Valley International Christian Center Selects D.A.S. Audio

	Simon Estrada Jr. at Valley International Christian Center

Just a short drive from the Mexican border and southeast of the city of McAllen, Texas, Valley International Christian Center (VICC) recently opened a new, almost 70,000-sq.-ft. sanctuary. This state-of-the-art church is the largest house of worship in the Rio Grande Valley and, in 2013, was recognized as one of the fastest growing churches in America by Outreach Magazine. Music plays a vital role in VICC's worship services and, to ensure a high level of speech intelligibility and excellent music reproduction characteristics, church officials recently gave the green light to the deployment of a new sound reinforcement system drawn from the catalog of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio.

Simon Estrada Jr. serves as VICC's campus sound engineer and the church's praise and worship leader. He also operates a sound services company under the name Supernatural Designz of Brownsville, Texas. Being intimately involved in both sound reinforcement and the musical requirements of the church, Estrada was well suited to guide church management through the sound system selection process in addition to overseeing its deployment. Ultimately, Estrada installed a system consisting of D.A.S. Aero 12A line array enclosures and LX-218CA subwoofers from the company's Aero Series 2 product line, along with Road 12A floor monitors and Artec 508A point source loudspeakers. He discussed the nature of the project.

"The sanctuary accommodates 2,000 people," Estrada Reports, "and this is comprised of moveable seating both on the main floor and on risers. Further, the room has an arched steel ceiling with a maximum height of 40', so it's a good-sized room. VICC offers a contemporary worship experience and the praise band consists of about 50+ volunteers, so music is really important."

To ensure consistent coverage throughout the sanctuary, VICC's new SR system in comprised of sixteen Aero 12A line array enclosures -- with eight cabinets each for the left and right sides. The D.A.S. Aero 12A is a two-way, mid-high line array module encompassing one 12" transducer with a neodymium magnetic assembly, D.A.S. Audio's M-75N Neodymium compression driver with a 1.5" exit, and the company's SERPIS high frequency plane wave generator. For low frequency support, Estrada and his team installed four LX-218CA sub bass enclosures -- positioned underneath the front-of-the-stage area. The LX-218CA utilizes dual D.A.S. 18LXN long-excursion transducers in a front loaded bass-reflex configuration.

On stage monitoring is handled by six D.A.S. Audio Road 12A floor monitors -- positioned three enclosures each for the left and right sides. The Road 12A is a two-way system that utilizes a 12" transducer with a 3" voice coil along with the company's M-75 compression driver. Rounding out the system, there are six D.A.S. Artec 508A loudspeakers that are used as front fill. These enclosures are all positioned along the front edge of the stage, with four enclosures distributed across the center area and one each of the far left and right sides. The D.A.S. Artec 508A is a two-way design comprised of an 8" LF transducer mated with the company's M-34 compression driver with a 1" exit. All loudspeakers in VICC's new system are self-powered models.

When queried about those characteristics that made the D.A.S. Audio loudspeakers the best choice for VICC's new sanctuary, Estrada offered the following: "D.A.S. offers a very high quality product that features excellent sound quality and great features with very innovative design. This is a cutting-edge sound system in a brand new, sophisticated facility. This system was, unquestionably, the best choice for the church."

The installation of Valley International Christian Center's new SR system was completed in time for Easter and, since then, Estrada reports that everyone is really pleased with the new system's performance. "As an installer and sound engineer, I highly recommend D.A.S. Audio's products. This system sounds terrific no matter where you happen to be seated and the company's support services are excellent. Added together, it makes for a great combination. Now that system is running full force, we keep pushing the limits with concerts and conferences -- all with great results. At Supernatural Designz, our slogan is 'You Dream It, We Build It.' As far as I'm concerned, D.A.S. Audio is always the product to build with!"

To learn more about Valley International Christian Center, visit the church online at http://viccchurch.com/.