Mt. Vernon Baptist Church

“As wide as the seating plan is, it was amazing to sit in the front right or front left seats and still be able to distinctly hear the sounds mixed to the center cluster and the opposite cluster.” —Erich Friend, Senior Consultant, Acoustonica

Challenge

The large, fan-shaped auditorium has a curved stage and a wrap-around balcony, so there were reverberation characteristics that needed to be balanced. There were also issues with spoken word sound return.

Solution

A left-center-right set of panel arrays was designed to cover the main floor and the front half of the balcony. The upper balcony seats did not have a clear line-of-sight to the main speakers, so an additional row of PL-11 speakers in a ceiling soffit were used to cover that space. Additionally, diffusion material was used on the rear wall of the sanctuary to minimize any distant echoes from returning to the stage.

The final configuration featured three arrays of five PL-11 panels and four PL-11 over-balcony delay panels. Erich Friend explained, “True LCR mixing could be heard everywhere in the room. Another interesting result that the Tectonic speakers introduced as that when listening in the middle of the room to a Left & Right only mix, the phantom center image was as clear and focused as if it was emanating from the center speakers.”

Friend concluded, “Knowing that the DML technology works this well in such a large and wide room gives us the confidence to utilize the speakers in many more projects.”