Castle Rock Christian Church
Castle Rock Christian Church is an independent Christian church located in Castle Rock, Washington.
Castle Rock Christian Church is an independent Christian church located in Castle Rock, Washington. The church has a large music team that performs every Sunday, and they had been exceeding the capacity of their sound system for many years. The soundboard was an analog system that did not support enough independent monitor mixes for their needs. Their wireless microphone system operated in an outdated frequency range and needed replacing. In addition, the existing speakers did not provide good coverage of the sanctuary.
As part of a larger modernization project aimed at updating the church building, PNTA was engaged to provide recommendations for modernizing the church's lighting and audio systems. The church did not have the budget immediately available to update both systems simultaneously, so the audio system upgrades were prioritized. Once the project got underway, the objectives expanded to include organizing and streamlining their stage inputs, adding more audio channels, and generally giving the highly capable in-house A/V team better tools that would allow them to make their music program more intelligible and impactful for the congregation.
Type of Work: Audio Systems & Control, infrastructure to support future Lighting System upgrade
Our solution? PNTA approached the project with an "infrastructure first" design principle. We provided quotes for audio and lighting systems upgrades, but the church only had initial funding for the audio portion. As PNTA coordinated with the church's electrician on the audio installation project, we ensured all of the power and control wiring was also put in place to support the future lighting system upgrade. When the client is ready to move forward on lighting, it will be as simple as purchasing and plugging in the new fixtures and control board.
The four existing speakers in the sanctuary were replaced with two NEXO P12 point source loudspeakers. A line array had been considered for the project, but there were concerns that the building's structure might be insufficient to support the weight of an line array as well as a general desire not to visually distract parishioners from their worship experience. The NEXO P12s were so low profile, the client was doubtful the P12s would solve the prior issues with sound fidelity and coverage...until we plugged them in and cranked up the volume. Hearing is believing!
The analog sound board was replaced with an Allen & Heath SQ-6 Digital Mixer, and the wireless microphones were upgraded to an FCC-compliant Dante™ enabled SHURE QLX-D Digital Wireless system. The new digital audio system was successfully tied in to the client's existing assistive listening system, which did not need to be upgraded. There is now robust capacity in their new digital audio system to fully support the music team, including providing individual monitor mixes, as well as allow for future expansions.
Finally, PNTA provided eight hours of on-location training with the in-house A/V team on the new system.
PNTA was able to assist the church with modernizing its sound system. We came in under-budget and on-time, meeting the client's expectations for the project.