What to know:
- Freedom Church's 300-400 seat sanctuary was too small, so its new 1,000-seat auditorium solved the space problem but created a different one: standard coverage patterns would not reach every seat evenly.
- MessengerAVL turned to the brand’s Newport Series line arrays along with additional supporting loudspeakers, subwoofers and amplifiers to meet the church’s ambitious goals.
- On opening night, they were hitting 102 to 104 dB for a good 30 minutes, and the system did a great job of keeping up.
Inside Freedom Church's New Sound System
Freedom Church has opened the doors to its new 1,000-seat auditorium, and the growing congregation’s sound now matches its size. With the support of HWPco, MessengerAVL designed and integrated a system built around Eastern Acoustic Works’ (EAW) Newport Series line arrays that give the church the clarity and consistency it needed for a room unlike most.
[Now Available: The Integration Guide to House of Worship]
Freedom Church had outgrown its previous 300-400 seat sanctuary, where four services ran every Sunday. Its new auditorium solved the space problem but created a different one: a steeply raked, amphitheater-style layout with a small flat floor and seating that rises sharply toward the back. Standard coverage patterns would not reach every seat evenly.
MessengerAVL, long-time users and advocates of EAW technology, turned to the brand’s Newport Series line arrays along with additional supporting loudspeakers, subwoofers and amplifiers to meet the church’s ambitious goals.
Chad Rigler, manufacturer representative for EAW, has worked with MessengerAVL for years and credits their deep familiarity with the brand as a driving factor in the project’s success. “I showed them EAW, and they’ve just fallen in love with the brand ever since,” he said. MessengerAVL’s director of product, Parker Gann, echoed the sentiment, noting how the EAW team supported his team really well across a number of projects.”
Freedom Church’s leadership first heard EAW during a demo several years ago, where the ADAPTive series left a strong impression. When EAW later introduced the NT206L line array, MessengerAVL immediately knew it was the right fit for the new auditorium. “When it launched, I immediately recognized it as a night-and-day improvement over the church’s existing system,” said Gann. “We contacted the tech director and made the decision to replace the speakers, and fortunately, there was still enough time to make the swap.”
To handle the room’s asymmetrical shape, MessengerAVL designed a system that could deliver precise coverage from front to back. The final EAW deployment includes 22 NT206L line array modules (11 per side), MKD1294 loudspeakers for outside fills, an MKD826 for center fill, MKC50s for front fills and four flown RSX218 dual-18-inch subwoofers, all powered by EAW’s Dante-enabled UXA4807D and UXA4403D amplifiers, with the NT modules operating self-powered.
“It’s a big and very unusually shaped room for what most churches build,” Gann explained. “There’s a very small flat floor and then just straight raked audience all the way up. So, it’s the perfect room for line arrays where you need J‑shaped, asymmetrical coverage.”
MessengerAVL wired the system with per-box processing, allowing Gann to EQ each speaker for its specific seating zone. He also took advantage of EAW’s rotatable horizontal dispersion fins to control energy in the long upper rows. By rotating the horizontal dispersion fins in the top four boxes of the line array from 110 degrees to 80 degrees, Gann's team was able to get more focused energy on the top rows without slamming the sidewalls, which at the time were untreated.
The Newport Series simplifies this process. Rigler said. The NT206Ls are designed to be hung and deployed quickly, requiring only minor adjustments, meaning there is less time spent on the extensive backend work that was previously necessary.
The system faced its first real test during a worship night; the first public event held in the new space. As Gann noted, they were hitting 102 to 104 dB for a good 30 minutes, and the system did a great job of keeping up. Freedom Church immediately noticed the difference compared to their previous system. “The sound quality is much clearer,” Gann concluded. “They’re very impressed by the clarity, especially in the back of the room.”
