Shootout At Rolling Hills: Innovative Nexo Install For Oregon House Of Worship

Jan 5, 2006 8:00 AM

After a three-company shootout, Delta Systems Integration chose a combination of Nexo GEO T tangent arrays with a Nexo Alpha cluster for installation at Rolling Hills Community Church in Tualatin, Ore.

System designer and integration firm Delta Systems Integration of Portland, Ore., has recently completed installation of a highly innovative Nexo sound reinforcement system at Rolling Hills Community Church in Tualatin, Ore. This spacious sanctuary is the first worship venue in the world to use a combination of Nexo GEO T tangent arrays with a Nexo Alpha cluster.

A three-company loudspeaker system shootout established quick consensus between Rolling Hills Community Church (RHCC), RHCC Director of Media Services John Harrel, and the team from Delta, coordinated by Mark Smith. The shootout was staged at a similar-sized church, where manufacturer representatives each flew a mono cluster using factory-specified amplification and processors. Nexo's small Alpha cluster proved to be the turning point in the selection process. Listening to the pastor through a headworn mic and the Alpha system, church executives, John Harrel, and Delta engineers alike thought the results so clear-cut that the church insisted that a center cluster of Alpha be included in the final specification.

The church's performance specifications required a system that could accommodate the full spectrum of Christian music, from a quiet chamber quartet to full-on Christian rock bands. This emphasis on live performance led Harrel to Nexo's tangent array system, the GEO T series.

"For practical reasons, we couldn't include GEO T in the shootout, but to meet the stated goals of the project when it came to the music and drama performances given in the church, they wanted an L/R line array which could also be used in an L/C/R configuration with the Alpha central cluster," explains Smith. "The Alpha also works as a standalone system, virtually a dedicated center cluster for the pastor, and other speech reinforcement applications."

A Yamaha PM5D-RH FOH console currently handles monitoring, with the option to move the church's Yamaha DM2000 in from another room when a monitor console is needed.

The sanctuary acoustics are quite good, with a single level of raked floor seating and stepped seating in the rear. The floor-to-ceiling height is about 35ft. at the stage end of the room. "Vance Brasheers is very well known for designing great rooms," says Harrel. "We worked with him for the better part of four years on this room, and I think I owe him a really good dinner for the extra work I put him through."

The GEO T arrays are flown, left and right, as close as possible to that 35ft. ceiling height. Each array includes 8x T4805 full-range cabinets and 2x T2815 down-fill boxes. Two CD18 sub bass units are flown each side, between each GEO array and the central Alpha cluster, which features 5x M-3 and 5x B-1 modules. 8x NX242 TD controllers are used for the L/C/R systems. System amplification is a combination of CAMCO Vortex 4, 6, and 3Q, using 22 amps total.

Four NX242 processors with 4x CAMCO Vortex 4 amps are used for the monitor system, with a combination of 8x PS10s and 10x PS15s to provide eight monitor mixes as well as an eight-station Aviom system. Monitoring is currently handled from the Yamaha PM5D-RH FOH console, although the infrastructure is in place for the church to move its Yamaha DM2000 in from another room when a monitor console is needed.

"The system is emphatically delivering the goods," says Harrel. "We are really enjoying our system, and it simply sounds amazing." Says Smith, "GEO T is one of the top designs in the world. When you turn it on, after configuring it appropriately, it sounds great and gives you an awesome palette to work from. Coupled with the CD18s, it is stunning. The best aspect of GEO T is the crystalline high-end. The system sounds sweet and clear, as well as punchy and fat, but that high-end really goes all the way out. That's what sets it apart."

For RHCC, it’s all about amazing vocal intelligibility and coverage in all 2,500 seats. Harrel says, “We did a Katrina benefit with Christian Rock group Kutless (the Metallica of Christian music), raising over $44,000 dollars for displaced people in that region, and the band was simply astonished. They idled around 108 C weight all night long while the rig simply just began to wake up! A couple weeks later, I mixed an 80-piece choir with a jazz trio that was just phenomenal. It was at that point I knew the job was done right. The system sounds as good at 90dB as it does at 110dB! You just don’t find this with a majority of systems on the market. I have designed several systems for churches, and they simply love this product!"

Harrel describes the success of opening night at Rolling Hills. "I had a 100-piece choir; drums, bass, two electrics, acoustic guitar, mandolin, two keyboards, [and] grand piano; and 13 channels of RF (nine singers, three dramas, and one speaker). The monitor situation was pretty straightforward, with eight Aviom stations for the band, then three mixes of PS10s for singers and a PS15 for a drum wedge. The service really could not have come off better—over our first weekend, we had more than 4,000 visitors here, and there wasn't a single glitch. Over and over again, people were telling me it was the best sound they'd heard in years. I’m extremely thankful for a great leadership team who went out on a limb to hear this product when I suggested it, as well as so many great people who stepped up to the plate on this project and simply got it done. It really helps when you have two key industry leaders like Nexo and Yamaha on the job!"

For further information, visit www.deltasi.us and www.nexo-sa.com.