A recent sound reinforcement upgrade for the worship sanctuary of Epic Church International in Sayreville, NJ saw New York-based AV design/build firm Advanced Audio implement DAS Audio Aero line arrays joined by UX series powered subwoofers.
Advanced Audio of New York, a full-service AV design/build firm that, in addition to its installation business, operates an event sound services division, was contracted to design and deploy the new sound system at Epic Church. After consulting with church management, they ultimately penned a system consisting of DAS Audio Aero-20A compact line array enclosures plus UX-218A and UX-221A powered subwoofers.
“The sanctuary at Epic Church is really quite impressive as well as challenging,” says Burton A. Ishmael, Advanced Audio’s owner/operator and chief systems designer. “The room is fan shaped and includes a wraparound (180-degree) balcony. The space measures 150 feet at the maximum spread and the length of the space is 120 feet, with a ceiling height of 40 feet. Seating is fixed and cushioned, and the room’s capacity is approximately 2,300 people. Services at Epic Church are contemporary in nature and there are both a praise team of vocalists as well as a full instrumental backup band. Because of this, it was crucial for the new sound system to not only have excellent speech intelligibility characteristics, it also needed first rate music reproduction and the dynamic capability to deliver the full frequency spectrum as well as consistent frequency response with sufficient SPL throughout the space. Further, the ability to control and monitor the loudspeaker system at front of house was a requirement.”
To address these requirements, Ishmael and his team deployed three main line arrays — left, center, right — with each cluster consisting of six DAS Aero-20A enclosures. Further out into the room, there are also two delay loudspeaker clusters for the left- and right-side balcony areas, each consisting of four Aero-20A enclosures. Eight DAS UX-218A subwoofers, four each for the left and right sides, flown behind the left and right Aero-20A arrays, fortify the low end. There are also four UX-221A ultra low frequency subwoofers, ground stacked in front of the front platform, two enclosures each for the left and right sides.
“The ability to reproduce music naturally with wide dynamic range while still having excellent speech intelligibility were critical considerations on this project,” Ishmael states. “Further, uniform frequency coverage throughout the space and suitable sound pressure levels were equally important. The DAS Aero-20A loudspeakers are not only musical, their horizontal dispersion characteristics do a great job of providing even coverage throughout the space. Equally important, these loudspeakers don’t interfere with line-of-sight considerations, and this was particularly important because there are left, center, and right LED screens mounted above the stage area. DAS Audio’s DASnet audio management software took care of the networking and monitoring of all components in the system.”
The installation at Epic Church occurred late last year and the equipment was placed into service immediately after, and since that time, Ishmael reports the new system has met with success: “Everyone is really pleased with the new system. I’ve received numerous compliments from church management and members of the congregation have also commented on how clear and natural sounding the new system is. I believe the church will get many years of service from this sound system. It’s been a rewarding experience for everyone involved.”