SDA Filadelfia in Pretoria, South Africa recently completed construction of their new 575 seater auditorium. Clients Andre Spammer and Dries van Schalkwyk contacted Juan Soothill of In-Harmony Productions who had supplied audio solutions for the church’s events in the past. The requirements were for a discrete but sufficiently powerful and high quality sound system that would not impact visually on the church’s future plans to broadcast and record the AV for their services.
Gustav Teitge of Wild and Marr (Pty) Ltd using a combination of EASE and JBL CBT Line Array Calculator recommended a LR configuration of JBL CBT70J loudspeakers. The correct placement of these units coupled with their wide dispersion characteristics in the horizontal plane ensured complete coverage at the required SPL for the space. A single JBL Application Engineered ASB6118 subwoofer was installed to provide additional low frequency extension for music performances and other music requirements during services.
BSS Soundweb London signal processing and routing provides the backbone of the system with the various inputs mixed on a Soundcraft Si Expression 24 channel mixing console. According to Juan Soothill the Si Expression range was an easy choice for the mixing console duties due its ease of use considering that the church usually has volunteers running their shows.
Crown XTi4002 amplifiers were chosen for their low power draw as the entire system is designed to run off solar power with the country’s main power utility kept in the wings as a “back-up’ power option. A direct instruction from the client for no cables running across the stage was achieved using a CAT 5 Soundcraft MSB32 digital stagebox at stage right with additional routing to two other points, stage centre and stage left. Other Harman products include JBL PRX712M stage monitors, JBL Control 2P’s for the mother’s rooms with BSS Soundweb London BLU3 wall mounted controllers for independent volume control.
Architect Stefan Wille’s design process included the overall building’s design and layout as well as the acoustic properties of the interior materials used to achieve an acoustically friendly environment. In addition many of the materials used are environmentally friendly in respect of the “Green’ requirements for the building. Soothill optimized the system performance using SMAART V7 during the final commissioning stage. The project’s success is attributable to the teamwork displayed between the architect and the audio specialists from Wild and Marr and In-Harmony Productions with the use of acoustic modelling during the design stage.
