Christ’s Church of Winterville, North Carolina embraces a contemporary style of worship to present their message in a compelling and engaging manner. Consequently, audio visual upgrades were a major part of the extensive renovation project that has transformed their worship center. After years of replacing AV system components as necessary through a “band-aid approach,” the Church entrusted Auburn AV CEO/co-founder John Crawford to design and install a comprehensive sound, video and lighting system from the ground up for their renovated worship centre.
The rectangular room’s concrete walls and metal-skinned roof presented significant acoustical challenges. Additionally, the new sound system needed to provide even coverage and high fidelity for both music reproduction and voice intelligibility.
In scoping and designing the sound system for the worship centre renovation, Crawford focused on directivity and fidelity. Fulcrum CX Series 2-way loudspeakers with powerful single-neodymium-magnet coaxial transducers serve as mains – with left and right CX1595s (90° x 45°), and a CX1526 (120° x 60°) and CX896 (90° x 60°) on centre.
“To provide low frequency support while directing energy off the stage, we flew a pair of Fulcrum US221-2 dual 21 inch subwoofers in an active cardioid array above the proscenium. The sub array is an excellent match for the coverage and output level of the mains,” explains Crawford. “We also redesigned the side walls with angles to eliminate parallel reflections, and we installed acoustic paneling to the rear and to select areas of the side walls. This let us create a balance between life in the room for acoustic sources and the sound quality of the speaker system.”
“Our old downward-firing, ceiling-mounted speaker cluster would blast the center of the room while leaving quiet corners to which some of our older members gravitated,” recalls Christ’s Church Worship Minister, Jordan Clark. “Now, sound levels are consistent throughout the room with no hot spots to avoid. We are extremely happy with our new sound system and have heard nothing but positive feedback from our congregation on its benefit to our services.”
