Community’s iBox Goes Wide

Feb 16, 2006 8:00 AM

The Community iBox was a natural fit for Grace’s sanctuary. Because the room was wide, but not very deep, with the stage platform and organ chambers on a long wall, having a grouping of four boxes offered a nice wide dispersion.

Grace Covenant Church has a new lease on life, and what a life it is. The members of this mid-sized Downingtown, Penn., congregation joined together with a neighboring church, and got right to work on redoing their new shared premises. The mid-20th century building is of a traditional design but presented some unique acoustical challenges.

“The room is exceptionally wide, but not very deep, with the stage platform and organ chambers on a long wall,” explains audio designer Tony Hersch of Audiobahn in nearby Pottstown. Four rows of seating call for 150 degrees of coverage, and the shallow rear wall challenges intelligibility.

“They have a couple of technically savvy people in the group and had put together a fairly good selection of sound gear, and they called us in to help with loudspeaker expertise,” Hersch recalls. “We took them on a blind listening test to several churches, to audition other systems, and they overwhelmingly chose the Community iBox.”

The iBox was a natural fit for Grace’s sanctuary. “With the room and seating pattern, it made sense to do a center cluster, and the iBox is ideally suited,” Hersch remarks. “[A grouping of] four boxes gives us a nice wide dispersion. And the new mounting hardware is great—it installs quickly, and the degree markings make setup easy.”

The white iBoxes complement the room’s clean lines and all-white decor. Crown iTech 6000 amps power the system. “They want to be able to host concerts, so we gave them 3000W to work with,” Hersch continues. Countryman Isomax podium mics connect via custom Rapco recessed stage boxes to Ashly preamps and EQ, with a Roland digital mixer at FOH.

While coverage and intelligibility were big issues, it was ultimately sound quality that led the church members to the iBox. “These speakers are just so pleasing to the ear,” Hersch observes. “Every once in a while a manufacturer rolls out a box that you can just plug in, turn on, and it sounds great. This is one of those moments.”

For more information, visit www.loudspeakers.net.