With its mission to nurture a diverse and welcoming community, Cornerstone Church is a non-denominational / Evangelical house of worship with a congregation that hails from every walk of life, every ethnicity, and every economic and educational background. To ensure that its message reaches the entire congregation no matter where one may be seated, the church recently upgraded its sound reinforcement system with loudspeakers drawn from the AERO, UX, and EVENT series catalogs of Valencia, Spain -based DAS Audio.
Jag Sound Productions LLC, a design / build Pro AV integration firm that, in addition to its installation business also operates a live sound services division, was contracted to handle the design and installation of the new sound system at Cornerstone Church. Company owner Juan Gonzalez, who oversees sales, system design, and system integration, ultimately selected DAS Audio AERO-20, UX-218A, and EVENT-26A loudspeakers for the project. He discussed the installation.
“Cornerstone Church reaches a wide gamut of worshippers from all walks of life,” Juan explained. “As such, the church’s services are both traditional and contemporary in nature. The sanctuary incorporates an 86 ft wide stage area and from there, the room fans out to a width of 144 ft along the back wall. The room’s depth also measures 107 ft. The space accommodates approximately 1,400 worshippers and seating is fixed. Further, the space also serves as a performance venue for a variety of touring acts. With this in mind, it was crucial that the new system offered wide sound dispersion to reach everyone and that both music reproduction and speech intelligibility were first rate.”
The new sound system consists of 20 DAS Audio AERO-20A two-way, powered line array enclosures – flown 10 loudspeakers per each side of the stage. Each loudspeaker incorporates a single 12-inch neodymium loudspeaker, one neodymium compression driver, and is powered by an 800W low frequency / 400W high frequency Class D amplifier. Low frequency support is provided by 4 DAS UX-218A powered subwoofers, which are positioned two enclosures per each side of the stage. Each subwoofer includes dual 18-inch long excursion loudspeakers in a front loaded crossfire configuration. Power is provided by two 3,400W peak Class D amplifiers.
For front fill, Juan also deployed four DAS EVENT-26A two-way, ultra-compact powered line array enclosures. Each EVENT-26A enclosure combines two 6.5-inch transducers and a single compression driver powered by a two-channel Class D amplifier providing 800 Wpeak power. “These loudspeakers were the perfect choice to cover the first one or two rows of seats directly in front of the stage area,” Juan explained. “Their small footprint doesn’t interfere visually with the activity taking place on stage and they do a great job filling the area between the left and right hangs.”
When queried about those DAS attributes that made these loudspeakers ideal for the Cornerstone Church project, Juan offered the following comments: “We needed loudspeakers that offered a combination of excellent music reproduction capability while also providing first rate speech intelligibility. With this combination of loudspeakers, the music sounds well defined and rich while speech is clear and articulate. If the congregation can’t clearly hear what the Pastor is saying, then the message is lost.”
With many installation projects, questions inevitably arise. In this regard, Juan was very complimentary of DAS Audio’s support services, “The DAS Audio Miami, FL office takes great care of their customers. They always get back to me promptly and go out of their way to ensure my questions have been answered. I’ve been very impressed.”
The new sound reinforcement system at Cornerstone Church was installed in January and was immediately placed into service. In the short period of time the new system has been operational, Juan reported his client is extremely pleased. “Pastor Franklin tells me he is very happy with the new sound system. He said that numerous members of the congregation have noticed a dramatic difference as well. The new DAS system makes a tremendous improvement to the sound throughout the room and, in the process makes services more engaging for everyone in attendance. It’s been a win-win for everyone involved.”
