Since its founding in 1956, live music has always been a highlight of services at the Village Community Presbyterian Church in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. Every Sunday, traditional and contemporary services occur at the 300-seat venue. Instrumental performances, choirs ranging from 15-150 members, professional classical and jazz ensembles, and even the San Diego Symphony have used the space for concerts and other events.
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To continue to provide vibrant musical performances while ensuring improved sound coverage for an enhanced listening experience, the Village Community Presbyterian Church turned to integrator Sound Image to install a d&b audiotechnik Soundscape system with En-Scene object-based mixing for a more distributed, immersive auditory experience.
Speech intelligibility is critical for houses of worship, but it can often be difficult within spaces known for reverberation issues. "The spoken word in a church is really what people come to hear," said Jake Henricksen, design consultant and account executive with integrator Sound Image. "If you can't understand the message or are distracted by echo or reverberation of sound, the message is lost."
The Soundscape system provides a highly intelligible system through modern object-oriented mixing for a natural sound, allowing the entire congregation not to be audibly distracted and focus on the messages being presented. "The d&b Soundscape system gives us the ability to create sound in a new way, by virtually placing audio inputs and moving them around in the system creates a whole new layer of sound," explained Adrian Narlock, director of media ministries.
Preserve the Peace
Previously, the church had been outfitted with column speakers that were too far apart, causing a gap in sound coverage. With an older congregation, the church was constantly inundated with complaints from those unable to hear the service. The speakers were also visually unappealing and did not blend in or complement their space.
"The sanctuary is so beautiful that they didn't want any aesthetic changes at all," recalled Henricksen. "They didn't want to see big line arrays showing and didn't like the current speakers, which were column speakers mounted on the walls down low. That was the biggest challenge to overcome. How do we put speakers that don't look like speakers in this space?"
After reviewing its options, as well as video testimonials from other churches discussing their experiences using immersive audio systems, the Village Church decided it needed the upgrade. From start to finish, the project was a three-year process, including a lengthy exploration and design phase.
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It was not ideal to immediately close the church again after only recently reopening during the pandemic. Still, it would have been too difficult with the level of access and time needed for the installation to remain open. The sanctuary closed for three weeks, church services moved outside, and the technology installation progressed smoothly.
Protecting the church's interior was one of the team's significant challenges. The solid wood pews, some 40 feet long, needed to be moved out of the space, and the beautiful tile flooring required protection before the installation could begin.
Even though the system requires more loudspeaker positions than a traditional PA integration, the cabinets are smaller and can be positioned to limit sightlines. The loudspeaker elements were also color-matched to the ceiling using a standard RAL color chart and discretely rigged, allowing them to integrate seamlessly.
Sound Image Integration had to get creative when attaching everything due to the curvature of the interior beams, and worked closely with a structural engineer to ensure everything was placed precisely. There were also no conduit pathways on the ceiling, so all cabling had to be discreetly routed on top of the beams and tucked away so none of the wirings were visible.
The complete audio system configuration includes five 12S-D main loudspeakers, two 44S loudspeakers for out fills, two flush-mounted 44S loudspeakers for front fills, two 16C column loudspeakers for stage fills, two 27S subwoofers, three 30D amplifiers, one DS10 Dante network bridge, and a DS100 signal engine with En-Scene for Soundscape. The mixing console was also upgraded to a Yamaha QL5, including Dante networking that was needed for the Soundscape system. Additional Shure UXL-D wireless microphones were added to their existing network, and a small package of DPA 4098 and 4099 microphones was added to better amplify the choir.
With both level and delay processing independently utilized per loudspeaker position in real time, the loudspeakers produce sound simultaneously, creating accurate localization no matter where members of the congregation are seated in the sanctuary. The d&b Soundscape system provides a natural mix, so the listener's attention is drawn to the actual audio source, providing a stronger connection between the stage and the congregation.
Visual Upgrade
Although the sound was a critical focus, the church knew it also needed to upgrade its video and streaming capabilities to better provide for the needs of their congregation. When the pandemic impacted its services, the church relied on a temporary production system to allow them to stream services—but needed something more permanent moving forward to maintain and increase their online presence.
Its previous video and projection system offered poor quality, with an image that never looked bright enough, even in a dark environment. The screen was also loud and disruptive when coming down mid-service for use. The new system includes Strong/MDI screens and 11,000-lumen Digital Projection E-Vision 4K projectors, a significant improvement over the previous 5,000-lumen projectors. The upgrade also dropped the distracting noise level when the screen moved by four decibels.
The Village Church had relied on consumer camcorders on tripods, but Sound Image recommended transitioning to a PTZ solution. Panasonic AW-UE150 4K PTZs were installed, along with a Blackmagic Design ATEM 4 M/E 4K production switcher.
Video is sent to an upgraded production suite. After improving the infrastructure with new cable pathways and connection panels, the suite was outfitted with Samsung monitors, Blackmagic recording hardware and web presenters, and Dynaudio studio monitors. The suite also includes ProPresenter for media playout and a Panasonic AW-RP60 compact remote PTZ camera controller.
Lighting was also upgraded with the help of ETC ColorSource PARs and spots, helping the church take its existing system from full white to full-color mixing capabilities. Lights were also placed on the stage deck to uplight the organ, providing a stronger focus on it during musical performances. The ETC ColorSource 20 DMX console was also added, and the ETC Paradigm was reprogrammed to strengthen the architectural lighting needs, allowing the church to do everything from basic lighting to complex production schemes.
With an all-volunteer AV team (led by Narlock) with different levels of experience, it was critical that the system was designed to be easy to use. Sound Image helped train the team and was on site for the first few services to address any tech issues. MxU, an online training resource for house of worship production teams, also offered training and resources.
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For those with limited training on the system, Q-SYS Control allows for a simple control option through front-of-house touchscreens. This allows basic control of the projectors and wireless microphones, making it easy for anyone to walk into the space and operate some basic functions.
Live streaming has continued post-pandemic, with traditional services streamed every Sunday. The system is capable of 4K streaming, and the church is looking to archive in 4K in the near future. The streaming capabilities have opened the Village Church's services to worldwide viewership, and allows a congregation known to travel to engage with services, no matter their location. The church hopes its experience will be a lesson for other houses of worship on the possibilities of embracing more advanced technology integrations and strengthening the all-important spoken word.
