Travis Groat, Technical Director of Sheridan Hills Church in Hollywood, Florida, contacted Professional Audio Visual consultant Lee Buckalew to discuss the church’s need for an upgraded sound system. And he should know — for in addition to his consultancy, Buckalew is Technical Director for First Baptist Church of Arnold just outside St. Louis.

Keeping in touch with Sheridan Hills’ Technical Director, Pastor and Worship Leader throughout the design process was critical. The church’s ministries were growing to the point where the existing meeting place for Sunday morning services was soon to be outgrown and Buckalew and Groat wanted to anticipate future needs in terms of facility growth.

Sheridan Hills’ main Worship Centre seats approximately 1200, and the church added a second Sunday morning service to accommodate the overflow. Each Sunday morning service in the Worship Centre includes a full 25-member orchestra and 65-member choir. The Worship leader uses a wireless headset for vocals with a wireless belt-pack for his guitar. The existing sound system could no longer handle the needs of this growing church.

The Worship Centre presented unique challenges for a loudspeaker system. It was old and had been extensively modified over time. “We had to determine if any of the existing drawings were accurate,” said Buckalew. Detailed measurements of critical areas were taken and the designers were surprised to discover a set of drawings with the updated construction.

The next challenge was using blueprints of manual drafting plates. “Normally we would take an electronic drawing and convert it to EASE format to do acoustical calculations for various speaker systems and layouts,” recounts Buckalew. Instead they took the blueprints and hand drafted a series of overlays that allowed him to analyse the various coverage angles for the room. They then used Martin Audio’s proprietary ViewPoint™ software and laid out the initial system.

Martin Audio engineers confirmed Buckalew’s cabinet positioning. “This made me feel great since I was working with a brand new box that I hadn’t had a chance to hear or use yet. However, I was quite familiar with the W8L and W8LC, and was confident that the W8LM would be the sonic equal of the larger boxes.”

There were sonic and acoustic challenges as well. The Worship Center room had many hard, reflective surfaces, compounded by the beaming of the sound off of the hemispherical walls.

“There was never another manufacturer in my mind other than Martin Audio,” explains Buckalew. “I had worked with Martin products for years and found them to be among the best available.” The compact size and low weight of the W8LM made it possible for them to utilise a true LCR system that didn’t block sightlines to the proposed new screen locations.

Pastor Ed Callahan, Sheridan Hills Worship Leader, had never heard a full Martin system before. “I knew the Worship Leader was a bit apprehensive,” says Buckalew, “so we arranged a demo of some Martin LE12JB floor monitors. They fell in love with them and bought them on the spot.”

A flown three-array, LCR system was laid out with six Martin W8LM cabinets in each. Four Martin WLX sub bass cabinets were designed in with the option of either being ground-stacked or flown. Four Martin WTUB cabinets were specified for under balcony fill. “The side balconies in this space represented another challenge,” said Buckalew. “We were afraid that they would create significant acoustic shadows for two or three pews of congregation members.” Buckalew worked with engineers at Martin to customise two LE12JB monitors for

the fill.

“I wanted to use the LE12JB’s because they utilise a differential dispersion horn,” explains Buckalew. “Essentially this all-horn design means that, as you get farther from the box, sound pressure remains relatively constant because the horn’s compound angle is very broad when you are close to the box and narrows as you are further away.” Implementing this principle had the desired effect.

“This system is the best sounding that I have ever heard,” said Callahan. “All of the subtlety of the instruments is there, vocals come through clearly and cleanly and are easily understood without being harsh or too loud. We couldn’t be happier with the system.”

As Buckalew concludes, “The results we were able to obtain even before acoustically treating the room were due in part to the exceptional pattern control provided by the W8LM arrays but were influenced even more by the consistency of phase response provided by the Mini Arrays. Test measurements of coherence and phase response in the Worship Center after the installation showed an incredible increase in the coherence of sound and a smoother phase response curve throughout the room even with all three arrays driven.”