Event production and integration company Harmon’s AV (Fort Myers, FL) recemtly deployed a new system at Burnt Store Presbyterian Church [BSP] in Punta Gorda headed by RCF HDL active line arrays.
The church’s previous system, 20 years old, was in dire need of an upgrade. “The challenge for us was to find a PA that was properly voiced and was going to cover the room for varying types of services,” explains company owner Bobby Harmon. “Initially when we discussed upgrading the system, one thing that came up was their live concert series. The church holds several live concerts [with full bands] throughout the year, and usually hire outside companies to provide additional sound.”
Other acoustic challenges throughout the church include echo and bounce-back which. “One issue we had to address was the reverberance of the room, which they liked for the traditional services, so they didn’t want to change that,” Harmon notes. “We talked about room acoustics and treating it, but the music minister didn’t want to change the natural acoustics of the room. Another issue brought up by one of the pastors, was the ‘echo in a cave’ sound of being when speaking on the stage, which we determined was bounce-back from the back wall. We knew we could solve these issues with a line array system and few fills throughout the room.”
The new system employs RCF HDL 6-A active line arrays flown left and right above the platform, painted white to blend in with the sanctuary’s aesthetics. The low end is bolstered with two RCF SUB 8004 subwoofers (also active designs), one placed on each side of the platform.
My experience with the [HDL] 6-A was that I really like how the box is voiced,” he says. I’ve been very impressed with how they’re tuned, I knew it would be a really good fit. For me it really wasn’t a matter of choosing a passive or active, it was about choosing the right solution for the space — and it happened to be active.”
Another challenge was power sequencing, with an electrician brought in to run additional power throughout the room, with Harmon adding, “I find the ease of an active system is really nice, not having to match amps, the [RCF] system didn’t require very much tuning either, the modules are very flat out of the box, it sounded great with little effort.”
Two RCF M-1001 passive loudspeakers, mounted left and right to ceiling beams and also painted white, deliver added coverage on the platform, They’re driven by an RCF IPS Series amplifier. “We like how that was working so added an additional pair of M-1001s to the overflow areas as well,” Harmon concludes.