ACS projects: McHenry Evangelical Free Church, McHenry, IL

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McHenry Evangelical Free Church

Mchenry, IL

While not presently a large sanctuary, a very difficult one to work around many difficulties. The room is not symetrical, but is nearly square. The platform is only 12 feet deep, yet the first row of seating is 6 feet from it. Contemporary music has been a part of this church for quite some time, and proper amplification of vocalists as well as guitars and keyboards is important. The extreme width of the seating posed speaker coverage difficulties as well.

The existing speaker system consisted of one 3-way studio monitor speaker hung from a laminated beam such that it was actually behind the first 4 rows of seating. Because it was never meant to be a sound reinforcement speaker, it eventually suffered the loss of the mid and high frequency drivers, leaving only the 15" driver operating properly. Even if the speaker operated well, coverage of the sides and front of the sanctuary was non-existant.

Acoustically, the room suffers from a multitude of standing waves and a slap echo off the rear wall (opposite the platform). In the beginning, the room was used in a different direction such that the rear wall was treated with tectum panels (as seen in the photo). These panels have been painted at least once, if not twice, and are mounted flat against the wall with no airspace at all. Thus, the panels do very little in controlling the sound in the room. It has been proposed and accepted that the church install diffusive devices along almost all of the wall spaces to help control the room. (The room is so poor that a conversation at 10 feet is difficult after 15 minutes.)

The future of this building is to expand the sanctuary to the right (stage left) as well as forward (and build a new platform). The sound reinforcement system therefore was chosen based on filling the existing needs as well as future needs. It would be wrong to limit the new system such that in the future new equipment would have to be purchased and the "old" equipment not used at all. The new system is more than what's necessary for the exising side (fill) areas, but will be just right when building expansion takes place. The new speakers offer a much tighter pattern than the old speaker; this is needed to keep sound off the rear wall as well as the side walls.

To mount the new speaker cluster in the correct location, a steel I-Beam was installed by the church at the peak of the building between two laminated beams (as there was very little structural support at the peak to hang the cluster from). From this beam is attached an all-steel bracket which allows the entire cluster to be moved forward and backward and vary the position of the side speakers left and right. This photo on the right shows one speaker in place, with the old existing speaker still mounted at the peak.

Two photos showing the new speakers along with the old, and then the old speaker removed. Notice the spot lighting on the speakers; this was removed and re-mounted once the speaker installation was complete such that the lights would not cover the speakers. The speakers, DSP, and amplifiers were adjusted such that you can not tell where the coverage patterns of the three speakers cross into one another. (They fall through the isles, but since the seating is moveable, what's shown now might not be the way it's set up next week.) Thanks to Dennis B. for the great paint job of the stock black boxes as well as the speaker brackets!

The new equipment rack was located in a rear storage area (instead of the pastors office as the old equipment had been). Three QSC amplifiers drive the three main speakers; a White Paramedic DSP is used to process the signal and distribute it to the cluster. An existing EQ and power amplifier was kept to feed the monitor speaker system. A Lyntec power sequence system was installed to power the sound booth equipment as well as the amplifier rack. There's a single switch in the sound booth which turns on the entire system in the correct order--pushing the button a second time turns the entire system off in the reverse order.

In the past, the church has had numerous problems with the system--when we pulled new cables and re-routed others, we found several connections like this--where wires had been spliced into and not even properly taped, leaving bare wire to contact other wires as well as ground against the building steel. This is poor work, to say the least! :-)