Christ Church Moves to Contemporary Worship with NEXO and Yamaha

christ-church-1200-seat-nexo-s12-arrays-m7cl48-center-272.JPGWEST MONROE, Louisiana⎯In 1969, W.R. Lowe and his wife established Christ Church in West Monroe, Louisiana with 21 attendees at the first service. This year, and 30 years after it was established, the church is celebrating the recent completion of a new 43,000 sq. ft. campus expansion including a state-of-the-art 1,200-seat contemporary worship center. Christ Church hired American Audio, Inc. (Ruston, Louisiana) to design and install the audio, lighting, and acoustic systems at the new facility.

“The church wanted to be able to join their two smaller services together held previously in its former space, accommodating the congregation, singers, and musicians with a high-quality sound system for a more vibrant worship,” states Gwin Edwards, President, American Audio, Inc. “With budget being a key factor, we elected to install a NEXO GEO S 12 system because of its quality, power, and meeting the church's price point. It was very important to keep the same ‘clarity' of sound found in their previous smaller space, and we knew the NEXO GEO S12 could do that.” The congregation's contemporary worship experience consists of a choir with four main vocalists, drums, bass, guitars, and keyboards.

The Christ Church GEO S12 system consists of six S1210 and two S1230 boxes in each array. Yamaha Installation Series IF2205 speakers are used for three front fill locations built into the lip of the platform. A Yamaha M7CL-48 digital console, NEXO NX242 processor, Aviom system, Rane RPM system processors, and Crown and Lab Gruppen amplifiers round out the new audio system.

“The Yamaha M7CL-48 and Aviom system vastly expanded Christ Church's on-stage monitoring from the previous four mixes to over 14 now in use (seven from the console and seven from the Aviom system),” says Edwards. “The church had used an analog console with numerous outboard processors. Now, the Yamaha M7CL console more than doubles their previous processing and mixing ability and provides a simple operator interface. During the final practice week, the decision was made to add three wireless ear monitor mixes to the console. It was so simple to adjust the mixer that the operators let the main singers come to the console during practice, select ‘sends on fader' and they could quickly adjust their own ear mix – all without any system interruption. To continue to mix the house, the sound operator just selects DCA on the CentraLogicâ„¢ controls while ‘sends on fader' is in use by the vocalists.”

“The staff at Christ Church has been very pleased with the quality of the sound, performance and capabilities of our new system,” states Ryan Lowe, Associate Pastor/Media. “With expert advice from American Audio, we have achieved a high quality of professional sound while staying within budget. We're thankful for their excellence and service in meeting the needs of our church.”

For more information on Christ Church, visit www.christchurchwm.org.

For more information on American Audio, Inc. visit www.americanaudioinc.com.

For more information on NEXO and Yamaha products, visit www.yamahaca.com.

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About Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc.:

Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. (YCAS) provides a full line of integrated professional audio products offering complete systems solutions for the broadcast, sound reinforcement/installed sound, touring, commercial recording, and post production markets. With the addition of NEXO to the product line, the company remains the official U.S. and Canadian distributor for all NEXO speaker models. YCAS offers comprehensive in-house and field product training for its customers, a dedicated dealer network, and 24/7 technical support.