CCI Solutions of Olympia, Wash., reports installing a Martin Audio CDD system in the main worship space of the new StoneBridge Church Millard Campus in Omaha, Neb. A new build at the site of a former outlet store, the campus is built around a worship space in a small rectangular 50-foot by 80-foot room with its own set of unique challenges. As Mike Sessler, project lead for CCI explains, “It’s an unusual space with a corner-loaded stage and a low ceiling with lots of HVAC structural equipment that slopes down from 19 feet to about 17 feet at the back of the seating area. “Because the stage is in the corner of a long room, we had an extended throw down the long wall, a short throw to the wall on the other side and another throw to the opposite corner where FOH is located," Sessler says.
"We’re particularly happy with how it sounds for the front row of seats which is five or six feet from the stage. When they first turned the system on, we were amazed at how clean the sound was right in front of the stage."
—MIKE SESSLER, Project Lead, CCI Solutions, Olympia, WA
System components
Sessler continues, “All of which made it a real challenge to cover the audience evenly front to back and side to side, and the FOH area. That’s why we ended up going with two of the Martin Audio CDD12’s located directly above the center of the stage in a split mono cluster with another CDD12 located close to the center, about 2/3 back in the room." The system also includes a Midas M32 console and a Bose RoomMatch system for amps and processing.“The two CDD12’s are flown above the front of the stage on either side of two CSX218 subs located in the center,” Sessler explains, “with one CDD12 going up the long side, one going across the short side and the third for back fill and coverage of FOH.”
Performance reports
Asked about the resulting coverage, Sessler points out: “As an internal design standard, we shoot for no worse than ±3dB throughout the seating area, and we try to get that in the ±2 to ±2.5 range, which we did with CDD -- and the coverage is very even. You can walk around the room and there’s very little difference. Everyone is pleased with the coverage and audio quality, and the amount of low end we can get is staggering.”Reinforcing Sessler’s observations are Matt Smith, tech pastor for StoneBridge’s Omaha campus and Scott McCord, tech pastor for the Millard campus.“Mike [Sessler] first brought CDD to the table because they’d just seen a demo of the system at InfoComm,” recounts Smith. “We’d looked at other systems but he sold us on Martin Audio, and we’ve been [very] happy and impressed with the system.”The sound system for the worship space needed to be flexible in terms of both spoken word and music reproduction. Says McCord, “We run audio about 90dB, and the music is full spectrum (keys, guitar, acoustic drums, bass, vocals), so we had to have a PA that could reinforce the band in a small room without the volume getting out of control. That was non-negotiable."
McCord adds, “When Mike [Sessler] first brought up flying the subs, we weren’t overly keen because we felt we needed something on the ground. But now we’re very impressed with how they perform. The coverage is incredibly even throughout the room with a lot of tight, well-defined low end. We’re absolutely blown away.”
Clean sound
In terms of the spoken word, “speech is crystal clear in the room,” adds Smith. “Intelligibility was a huge thing for us because we rely on video streamed from the Omaha campus for the broadcast of the message, so we wanted a system that sounded natural, like our Senior Pastor Mark Chitwood is in the room. And we’ve gotten that.”According to McCord, they’ve gotten many comments from the congregation since the opening about how clear and distinct everything in the room sounds. They really enjoy the fact they can hear everything and the room never feels loud because the subs are so responsive.
“We’re particularly happy with how it sounds for the front row of seats, which is five or six feet from the stage. When they first turned the system on, we were amazed at how clean the sound was right in front of the stage. We wanted every seat in the house to be a good experience, and it really is,” McCord reports.Summing up, Sessler concludes, “Because of CDD’s asymmetrical pattern, we don’t need as many delay boxes as we used to. We can get that wide coverage up front and still keep the coverage off the walls as we go back, especially if we have ceiling height."
“The Martin Audio CDD line has become our go-to small venue speaker for systems integration,” explains Duke DeJong, vice president of systems integration at CCI Solutions. “I don’t think any other two-way speaker offers the price for performance that the CDD speaker line offers. It sounds so clear and musical right out of the box that it’s effortless on our end to get it to sound good, just as you would expect from a Martin Audio speaker. And with its asymmetrical coverage it gives us the really tight and accurate coverage we demand out of every design we do."
