“Among the challenges we faced was finding an audio system that would complement the architecture and not impede sightlines to the LED walls at either side of the stage, while providing the quality that this showcase church demanded.” —Tim Corder, Strategic Accounts Director-House of Worship, Diversified, Atlanta, GA.
A key element in the powerful worship services of Pastor David Cooper at Atlanta’s Mount Paran Church is great audio. So, when the church’s aging sound system started experiencing failures, Mount Paran’s technical director, David Mendoza, started looking for solutions. “The 15-year-old sound system was original with the building,” Mendoza recalls, “and its failures and weak points were becoming more and more obvious.” With church leadership recognizing the need, Mendoza and his team started looking for a replacement system. But what started out as a sound system replacement has added a dramatic new creative dimension to Mount Paran’s Sunday services.
Mount Paran Church is the world’s first house of worship to install a sanctuary loudspeaker system built upon L-Acoustics' L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology. Learn more in this recorded discussion between Josh Maichele, Applications Engineer, House of Worship Specialist with L-Acoustics, Tim Corder, Director of Strategic Accounts, House of Worship at Diversified and David Mendoza, Technical Director of Mount Paran Church.
Challenges on multiple levels
Cooper, himself a musician, and a technology staff that is creative, knowledgeable, and devoted keeps the production quality on course for Mount Paran Church’s growing 13,000-plus-member congregation. For this project, they called upon leading church technology integrator, Diversified, a global partner with a regional office in Atlanta, to help in the search and design of a new sound system.
Tim Corder, strategic accounts director-house of worship for Diversified, studied the traditional, 2,400-seat sanctuary that boasts six large windows, balcony seating, and a large stage with a choir loft center rear for 150 voices. In addition, productions employ an orchestral pit that rises from the stage, along spacious areas on stage for a praise band with eight praise vocalists supported by a full rhythm section. A recent video upgrade deployed two new LED walls to the room that flank the stage on either side to support musical arrangements that can vary from hybrid modern to traditional hymns. “Among the challenges we faced,” Corder says, “was finding an audio system that would complement the architecture and not impede sightlines to the LED walls at either side of the stage, while providing the quality that this showcase church demanded.” After attempts to design a left/right array-based design for the loudspeaker retrofit for the space proved problematic, the team consulted with Josh Maichele, house of worship applications engineer at L-Acoustics, who recommended they consider the new L-Acoustics medium-throw A Series loudspeakers. In particular, the new A-15 unit offered a system that could be distributed around the room, precisely placed to work with the architecture of the sanctuary and, as a bonus, provide the unique benefits of L-ISA technology, including new concepts in panoramic, object-based mixing. If the stakes weren’t high enough, the project would be the first installation of its kind in North America.
“It’s not easy to put into words, but the system interacts with the room. We can use it like a creative brush in the engineer’s hands.” —David Mendoza, Technical Director, Mount Paran Church, Atlanta, GA.
Inside the design and installation
“The A15, in particular, is really what made L-ISA a viable, practical, and surprisingly budget-friendly option for Mount Paran,” Corder notes. The final design, featuring seven A Series arrays, presented an overall price point that was very comparable to a traditional left-right PA design. “Additionally, the possibility of distributing speaker locations allowed us to meet our fidelity and sightline goals—our two major hurdles,” he recalls. “However, once we started mixing on the system, it was immediately apparent that the L-ISA system offered much more than a traditional system could ever provide.”
Audio only podcast on the L-ISA multi-channel, immersive sound technology from L-Acoustics, installed at Mount Paran Church in Atlanta, GA. Participants include L-Acosutics' Josh Maichele, Tim Corder with Diversified and David Mendoza, Technical Director of Mount Paran Church.
The new system was designed with five arrays of four A Series medium-throw enclosures configured with two A15 Focus over two A15 Wide. Hangs are evenly spread and flown over the front of the stage as the basic “Scene” system with two arrays of one A15 Focus over two A15 Wide at each side as the “Extension” system. Dual hangs of two A15 Wide deliver out fill coverage to the far left and right front seating areas, while two rear-firing A15 Wide are strategically positioned above the stage to provide monitoring for 150 choir seats. Four KS28 subwoofers concealed by a scrim were flown behind the “Scene” system for low-end reinforcement.
Front fill is provided by six short-throw X8 enclosures deployed across the stage lip, along with four compact 5XT systems located at center stage for sermon monitoring. Farther out in the house, two A15 and eight ARCS Focus systems serve as the delay ring installed around the catwalk to cover the upper reaches of the balcony. Four locations of Kiva II long-throw modular line source systems provide out fill under the balcony. A combination of one LA12X and 13 LA4X amplified controllers provide power and processing for the entire loudspeaker system, while an L-ISA Controller and Processor combo provide engineers with new panoramic, object-based mixing tools.
“There were many tweaks to the design during installation,” recalls Corder, “where something in the room or a speaker location presented an issue. This is where the team worked really well together. When an issue was uncovered, we would tweak the design in software to confirm a new speaker location and relay that back to the installers. There was lots of interaction, which contributed to a great result.” Instead of hanging speakers to the left and right of the stage, typical L-ISA installations feature speaker hangs across the stage, on the sides, and at critical locations in the venue allowing the advanced design of the system to immerse and envelop the audience in sound. According to Maichele, close adherence to the design guarantees the success of the most impressive features of the system: the location of sound objects in the room. “The L-ISA experience is achieved through the deployment of specially designed speakers and intuitive object-based sound mixing technology that allows engineers to handle components of the mix as sound objects and place them in a 3D space,” Maichele notes. “This can be an incredibly powerful tool for the mix engineer; to make the sound in the room line-up with what is happening on stage. You quickly forget that you are listening to a sound system and become involved with the action or song.”
Working with 3D sound
At the heart of L-ISA technology is the L-ISA Processor which is exclusively dedicated to spatial audio processing. A powerful multi-core architecture provides engineers with state-of-the-art object-based mixing and room simulation. L-Acoustics calls the system L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology. Even as a technical director who respects more traditional L-Acoustic systems, Mendoza was concerned about usability and controlling the system. Something that made the transition to object-based mixing easier was the serendipitous failure of the church’s old mixing console. While an unexpected additional expense, the benefits of adding a modern console that could integrate with the new system and put L-ISA control directly under the engineer’s hand, Mendoza feels, were well worth the cost.
"L-ISA offers an intuitive object-based sound mixing technology that allows engineers to handle components of the mix as sound objects and placethem in a 3D space."—Josh Maichele, House of Worship Applications Engineer, L-Acoustics.
To replace the ailing console, Diversified installed Mount Paran’s front-of-house (FOH) mix position with a new Digico SD12 console and L-ISA Controller at FOH. The Digico console connects to L-ISA via Desk Link. This connection natively brings all source controls onto the desk surface and allows engineers to access L ISA as an integrated element of their existing workflow circumventing the need for an additional control surface.“
Nothing short of astonishing
”Almost immediately, Mendoza and his team saw the benefits in their mixes. “It’s not easy to put into words,” he says, “but the system interacts with the room. We can use it like a creative brush in the engineer’s hands. Where we were doing damage control before, now we think about tone shaping and location of sound in the room. The system creates a depth that we can control. For example, we can create a sound image for a peak section of a song, creating a moment for the congregation, and then put them back. It’s like having a pan control for width, distance, and elevation. The amount of control that the engineer has with L-ISA and the impact on the music is nothing short of astonishing.”
“The L-ISA system represents a blending of science with art, and the experience that that provides for the congregation is very clearly a result of this transformative technology,” says Corder. “This kind of technology leap makes it a very exciting time to do what we do.”
