&V collaborated closely with Blackshear Baptist technical director Stephen Odum and other key church representatives on the project.
Initially new loudspeakers where not slated for the sound system upgrade. "The church had planned to re-use the existing loudspeakers, as they appeared to be sufficient, but after a visit to the Danley demo room it was decided to upgrade to the Danley products," says Mike Hedden president of Danley Sound Labs.
As a result, the mono system now features a main cluster mounted above the front/centre of the main platform that is made up of Danley Sound Labs SH-50 full-range loudspeakers. The cluster is flanked by single SH-50 loudspeakers flown far left and right, reinforcing coverage to main floor seating at the outer side regions of the very wide room.
The SH-50 is a fully horn-loaded three-way loudspeaker, with a large horn offering exceptional directivity and front-to-back rejection. It utilises two proprietary Danley Sound Labs technologies, the tapped horn and synergy horn, producing solid performance down below 50Hz.
The SH-50 is designed to perform well in tight-packed arrays, with minimal overlap regions. Down-fill coverage to the first few seating rows is bolstered by a single SH-100 compact full-range loudspeaker, mounted beneath the cluster and tilted sharply downward. Five more SH-100 loudspeakers, which are eight-inch coaxial loaded and offer 110 degrees conical coverage, bolster coverage to the expansive balcony seating areas, receiving signal that is time delayed in the system's digital signal processor to match output arrival with that of the main loudspeakers.
"Other than a standard high-pass filter, no additional processing was applied to optimise any of these loudspeakers," Hedden says. "With so many products on the market requiring loads of DSP and amplifiers just to get them to yield decent performance, it's a testament to the superior design that is Synergy Horn technology. Additional bass support is provided by two Danley Sound Labs TL-112 single-12-inch-loaded subwoofers flown adjacent to the main cluster. These subs also incorporate designer Tom Danley's tapped horn design principles, which maximise power transfer between the driver and horn. All loudspeakers used on the project were supplied in white cabinets that better match the aesthetics of the new sanctuary.
Hedden says: "The upgraded loudspeaker system has received consistent praise from the congregation and staff yet when you look at the new digital console's display you see that there is practically no equalization engaged on any channel. It is very rewarding to know that much of the praise is in great part to the incredible pattern control and overall design of the Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers."
(Chris Henry)
