Edenton Street UMC Upgrades with Martin Audio CDD and MLA

	Edenton Youth Center

The recent renovation and upgrade of the Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina included the installation of Martin Audio CDD, MLA Mini, and Ceiling Series speakers in the chapel, Youth Center, and Church on Morgan satellite facility. The technical supervisor for the church, David Clemmer, worked in collaboration with RMB Audio in the planning and installation of the Martin Audio speakers.

The Edenton Street Church has a small 150-year old chapel at one end of church site that extends for a full city block. With no existing audio system in the 60-seat, octagonal-shaped space, Clemmer was called upon for recommendations. Cooper Cannady of RMB Audio was hired as a design consultant and worked with Clemmer on a design solution for the space.

The design proposal specified Martin Audio's compact C4.8T Ceiling Series speakers. Five pairs of C4.8T's were installed in three separate zones, all within 80' of each other to cover the chapel and two adjoining meeting rooms. Two pairs were installed in the narrow valances of the chapel ceiling to provide a direct downward sound path to the congregants with no impedance from adjacent reflective surfaces.

According to Clemmer, "coverage in the three zones is exceptional, allowing the effective use of lavalier and handheld wireless throughout the chapel with superlative sound quality in the adjoining spaces. Overall, the congregants love the clarity and fidelity. We'll also be providing additional C4.8T's for a fourth zone in the closed breezeway connecting the chapel to the main site."

Located in an adjacent two-story office building built in the 1960s, the Youth Center was completely gutted, renovated and updated two years ago for young attendees and now offers recreation rooms with a basketball court and a performance stage/worship area.

Describing the performance space, Clemmer points out, "It's a very clean, modern looking auditorium about 60' wide and 60' deep with a small concert stage 20' wide by 10' deep. We worked with the architect to design a fun, youth type atmosphere with the latest in audio and LED lighting technology for speech and music reinforcement."

"A Martin Audio MLA Mini center cluster consisting of four enclosures with an MLX sub behind them is flown from the open ceiling rafter space. The sub is time-aligned with the Mini cabinets via SMAART to provide consistent coverage from front to back and eliminate reflections off the back wall that create slapback echo that can hinder performers and speakers on stage."

"They use the space for youth concerts with 80 to 100 teenagers every Sunday night," Clemmer adds. "The church has many talented young musicians who perform and they will occasionally bring in a national Christian act to appear as well. The MLA's control allows the young ministers with Countryman or DPA headsets to stand right in front of the cluster without feedback after only minimal EQ-ing of the room. Coverage works very well for the music, left and right, front and back with a splay of about 70-degrees."

Two blocks from the main Edenton St. site, the Church on Morgan for young metropolitan congregants is in a recently renovated and upgraded building on Morgan and Blount streets in downtown Raleigh. The new main sanctuary and performance space has retained the older building's original truss roof supports and wooden rafters within a totally modern open ceiling concept and floor plan.

The sound system for the small auditorium and performance space consists of two Martin Audio CDD12 installation speakers with white cabinets mounted on offstage beams 5' away from the first seats and 45' away from the rear wall.

Commenting on the speaker positioning, Clemmer explains, "It was important to have a speaker capable of starting coverage at a steep downward angle for the first seat with a close up wide horizontal pattern and a reduced horizontal pattern towards the far end of the audience area. We are also adding a white CSX212 sub flown in the middle of the splay center stage."

"The CDD12 speakers are very impressive. They provide warm and balanced full frequency sound with absolute fidelity for speech and a five-piece band consisting of acoustic guitars, piano, drums, and electric bass in what can be a challenging environment with reflective brick walls and a concrete floor," he adds.

"We also installed a pair of CDD5's in the lobby area entrance and a pair of C115CT speakers in the outside patio area. The CDD5's are small and efficient, with impressive reproduction and even though they're mounted high up in the wooden beams over the lobby area, which also has a concrete floor, they cover the area very effectively with clear, articulate sound."

"My company, Dave Clemmer Productions, is known for having clients who are very particular about audio quality. In this case, the young minister who started the church, actually named Justin Morgan, is very happy with the sound and fidelity. He feels we took excellent care of all the church's needs with CDD. That plus working with RMB Audio and Martin Audio was a real pleasure because they are impressive people and the speakers are so good."

RMB's Cannady, a longtime supporter of Martin Audio who's been working with the brand since its inception, feels CDD is "a serious improvement over the AQ Series and we've successfully installed a lot of those."

"The CDD12's voicing is really good for the room based on the fact that it's a coaxial type system," Cannady concludes. "It's more coherent without the overtones we normally have to deal with. The CDD's voice really well and provide great coverage, easily covering the performance space with consistent sound wherever you're sitting. Articulation is ideal and there are no feedback issues, even people with mics standing under the speakers. It's such a well-controlled force, it just worked out great."