Emmanuel Baptist Church Upgrades its Sound Reinforcement Capabilities with New PreSonus WorxAudio Loudspeakers

With its relaxed atmosphere, casual dress code, and vibrant music program, Emmanuel Baptist Church prides itself in providing worshippers a place to grow, connect, learn, serve, love, and laugh. Music plays a vital role in the church's worship services and, to ensure quality audio that provides both a high level of speech intelligibility and natural music reproduction characteristics, church management recently elected to upgrade their sound reinforcement capabilities. Their new sound system draws from the PreSonus WorxAudio TrueLine Series product catalog-part of the offerings of Baton Rouge, LA-based PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc.

Pro Sound and Lights of Nicholasville, KY, a design / build firm that handles audio, lighting, and video projection systems for both the commercial and house of worship markets throughout central Kentucky, was contracted to handle the design and implementation of Emmanuel Baptist Church's new SR (Sound Reinforcement) system. Christopher G. Naughton, the company's technician and project leader, discussed the project and his decision to deploy PreSonus WorxAudio X3i-P compact, all-in-one line arrays and TL218SS sub bass enclosures.

"Services at Emmanuel Baptist Church are contemporary in nature and music plays an important role in their worship services," Naughton says. "The sanctuary measures 103' deep by 100' wide. The floor is carpeted and there is removable seating for roughly 200-300 worshippers. The stage has a 45' thrust that faces into the width of the room. After meeting with church officials to determine what they were looking to accomplish as part of the facility upgrade, I determined the X3i-P line arrays and TL218SS subwoofers provided the ideal solution for this space."

According to Naughton, the two PreSonus WorxAudio X3i-P line arrays were flown over the left and right front lip of the stage to provide a wide stereo field. The X3i-P is a self-powered loudspeaker system that incorporates three medium format 1" exit compression drivers mated with six 8" cone transducers coupled to the (A.I.M.) Acoustic Integrating Module that minimizes comb filtering throughout the entire operating range. All components are housed in a sturdy multi-ply plywood enclosure with a multi-layered, catalyzed Polyurea finish.

For low-frequency support, Naughton and his crew positioned two PreSonus WorxAudio TrueLine TL218SS subwoofers -- one each positioned directly under the X3i-P loudspeaker clusters. These two enclosures are recessed into the stage so as to be out of sight. The TL218SS features two direct radiating 18" 2,000W cone drivers in a tuned enclosure made from tour tested 21-ply Baltic Birch.

When queried about those attributes that made the X3i-P line arrays and TL218SS subwoofers the ideal choice for this particular project, Naughton offered the following thoughts. "We created several designs for the church that included everything from trap boxes to full line arrays," he reports. "With their broad 160° horizontal dispersion pattern, the X3's were the only loudspeakers that gave us smooth sounding, even coverage throughout the space without any need for delay speakers. There is less than a 1dB coverage difference for the entire seating area. The frequency response for both music and speech is unbelievably clear. Prior to this new loudspeaker setup, the church had major issues obtaining enough volume before feedback. With this new system, there is plenty of volume."

With many installations of this nature, questions inevitably arise; so, knowing the equipment manufacturer has responsive support is crucial. In this regard, Naughton was very impressed with PreSonus' support services, "The PreSonus Commercial Audio team was excellent throughout the project. They regularly touched base with me throughout the design and installation phases to make sure everything was running smoothly. When I did have questions, they were very quick with their response and the project proceeded on schedule and smoothly."

The Emmanuel Baptist Church project took place in early January 2017 and the equipment was placed into service immediately thereafter. Since that time, Naughton reports he has received numerous compliments. "We received positive feedback on the new system from numerous people," says Naughton. "Now that the X3i-P line arrays and TL218SS subs are operational, they have more sound -- and better-quality sound -- than they have ever had before. It's really been a very rewarding project."

For information about Pro Sound and Lights of Nicholasville, KY, visit the company website at www.rjps.com.