The 100-year old Bethany Community Church (BCC) Green Lake in Seattle, Washington has invested in a new STM modular line array, teamed with a Yamaha CL5 digital audio console, designed and installed by Morgan Sound of Lynnwood, WA.
With a weekly attendance of approximately 3,000 people across six physical campuses and one online, BCC decided to upgrade the sound system in the 600+ seat sanctuary in its state-of-the-art worship space at its Green Lake location.
BCC has a full contemporary worship band that typically includes drums, percussion, bass, electric guitar and acoustic guitars, keyboard/organ, and acoustic piano. Many of the musicians sing and play, but the typical vocal complement typically includes 3-4 main vocalists. The church also features a 40-member choir.
Bart Brueck, the church technical director, knew that the BCC’s contemporary worship service had progressed to the point that it was time to implement a new audio system and mixing infrastructure. Needs for higher SPL, multi-track recording, virtual soundcheck, new in-ear monitoring, and a separate streaming mixing system were urgent priorities.
“Morgan Sound has been the primary BCC contractor for over ten years and has worked for hand in hand with the church technical team to provide equipment and expertise for the main campus and the satellite campuses as well,” stated Stephen Weeks, senior A/V consultant for Morgan Sound.
“All of the locations include Yamaha or NEXO products so that volunteers have a common operating platform across all of the venues. It was natural that Yamaha and NEXO products would be featured prominently in this venue.”
Church staff received a demo of the NEXO STM M28 that was selected due to its compact size and stellar audio quality. “That, coupled with Dante-enabled amplifiers made the design decision an easy one,” said Weeks. “NEXO’s commitment to making their products work well together is an important factor, but sonic excellence is really the overriding feature of the STM M28 system.”
The NEXO system deploys 8 modules per side of M28s, 7x ID24 speakers used for front fills on the stage stairs, 6x ID24s used under-balcony delays, 3x RS15-P Dual 15″ Ray Subs in custom bunkers under the stage, a pair of PS10 speakers in monitor mode for general onstage use, 4x NEXO NXAMP4X4 and 2x NEXO NXAMP4X1 amplifiers. 5x NEXO NXD104MK2 Dante Cards, an Aviom D800D distribution amp, and a Waves Impact Server With 2 WSG-Y16 Cards for 32 Waves inserts complete the system control.
A Yamaha CL5 Digital Audio Console and Rio1608-D and 3224-D Stage Boxes were implemented over a new Dante network. Morgan Sound added a Waves impact server along with Yamaha MY cards for 32 channels of Waves plug-ins to extend plugin options.
“The system sounds warm and full with extraordinary detail and clarity, adds Weeks. “The phase response on the PA is truly fantastic and made system tuning and alignment very straightforward.”
Bart Brueck praised the NEXO system, “which has just completely blown us away in terms of fidelity and openness. The articulation and evenness throughout the worship space comparatively is night and day. We couldn’t be happier with this installation and can’t imagine making this leap without the incredible team at Morgan Sound under the expert guidance of Stephen Weeks.”
