Founded in 1956 by a missionary, Anchorage Baptist Temple (ABT) is now one of
the leading religious institutions in Alaska. The spirit and drive of ABT’s beloved
pastor of 45 years, Dr. Jerry Prevo, has played a big role in making the church
what it is today. In addition to his responsibilities at ABT, which also operates a
Christian school, Dr. Prevo has founded four Christian radio stations and a Christian
television station, and he produces a daily radio program (Bible Principles To Live
By) and a daily television program (Anchorage Baptist Temple Hour with Dr. Jerry
Prevo). Under Prevo’s watch, ABT has grown from 300 members to over 2,200
members, which spurred the construction of a stunning 2,100-seat sanctuary in
1992. Partly because ABT’s services have become more contemporary and partly
because the sanctuary is hosting more and more Christian musical acts, AVL
consulting and integration firm Michael Garrison Associates (MGA, Fresno,
California) recently installed a massive Danley Sound Labs sound reinforcement
system that includes Synergy Horn full-range loudspeakers, Tapped Horn
subwoofers, and over 300,000 watts of Danley integrated processing/amplification
that connects with the rest of the system via primary and backup Dante networks.

MGA’s founder and president worked with ABT to put the very first sound system
into its sanctuary back in 1992, and MGA handled a subsequent renovation in 2003.
When amplifier channels and DSP began failing recently, ABT’s technical staff
determined it was time to overhaul the system. “The demands on our venue had
changed significantly,’ said Bryan Dunfee, ABT’s technical director responsible for
lighting and audio.

As sometimes happens, the decision to design and install a new system came with
an extreme timeline: the word “go!’ came in late September with the expectation of
a finished system in early November. “We were in full swing before the phone was
hung up!’ laughed Daniel Durst, senior consultant with MGA.

As it turns out, Durst’s careful preparation was time well spent: the realized
coverage is perfect and none of the components needed to be adjusted from their
prescribed placements. Main coverage is achieved with seven Danley SH-96HOs
arrayed above the front of the stage in a left-mono-right-centre-left-mono-right
pattern. Each main box has a paired SH-95HO for down fill.

Thanks again to careful planning and expert commissioning, the bass response from
the full-range boxes rolls seamlessly into the output from six Danley TH-118
subwoofers which are flown, tight pack in the centre cluster portion of the soffit
over the stage. According to Dunfee, the TH-118s are more than capable of rattling
the entire building. The size of the room and its balcony and under-balcony areas
necessitated a delay system. Five Danley SH-96HOs comprise the upper-balcony
delay and twelve Danley SH-95HOs comprise the under-balcony delay. Eight new
Danley SM-80M floor monitors service the stage, and sixteen Danley SH-Mini’s
provide Danley clarity in the sanctuary’s foyer.

Between the time a new system was installed in 2003 and this newest renovation,
ABT upgraded the FOH and monitor consoles to DiGiCo SD7 and SD10s respectively.
Both units have the capacity for Dante networking, but the church had only used
Dante in a limited capacity before the Danley upgrade. Because the newest
generation of Danley “DNA’ amplifiers include Dante connectivity, MGA wired up the
new system using Dante exclusively, save for the monitoring system.