When the University Park United Methodist Church in the Dallas suburb of Highland Park, Texas, suffered flooding last year, it was decided to repurpose some of the affected spaces as part of the larger renovation, adding two new classrooms, a gathering area and a coffee bar. But unsurprisingly for a sturdily built structure like the one the church has occupied for decades, behind the new drywall was a warren of brick, concrete and metal structural elements – the sorts of things that could be impediments to the wireless audio systems the church wanted to install in the classrooms. To prevent any wireless issues, Clear ProAV, the church’s AV systems integration provider, chose components from RF Venue, a leading global manufacturer of antenna and RF communications wireless audio essentials.
Clear ProAV chose four antennas that would be routed through an RF Venue 4 ZONE active antenna combiner to cover the entire new construction area. However, they chose a very special antenna for this project: four of the new RF Venue Diversity Architectural Antennas, designed to meet the rigorous aesthetic requirements of contemporary installations while still delivering the renowned performance of the classic RF Venue Diversity Fin Antenna.
“This is an ancillary space, compared to the sanctuary, but it’s still an important space, and one the church wanted to use to its full potential. By combining classrooms and gathering areas, the need for a flexible wireless solution became a priority,” explains Anthony Stowell, Director of Integrations at Clear ProAV. “More churches have become aware of a high church aesthetic in design — they know that technology now has to have an architectural consideration as well as a practical one. That’s why the Diversity Architectural Antenna was such a great addition to our tool belt. It’s paintable, so we can make it fit any color scheme, and its slim design means it can fit anywhere. People have become used to seeing technology in the church, such as wireless access points on ceilings, but they still need to be as unobtrusive as possible. The new RF Venue Diversity Architectural Antenna does all of that, while also doing its core job of making sure that this new area of the church never has a wireless dropout.”
Clear ProAV designed the space so that the customer’s Sennheiser wireless microphone system can be zoned as needed, with between one and four zones of wireless per space. Stowell recalls that RF Venue’s CX-22 Ceiling Tile Antenna has been the go-to solution for aesthetic challenges in the past. “The CX-22 is a great antenna, and the Diversity Architectural Antenna takes it to another level,” he says. “It can be painted, it can be mounted high or low and it still delivers great coverage. It’s what we expect from RF Venue: innovation and reliability. That’s why we love them.”