Whether historic or modern in terms of architecture, houses of worship bring unique
challenges to sound system designers and installers. This point is well illustrated in
two recent UK installations by Creative Audio-Visual Solutions (CAVS), a design and
integration firm located in Hertfordshire, UK that specializes in worship systems.
Recently, the firm completed two very different church projects that illustrate this
point.

Dating back to Saxon times, St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Buckingham wanted to
modernize its sound system to better accommodate today’s worship style. Along
with clear and intelligible speech reproduction and the power required for full-range
music reproduction, it was also important that the system had a low-profile design
that wouldn’t interfere with the building’s historic architecture.

Conversely, Frampton Park Baptist Church in East London is a new building, but with
the added challenge of being a multipurpose gymnasium when not being used for
worship services. Both locations feature amplified praise bands, with multiple
musicians and orchestral instruments. Another requirement at Frampton Park was
to restrict loudspeaker placement to the areas directly adjacent to the stage, to
keep them out of the way during sports events, and to allow the room’s temporary
wall system to slide into place to close off the stage area.

For this room, CAVS system designer Ian Bethell and sales director Rob Alvis used a
pair of Electro-Voice EVF-1122S full-range loudspeakers in a left/right configuration
above the stage, each augmented by an Electro-Voice EVU-1082, mounted behind
and angled to provide coverage to the side-stage areas. Bass enhancement comes
courtesy of a pair of Electro-Voice EVF-1121S subwoofers mounted directly beneath
the stage/altar area. Power is supplied by CPS 2.9 and CPS 8.5 amplifiers from
Electro-Voice. For the band on stage, six Electro-Voice ZXA1 powered stage wedges
provide monitoring.

Another highly reverberant sanctuary, St Peter and St Paul’s in Buckingham
required a different approach. To ensure clarity of speech, Creative Audio-Visual
recommended a point-source approach, using Electro-Voice ZX1i loudspeakers in a
distributed system. A pair of these 8-inch, 2-way speakers is affixed to each of four
pillars in the sanctuary, with two more deployed up high on the rear pillars to serve
the balcony. A single ZX1i serves the choir area. As drilling into original stone and
marble of the historic building was not an option, CAVS engineers also devised a
method of mounting both loudspeakers and video screens to the church pillars using
custom band brackets that clamp around the columns without harm.

Two floor-mounted subwoofers, the 12-inch Electro-Voice ZX1-Sub, were added to
augment the low-end response from the worship band’s bass and drum components.
The entire Electro-Voice ZX1 complement is powered by the Electro-Voice CPS 2.9
multichannel amplifier, with a CPS 8.5 handling the subwoofers.

The sound systems in both locations share signal processing and routing via the
Electro-Voice NetMax N8000 system controller, which allowed Creative Audio-Visual
Solutions to tune these systems as a whole, and then optimize each loudspeaker
component individually via FIR (finite impulse response) Drive. The powerful
Electro-Voice NetMax digital signal processing engine offers powerful equalization,
dynamics, filtering and crossover control.

Frampton Park Baptist Church, London E9:

• (2) EVF-1122S main speakers
• (2) EVU-1082 side-fill speakers
• (2) EVF-1121S subwoofers
• (2) ZXA1 powered stage monitors
• CPS 2.9 & CPS 8.5 amplifiers (mains)
• PA2450L amplifiers (monitors)
• NetMax N8000 system processor

St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Buckingham:

• (10) ZX1i main speakers
• 1 x ZX1iT choir speaker
• (2) ZX1-Sub
• CPS 2.9 & CPS 8.5 amplifiers
• NetMax N8000 system processor

For more information, visit www.electrovoice.com and www.facebook.com/ElectroVoice.