LAKE ORION, Mich. For Woodside Bible Church in the metropolitan Detroit community, the church has over the years grown to serve a Contemporary Christian congregation across 12 campuses throughout southeastern Michigan.
One of those campuses, Lake Orion, originally opened its doors as a mobile church in 2009. But in those seven years, much has changed.
"For the first five-and-a-half years, we were meeting in a local middle school, using a portable JBL TLX music system," said Mike Hutson, the tech director for the Lake Orion campus, who works regularly with the church's sound system and speakers. Nearly a year ago, the church shifted to a new location, acquiring a site that previously had been a retail store.
After Advanced Lighting and Sound had installed Renkus-Heinz speakers at other locations, ‘they were quite pleased with the results, and so were their clients.’
Acknowledging that such a move had its own intricate series of challenges, Bob Sullivan, Principal of Advanced Lighting and Sound in Troy, Michigan, said about the 85,000-square foot spot, "Because it was a former retail space, there were a number of structural changes that needed to be made. There were issues with bringing power and other infrastructure to code, as well as a need to accommodate an existing set of escalators between floors."
While work began at the Joslyn Road location in September 2014, it wasn't until May 1 of last year when the first service was held, according to Hutson, who expounded on the extent of the work involved to convert the site as needed to a worship space.
"There were four different buildings built in different times, the first built in 1800, and the last in 1994," he said. "It was a very complex renovation, not only because of the buildings, but also because of the upgrades to meet the updated building codes. In addition, there was some structural damage that we had to address," before they could focus on configuring the worship center.
But once those issues were squared away, the installation of a pair of Renkus-Heinz VARIAi arrays was completed in the new sanctuary, which seats about 750.
"We had to rely on Advanced Lighting and Sound on this one," noted Hutson. "We have 12 campuses, but at the time we had eight, but none of them had the Renkus-Heinz equipment installed. ALS, though, had installed them at other locations, and they were quite pleased with the results, and so were their clients."
Each array comprises of a pair of VAX101i-15/12 units and another pair of VAX101i-22/12 boxes. Each VAX101i-15/12 module comprises of a 10-inch low frequency woofer, two 1-inch high frequency compression drivers, is externally powered, and configured to a 15-degree vertical coverage angle and 120-degree horizontal coverage angle. Each VAX101i-22/12 unit also uses a 10-inch low frequency woofer, but differs by having a single 1-inch high frequency compression driver. And like the VAX101i-15/12, each VAX101i-22/12 is passive, and is configured for 120-degree horizontal coverage, but differs by having a 22.5-degree vertical coverage angle.
The system at the Lake Orion campus is controlled by a Yamaha QL5 console at the Front Of House, with Rio 3224 and Rio 1608 Dante-compatible I/O racks. In addition, a personal monitor system by Aviom uses D800 Dante connectivity for network integration, with the full system driven by Crown XTi amplifiers.
The difference in the current system to what was used previously is rather significant, noted Hutson, citing that "we could no longer use (the old JBL portable system) in the new space," because the previous space was so different. It had seating for 250, and was in a converted cafetorium, while the new space has seating for about three times as many congregants, but is irregularly shaped, and the system needed to be capable of producing a good sound pressure level throughout the space, with the VAX101-15/12 and VAX101-22/12 units rated each at 134 dB SPL peak at 1 meter.
"(The SPL is) at least acceptable in all the areas of our space," added Hutson. "I created a simple map (for the congregation) to show where the hot,' cold,' and medium' areas are, since there's a difference of 5 dB (depending on the area where one could sit) that can make a difference for some people."
The decision to go with the VARIAi series, according to Sullivan, was "for its ability to shape the coverage for the room, in both the vertical and horizontal planes. With the VARIA's variable coverage patterns, we were able to configure a system using fewer cabinets than we would have needed with a standard line array."
By having such flexibility, it paired well with the room's acoustical challenges, while not ignoring the reality of budgetary limitations. "The ease of installation and the system's clean design were a plus for the church," added Sullivan.
To help make the system work best in that space, Sullivan said, "We were able to allocate for some minimal acoustical treatment, which helped tighten things up a bit."
That treatment, Hutson added, was necessary for the drum kit, which originally just had a Plexiglas shield. Along with some additional adjustments, "that allowed us to remove compression on the whole mix and the drums. It took a while, almost nine months to get the sound to where we wanted it to be. It wasn't the speakers, but it was because of the acoustics of the room. We are very pleased with the (Renkus-Heinz) speakers, and the sound that we get from them when the band is playing, and even the sound we get when we have an iPod connected."