The octagonal-shaped sanctuary is acoustically challenging. Designed to feature the church's pipe organ and choir, the building's wood and glass ceiling, brick walls and rock and tile floor create a reflective environment that wreaks havoc with spoken word intelligibility. As senior pastor Eugene Kern explains, the issue was one that was initially not easy to discern.
"Since my arrival to First Lutheran in early 2009, there were complaints passed on to me about the sound system," says Kern. "It took some time to interpret the specifics behind generalized statements like 'I can't hear,' but we eventually determined that we did, indeed, have a number of 'dead' zones in the sanctuary where the quality of the sound was reduced. To make matters even more confusing, we also determined that we had a number of volunteers attempting to remedy the situation by making adjustments to the mixing console - with an astounding variety of results."
Once the problems were identified, the church turned to Frederick, MD-based Audio-Video Group, who designed and installed a system based around Community Professional Loudspeakers' Solutions Series SLS920 three-way high performance loudspeakers. A ring of eight SLS920 cabinets flown over the stage provides consistent, even coverage to the entire sanctuary.
"The system covers every seat, with no dead zones," says Kern. "The sound is clear, and volume is controlled electronically. Intelligibility is vastly improved, and we are able to expand our inputs to two, three, six or even seven microphones just by turning a knob. The automation is an unexpected plus - we come in on Sunday morning, turn on the system, and we're ready to go. We no longer have to rely on volunteers to turn knobs and adjust levels."
(Jim Evans)
