Ashly pêma Simplifies Integration At Manley Baptist Church

Manley Baptist Church in Morristown, Tennessee faced a situation not uncommon to churches with older facilities. Its large recreation room ---the scene of basketball games and indoor soccer, as well as periodic dinner theatre and shows -- and its surrounding running track, classrooms, and lounge room received pages and music through a sound system that was never intended for such purposes when it was installed over 30 years ago. The church called on Pensacola, Florida's All Pro Sound to retrofit the recreation facility with a modern sound reinforcement system. Chad Edwardson, design and sales specialist at All Pro Sound, in turn called on Ashly Audio's pêma integrated DSP and amplifier technology.

The old system, introduced in the 1970s, was originally intended for classroom-style paging. Over time, users attempted to co-opt the technology for music playback, the most recent incarnation being a tangle of adapters that imperfectly brought an iPod signal into the old amplifier. Neither was the loudspeaker -- note the singular -- adequate in the gym. "It was a single cone in the corner of the room," said Edwardson.

"Apart from dodgy control and unreliable performance, it just sounded bad. There was no low-end or high-end response and plenty of subtle distortion. If all that weren't enough, there wasn't enough power to deliver the kind of SPLs they were hoping for." Edwardson originally considered the usual solution for the new system -- a separate DSP to provide input conditioning, control logic, and speaker conditioning that would send its outputs to a separate amplifier. Then he learned about Ashly's pêma system, which effectively integrates the company's amplifier technology into its DSP infrastructure. "There is a refreshing simplicity in the pêma," he said. "The small footprint, together with Ashly's easy programming and seamless integration of its WR Series of wall panel user controls, made the choice very easy."

For dinner theatre and shows, Edwardson provided Manley with a portable rack equipped with an Alesis eight-channel mixer, a CD player, and a modest collection of Audio-Technica wireless microphones. The rack's output feeds a wall plate that connects to the pêma, and an Ashly WR-2 four-position remote switch provides intuitive control of the active inputs. Other inputs include one for an iPod (purpose built this time), radio, and paging.

To address the previously underpowered gymnasium, Edwardson installed a four-unit, 360-degree cluster of EAW VR Series loudspeakers. Three of the speakers reside on one zone and the fourth, which faces stage-side, resides on a separate zone, allowing the church to accommodate theatrical productions or concerts. A simple preset selection switches between modes. Because it was less critical, the church opted to retain the ceiling speakers in the classrooms and lounge areas. Edwardson repurposed a QSC PLX Series amplifier to power them, tapping one of the pêma's line outputs to do so.