Big Valley Grace Community Church discovers QSC's WideLine loudspeakers
Mar 3, 2005 10:13 AM
Big Valley Grace Community Church in Modesto, Calif., is no stranger to technology, especially when it comes to sound reinforcement. Since moving into the 1,500-seat sanctuary it currently occupies more than a decade ago, the house of worship has kept its aural attitude up to the moment, moving from an early point source system featuring large format horns to a stereo design utilizing modular components toward the end of the last decade.
With the dawn of the new century and the proliferation of line arrays, Big Valley felt the time was right to upgrade once again, and began casting about looking for new ways to improve its sound. Turning to Fresno, Calif.-based Michael Garrison Associates (MGA), a systems integration firm with a well-established track record at the church, Big Valley expressed an interest in exploring the possibility of bringing more intimacy to its audio environment, as well as a stronger sense of direct field energy.
"The church was definitely on the right track when it looked to a line array to provide these attributes," says MGA's Brian Roggow, who works out of the company's Springfield, Mo., office. "The only problem was, the sanctuary isn't an ideal space for most line array systems, as the ceiling is rather low. You could, in fact, say the room is 'vertically challenged' when it comes to the prospect of successfully implementing such technology."
Before giving up completely on the idea, however, Roggow heard a demonstration of QSC's ISIS WideLine loudspeakers. Walking away impressed with their wide horizontal coverage (140 degrees—the widest of any line array currently marketed) he believed the cabinets would provide what Big Valley was seeking.
Following a complete analysis of the room, he drew up plans for the church using 13 of the cabinets, 10 in a main array and three serving as downfills. With extended low frequency support coming from a pair of QSC's ModularDesign MD-S218 subwoofers, power for the system was provided by CX1102 and CX502 amplifiers also from QSC, while all processing, control, and monitoring fell under the guidance of BASIS 904zz and BASIS 922az units from the QSControl.net family.
"The WideLines work amazingly well in this application, despite the room's low ceiling," Roggow says. He is pleased to relate now that the system has seen many months of use without experiencing any complications. "Because of the cabinets' wide dispersion, we met the church's goals and then some. Coverage is excellent; we have considerably fewer hang points than before, and we were even able to get rid of the delay speakers formerly used in the upper balcony. Big Valley has come a long way with its sound over the years, and with this system, they'll be set for many, many more."
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