Ashly Audio's nX-Series is a "Buffet of Possibilities" for Christ the Rock Community Church

	Christ the Rock Community Church

It was a unique and oddly enviable position for an AV integrator to be in: Scott Tomashek, director of AV design engineering at Camera Corner Connecting Point (CCCP) of Green Bay, Wisconsin, was called on to design and install a new sound reinforcement system for a church where he had served as technical director. The church was Christ the Rock Community Church in nearby Menasha, Wisconsin, and Tomashek designed a great system for its 1,200-seat sanctuary with SLS loudspeakers and subwoofers. Because the church already had a DSP unit with Dante output, he found the "buffet of possibilities" afforded by Ashly Audio's nX-Series would give him the power, footprint, and Dante interface that he needed without wasting money on unneeded DSP.

"I was hired as technical director at Christ the Rock Community Church just after its current building was completed in 2001," Tomashek said. "We were all excited about a brand-new sanctuary and a brand-new sound system. However, we came to learn that although the sound reinforcement system had great components, they weren't the right system for the room. The speakers had coverage patterns that were too tight so not everything got covered, and there was weird lobing on top of that. It was rewarding to be on this project because I got to design the system that we always felt we should have had from the start." Tomashek and the church's current technical director, Andy Cox, auditioned three loudspeaker/sub systems, settling on the SLS Audio Ribbon line array.

Christ the Rock Community Church had recently put in a new sound system in the lobby with a beefy Biamp DSP, and Cox wanted to use that processor for the sanctuary system, with a Dante feed for the amps. "I needed an amp that would accept a Dante input but that didn't have DSP built in -- because why spend money on DSP the church didn't need?" Tomashek asked. "I also needed a high-quality amplifier that would be reliable for the long run. Ashly's nX-Series of amplifiers was perfect. Ashly's got the history and the reputation, and I could order amps with Dante and no DSP."

The system uses nine SLS CPA7600 loudspeakers in a central cluster with two side arrays of eight CPA660 SLS loudspeakers each. Two four-channel Ashly nXe8004 network amplifiers drive the high components of the central cluster and all the components of the side clusters. A more powerful four-channel Ashly nXe1.54 network amplifier drives the low-mid components of the central cluster. A final four-channel Ashly nXe1.54 network amplifier, bridged to form an effective two-channel amplifier, powers two SLS dual 18 subwoofers.

"Installing the Ashly amps was easy, and the Dante setup was quick and smooth," Tomashek said. "We met all of our design goals, and it was satisfying to finally hear that room the way we had always wanted it to sound. The church members noticed too! Andy got a lot of compliments, including a few folks who were hard of hearing but rejoiced in telling him they could understand every single word with the new system."