Speaking Spirit Ministries of Richmond, VA is a non-denominational Christian ministry, which in the space of nine years has expanded to three campuses, offering over 100,000 sq. ft of worship space.
Known as Glen Allen Campus, the Ministry’s latest facility opened recently, and again RTW Media were brought in by pastors, Fred and Inger Wyatt to provide a complete AVL technology infrastructure. Incorporating projection and control, the PA this time was based around a central hang of Martin Audio’s premium Wavefront Precision line array.
“We were fortunate to be able to start with a clean slate,” stated RTW operations manager, Zack Guida. “We knew what they had in their other facilities, so we wanted to match that end user experience, but with a little latitude to design the speaker we wanted. Our engineering team had the flexibility to design the ideal integrated system for the room.”
And he knew instinctively what that speaker would be, having previously experienced a WPS demo, courtesy of Martin Audio’s Northeast Regional Sales Manager, Martha Callaghan. “The demo consisted of a nine box hang with cardioid subs and it just sounded great. I was so impressed with how warm the boxes sounded. Everyone can produce a loud line array, but it was the warmth of the vocals here that really impressed.”
“The requirement here was to handle everything from the midweek bible studies and vocal presentation to high impact worship, with church bands.”
The client went with the recommendation of RTW who designed the system as a single mono central hang of five WPS elements, with an SX118 subwoofer set behind, and two further SX118 at stage level. The enclosures are finished in white to maintain the visual aesthetic of the new building.
Zack Guida explained the thinking. “The roof is an A-frame, so we have set the array as high as possible. The flexibility to have one sub in the air, to ensure even coverage, and then a further two to provide high impact from the stage where necessary is fantastic.
Further economies are achieved by being able to power the system from a single Martin Audio iKON iK42 4-channel process-controlled amplifier, configured in 2-box resolution.
Guida says as far as the client is concerned the system “checks all the boxes.” He explained, “The pastor was there with his audio lead when we tuned the system, and they were particularly impressed that a single array would provide the worship experience they were looking for.”
As for that tuning, they set up using SMAART and measurement mics and then did an EASE visualisation. “We let the software tell us what we needed, where—and the installation matched the model exactly.” Further tweaking was carried out in Martin Audio’s advanced DISPLAY optimisation and control software.
RTW Media has accomplished four impressive installations with Martin Audio systems in the past 12 months alone, specifying both their WPS and CDD series. Zack Guida is particularly delighted with this latest implementation. “The [listening] experience in the front row is exactly the same as in the back,” he exclaims. “It was very important to Pastor Fred for members in every seat of the audience to have the same worship experience. This was accomplished to precision with the WPS from Martin Audio.”
