Established as a Christian Church in 1988 and located in the city of San Bernardino, California, The Rock Church and World Outreach Center is built into a new, 188,000 sq. ft, state-of-the-art facility, with a sanctuary covering 42,000 sq. ft with 2,600 seats.

Senior pastors Jim and Deborah Cobrae wanted a sound system that would deliver the spoken word clearly, yet still have the ability to keep up with a powerful and diverse music ministry. Due to its location in the inner city of San Bernardino, the Church mixes different cultures, and the worship music reflects from each one — from black gospel to rock and roll and everything in between.

With Richard Ralke of LA Sound’s guidance, The Rock chose Martin Audio to supply the essential audio for the 10,000 members. For those church members who play in the band or sing in the audience, every word, note and sound can be clearly heard because of the quality of the Martin Audio system.

Commenting on the Wavefront W8C’s, Paul Roberts — a member of the congregation and the sound engineer who installed the system — says, “They take very little equalising or processing to get better performance quality sound from the rig than any other system. And it’s really quick and easy to set-up, which makes things a lot easier for us. I appreciated the hands-on technical support that Rob Hofkamp and Peter Child at Martin Audio gave to this project.”

In terms of specifics, The Rock’s FOH system includes a 48-channel Soundcraft MH4, along with stereo 4-way active Martin Audio Wavefront W8C and W8CS loudspeakers. Power is provided by Crest Audio 7001 and 8001 amplifiers. System processing includes a dbx DriveRack controller; an Ashly stereo 31-band EQ, with Martin Audio EM186 as delays. Shure, Sennheiser and Audio-Technica wired and wireless mics, and an FOH outboard processing setup includes two Klark-Teknik DN 410 Parametrics, four BSS DPR-404 Quad Comp De-Essers, two TC Electronic M-ONE XL and Yamaha SPX 990 reverbs, two Denon DN-T625 CD/cassette players and a Sony MiniDisc player.

Visually speaking, the pastors were concerned with the appearance of large unsightly speaker clusters protruding from the ceiling. Roberts had all the speakers painted white, with the rigging cables coated with white plastic to keep them out of sight as they blend into the white ceiling. The delays, front fill,
and stage fill are all Martin EM186s.

The Rock’s first concert featured New Zealand’s Parachute Band. The band’s manager Lance Cathro and front of house engineer Brent Greenwood were stunned at the power and clarity characteristics of the Martin Audio Wavefronts.

From day one, the system has satisfied the entire pastoral staff, musicians, audio staff, technical staff — and most importantly the entire congregation, whose financial pledges made the whole project possible.