“As a church, we are very pleased with the result. JPRO were always available to assist and answer all our questions, they understood our brief and we feel that their depth of knowledge and experience resulted in the outcome we enjoy today. The sound is amazing.”
After almost two years in the making, Tauranga Elim Church recently moved into their new building in Koromiko Street, in the sunny city of Tauranga in New Zealand.
The new venue is much larger than the previous church building and can accommodate 550 people in the Auditorium.
“As a church, we were blessed to have the opportunity to develop a shell of an industrial building into an awesome place of worship that speaks to the flavour and character of our people,” says Sean Verwey, Project Coordinator at Tauranga Elim. “Our primary focus was to create spaces that would encourage people to connect over great coffee, where children can feel safe and be nurtured, and where families can be inspired through connection, worship and community.”
The church features modern contemporary music styles with a live band in their services. As such, a sound system was required that would provide consistency in tone from soft levels to loud levels and smooth audio coverage from front to back.
“For the audio system in our auditorium, our requirements were simple; we wanted a system that sounded great, was punchy yet smooth through the dynamic range of a service, suited our style of music, covered the wide space evenly and overcame the challenging acoustics of the venue,” Verwey says “Our church services are quite vibrant, and the spoken word is equally as important.”
The church experimented with various loudspeaker brands before choosing JBL Professional’s CBT1000, its newest line array column loudspeaker. “We arranged a number of demonstrations from different suppliers, and from the start, the team at JPRO exceeded our expectations,” adds Sean Verwey. “We heard some great systems, but we felt that what JPRO offered met our requirements perfectly. We were also very comfortable with the level of support that they had provided up until that point, so our decision to accept their offer was unanimous.”
The system was supplied through Sound and Vision Connection and installed by the technical team from Tauranga Elim. System design, technical support and training was provided by JPRO, the JBL and Harman Professional distributor for New Zealand.
“In terms of the solution, JPRO was innovative. The JBL CBT1000 provides more than enough grunt for youth services, yet is easy to mix to during a regular Sunday service and sounds amazing.”
“The Auditorium space is quite wide with some tricky acoustics,” comments Eli Murray, church audio specialist at JPRO. “As part of our service and support, we provide complimentary audio designs that include – amongst others – predicted average SPL and STI readouts and from the outset we felt that the JBL CBT1000 loudspeaker would be able to adequately cover the wide angle and length of the venue.”
Due to its wide horizontal angle properties and the tapered horizontal waveguide, two JBL CBT1000 line array column loudspeakers were selected and custom-flown in a left-right configuration, with a JBL VT4883 subcompact used as a low-mid extension. Lower bass frequencies for the main PA are taken care of by a JBL VTX G28 subwoofer which was proven to be best suited to keep up with the CBT1000 line array column technology.
“In terms of the solution, JPRO was innovative,” says Sean Verwey. “The JBL CBT1000 provides more than enough grunt for youth services, yet is easy to mix to during a regular Sunday service and sounds amazing.”
“As a church, we are very pleased with the result. JPRO were always available to assist and answer all our questions, they understood our brief and we feel that their depth of knowledge and experience resulted in the outcome we enjoy today. We highly recommend them.”
A JBL CBT70, with its ability to send more sound toward the far area of a room for level consistency, is used for speech reinforcement in the mezzanine level. With proven reliability, four inputs available on a high-powered tour sound amplifier and OMNIDRIVEHD processing on each amp channel, the entire audio system is powered and managed by Crown iTech 4x3500HD and CDI4300 amplifiers.
“The JBL CBT1000 line array column loudspeaker is a perfect solution for customers that are looking for line array loudspeakers, but don’t quite have the budget for a fully-fledged line array system,” says Eli Murray. “Its consistency in tone from soft levels to loud levels and ability to cover audio over wide and long distances and overcome tricky acoustic spaces, make it an asset for church and auditorium environments today.”
