Since 1985, when Pastor Dennis Leonard launched the congregation in the basement of his Denver home, Heritage Christian Center has broken barriers of race, language, class, and culture to become a thriving multi-ethnic Christian community with 12,000 members.
With the church’s growth and the extraordinary diversity of its music ministry, which includes a 200-voice full-gospel mass choir, Heritage Christian Center realized it had overtaxed the old sound system in its 3,500-seat sanctuary. Following a convincing demo set up by Colorado Springs-based Audio Analysts, the church found Meyer Sound’s M’elodie™ line array loudspeaker system to be the best solution.
“The PA we had before didn’t have the headroom for the music we’re doing,” says Garret Leonard, media director for the church. “It had a tendency to blow drivers so, rather than constantly replacing drivers, we decided that we’d put our money into a system with the power we needed.”
In order for the church’s technical staff to make a solid comparison between the M’elodie system and the old system, system designer Daryl Porter of Audio Analysts arranged to fly nine M’elodies per side alongside the existing installation. “The M’elodies just kicked the room,” Porter recalls. “You can’t argue with results. I’m all for demos for just that reason. It did the job for them, and saved some money.”
The exceptional sound quality of M’elodie immediately convinced Leonard. “When they fired up that PA for the first time, and it sounded as good as it did, I knew that was the one we wanted,” Leonard says. “We tried other systems in there, but we had to work at them to get a decent sound. The Meyer system had what we wanted from the moment it was turned on.”
The permanent system, designed by Porter using MAPP Online Pro™ acoustical prediction program, was expanded to ten M’elodies per side for better balcony coverage. Powerful bass comes from four flown 600-HP subwoofers, spaced and delayed for a cardioid coverage pattern. Six MM-4 miniature loudspeakers supply frontfill, and four UPJ-1P VariO™ loudspeakers cover the extreme side seating. Signal processing is handled by a Meyer Sound Galileo™ loudspeaker management system. Porter commissioned the system using a SIM® 3 audio analyzer.
The installed Meyer Sound system at Heritage Christian Center supports all regular services as well as occasional special events, including a production in partnership with the Feed the Children organization featuring Natalie Cole and Yolanda Adams. FOH mixer Frank Ferrera reports that the system does not fail to please. “The system is extremely responsive,” says Ferrera. “From contemporary music to gospel to spoken word, it all sounds incredible.”
“It’s a great-sounding PA, and very easy to work with,” comments Leonard after mixing the first services. “Music is what brings our church to life. Now we have a system that fully supports what we’re doing.”