The WorshipCentre Christian Church in the Brisbane suburb of Carina has recently upgraded its technical infrastructure with a new public address system.
Production Audio Video Technology Pty Ltd (PAVT), who already had a relationship with the client, were the successful bidders, and they recommended the versatile and efficient Powersoft X Series amplifiers to power an EAW system.
According to Project Manager, David Watson, and Sound Designer, Ben Clarke, the requirement had been for a typical modern Pentecostal style church system. “This included good intelligibility for spoken word, as well as great energy transfer for modern music styles including full band and concert style presentations,” said Ben. And, of course, the system had to provide even coverage to the seated area for a maximum of some 1,000 or so congregants.
The room was modeled using the EAW proprietary modeling and optimisation software, Resolution. “The building design had some challenges that required some acoustic treatment of surfaces, with the need to keep as much of the PA energy away from the surfaces as possible,” Ben added. “We needed to make sure we delivered clear, coherent hi-fi style sound to the seated areas.”
Having distributed Powersoft amplifiers over a 14-year period, PAVT knew that this brand would provide the best partnership with the EAW KF740 line array. “The X Series has incredible and precise control over the EAW speaker elements that made up the system, allowing the delivery of highly accurate and coherent results,” Ben continued.
The Powersoft amps were configured with one X8 running six cabinets of four-way EAW KF740 line array on the left wing – repeated with another X8 running the right hang of six cabinets.
A Powersoft X4 drives the EAW QX564 bi amped speaker cabinet, acting as sidefills. Two channels are assigned to the high and low, while the remaining two channels run front fill JF8 speakers. This is repeated, with another X4 powering the other PA flank.
In addition, a pair of Powersoft K20 amplifiers have more than enough headroom to drive four EAW SB2001 dual 21-inch subwoofers, with each output channel running one enclosure. These subs require 4,000W at two ohms running power with transients of all 9,000W.
Carrying out the installation were third party HOW specialists, CPC Production Services. One major advantage of the Powersoft amplifiers – as noted immediately by the customer during the demonstration and testing phase – was that the Powersoft X series occupied less rack space than other amplifier solutions … by a long way. They could also see that it offered more power per channel and that the amplifiers generated far less heat than other brands, noticing in particular how the temperature cooled when X Series was installed.
The advantages of Powersoft were picked up by both Ben and the client. “This amplifier is comfortably more cost-effective per channel than others we have tried – plus it sounds fantastic, occupies less space and is extremely powerful,” Ben explained. “In fact when we recommend X Series to projects it is the price per channel that helps make it a first choice where higher power and channel counts are required.”
Executive Pastor (and CFO), Tim Follett agreed: “We love the outcome of using Powersoft amplifiers to power our EAW speaker system. The accurate reproduction of music and speech is outstanding. The amount of space required to install all the amplifiers was so much smaller than other brands. Powersoft gets the big thumbs up from us at Worship Centre Christian Church.”
