KIRKWOOD, Mo. After spending Sundays for 17 years in a space at a local middle school, Greentree Community Church moved to a new building in October. Among the biggest improvements with that new space is a sound system featuring Fulcrum Acoustic loudspeakers.
"It's a massive difference, we were using a step up from a portable system," said Greentree Community Church Director of Worship Chip Demetri. "Now we have a full permanent installation, and there's a dramatic difference in quality and clarity. The Fulcrum speakers sound great."
For the contemporary Evangelical Presbyterian church that now seats approximately 400, their services and other events feature music with voice, violin, piano, as well as a full-amplified band with drums. In that space, Demetri—who has been a worship director for 25 years and for five years at Greentree—said, "There's a lot more things we can do now that we couldn't do before, and we can do it better. We didn't have a massive budget for (audio, video and lighting), but we were able to do enough to get a high quality room."
One of the most noticeable benefits in that new space, Demetri acknowledged the new system using Fulcrum speakers paired with a Yamaha CL5 digital mixing console, allows for them to "turn the overall volume down, while still having higher quality and clarity and more of an even spread of sound, causing less irritation for the congregation."
While the new space has worked well, there were still a number of acoustical challenges to be dealt with, noted Ryan Knox of Idibri, the AVL firm behind the system. "The entire back wall is glass and hard surfaces," he said, "and the beams where the speakers are mounted, are about 16 feet above the floor." Helping to overcome that issue, Demetri cited the installation of acoustic curtains in the sanctuary over the windows. "We never have (the curtains) all the way down, but they really help with (sound) reflection off of the windows, to where you don't hear much reflection." In addition, project manager Brian Turnbull, the installer and a systems integrator for Amplio Systems, added how when installing the sound system, there was the conscious decision to "not throw a ton of energy at that back wall."
"Our front fillsthey sound really good. I've been doing this for a long time, and I've used a lot of different brands, but I've got nothing negative to say (about the Fulcrums)," said Demetri. "We've been getting great quality and great clarity from them."
Not only has he been satisfied with the new sound system and particularly the Fulcrum speakers in the new space, but Demetri noted that the response from the congregation has been similarly enthusiastic.
"Congregation members have said things like, I can hear every instrument,' or It's so much clearer,' those or some of the comments I get," said Demetri. "It's been overwhelmingly positive, and keep in mind that I've had experiences where that's not always the case."
Beyond the improvement in sound, Turnbull noted how the system needed to provide flexibility so that sections at Greentree could be changed into classroom space when needed.
"We had to get creative and set those room up so that the speakers could be used as part of the main system and as a stand-alone system for conferences, classrooms and so on," said Turnbull.
Over the two months since the new space opened, Demetri said that a few "tweaks" have been needed, including where "it took a while to get those volumes set" to achieve the goal of providing classroom space in the new building.
Having just gone through such a significant upgrade, Demetri added, "There's a fair learning curve in terms of the digital gear, but once you learn exactly how it works, it's easier to use than the analog equipment. And for anyone doing an update, I'd make sure their integrator updates the firmware while they're there."