The church, one of the Caribbean island's largest houses of worship - hosts eight to 10 services a week in its main hall, where the new system has been installed, while a second smaller hall caters for 1,200 people and further breakout halls serve community events, children's groups and special events.
A very high, curved ceiling characterises the wide, 180° fan-shaped main hall, where system integrator AMR, based in Barataria, Trinidad, began a series of upgrades of the room's house system in 2005. The original system consisted mainly of ceiling loudspeakers, which while providing some sound reinforcement gave neither 'presence' to the oration nor directional focus back to the altar or to the stage.
Systems engineer Clifford Beckles comments: "There needed to be a sense of where the voice is coming from, a sense of localisation; it was about directivity. The acoustics are very nice - it just needed a good sound system install."
Worship services, which are entirely volunteer-led, generally involve loud music ministry, who also appreciate a high level in their monitors. Almost every member of the choir has their own solo microphone - "it seems to be a Trinidadian thing and it makes the engineer sweat," comments Beckles. A Shure Beta lead mic is complemented by a Countryman Isomax and a full complement of Shure wireless handheld systems.
The main sound system, he explains, had to deliver a high power-to-size/weight ratio due to the ceiling's restricted loading capacity and the desire to keep sightlines clear. The system comprises four self-powered PN102/LA cabinets a side, with each array totalling just under 300 pounds. These cover the entire main body of the seating and Beckles comments: "That loudspeaker has the most amazing dispersion I've ever seen in the horizontal, and even the bottom cabinet gives quite workable nearfield fill. We didn't lose much coverage in the front at all - maybe six feet from the raised dais."
That near-fill area was duly filled in with a Renkus-Heinz PN82/12 and two compact PN82/9 self-powered cabinets, four more of which were deployed in two delay zones at the room's extremities. "When we'd installed them we were expecting to tweak them with EQ," adds Beckles, "but the general room measurements turned out to be almost ruler-flat; there was almost no need for EQ at all. To EQ the room we used a 1/3 octave EQ at various locations around the room, looked at it with SMAART in a few different areas, and dialed it back in by hand. And there's more than enough output - we're running the PN102/LAs well below their maximum output potential."
The system is zoned using a dbx DriveRack 260, which provides basic EQ and around 6-8dB of feedback suppression. In control is a pair of Yamaha 02R digital consoles, which are scheduled to be moved to the church's video editing suite when the FOH desk is upgraded to a Soundcraft Vi6 digital console.
In the meantime, AMR is providing enhancements to the monitor system with the addition of a transformer-isolated 32 channel split snake to allow for the use of an existing 32-channel Mackie as a dedicated monitor console, replacing the former arrangement of taking a monitor sub-mix from the 02Rs.
(Jim Evans)
