Champaign, IL —February 15, 2015… Founded in 1867, First Presbyterian Church is the oldest church in its area. The church offers a diverse range of ministries, including caring for the poor and homeless of the community as well as partnering with a sister church in Havana, Cuba and supporting a girl’s school in Pakistan. With both traditional and contemporary services, music assumes a vital role in the church’s programs. In order to ensure the best possible music reproduction for the congregation, church management recently decided to upgrade the sound reinforcement system. This resulted in the deployment of loudspeaker systems drawn from the TrueLine catalog of Greensboro, NC-based WorxAudio® Technologies (www.worxaudio.com), a division of PreSonus® Audio Electronics (www.presonus.com).

Fort Wayne, IN-based CSD (Custom Sound Designs) Group, Inc., an award winning, nationally recognized design/build firm providing audio, video, lighting, and acoustics services, was contracted to manage the installation of the church’s new sound system. CSD Group President Doug Hood, who oversaw the project from conception through completion, discussed the challenges of the job and his decision to deploy two WorxAudio TrueLine X3i-P All-In-One Compact Line Arrays plus an X1Mi-P line array enclosure.

“The church offers two services: one that is traditional in nature with a choir plus organ or piano while the other is a blended / contemporary service that encompasses a praise band and worship team,” Hood explained. “While music has always been an important part of their services, the previous loudspeaker system simply did not have the ability to reproduce a quality musical experience. The sanctuary measures 75 feet in length and is 54 feet wide with a ceiling height of 25 feet. The room accommodates 400 people and is comprised of fixed seating in the form of traditional pews. The stage / pulpit area faces into the length of the space.”

“Given the size of the room as well the need to integrate the new loudspeakers into the space in such a way that they did not disrupt the aesthetic character of the space, we elected to fly the two WorxAudio X3i-P powered enclosures in a left-right stereo configuration. These enclosures are suspended from the beams in the ceiling area and are positioned in such a way that they do not visually deter from the cross that is very prominently featured on the back wall. These two enclosures serve as the house mains while a single WorxAudio X1Mi-P line array enclosure is flown in the center of the area and faces downward—serving as a monitor system for the choir.”

When queried about those attributes that made these particular WorxAudio loudspeakers the ideal choice for the church, Hood offered the following thoughts, “The most important consideration for me was trying to deliver stereo to the majority of the seats in the house. The wide, 160-degree horizontal dispersion of the X3i-P made it possible to accomplish this. Considering that the church is an old building, we also had structural limitations that were a concern should we have elected to mount anything but a small loudspeaker in the center. Given this situation, the WorxAudio X1Mi-P was the ideal choice for use as the choir monitor system. The bottom line in this case was the fact that the compact form factor of the WorxAudio X series fit the requirements of this project perfectly. We needed loudspeakers with a relatively small footprint, low profile, and with just moderate weight—but with the ability to deliver high performance.”

Given the level of sophistication of contemporary AV installations, quality customer and technical support services are crucial to the teams that handle such projects. In this regard, Hood had high praise for the WorxAudio support staff. “The WorxAudio team works hard to support us,” Hood reports. “They are always available and accessible and are genuinely interested in making certain our projects are successful. If an issue arises, they work diligently to find a resolution as quickly as possible. We’ve been very pleased.”

The First Presbyterian Church project commenced in September 2015 and the system was placed into service following completion in October. Hood offered these final thoughts on the project, “The church was blown away with the new sound system. This job was part of a turnkey solution for sound, video, and lighting for the entire campus, which included the sanctuary as well as five other auxiliary spaces. As for the sanctuary, the installation of the WorxAudio equipment resulted in a major improvement over the previous loudspeaker system and we received many, many compliments on opening Sunday. This project was nearly a year in the planning stage, so it was rewarding to see all the hard work recognized upon completion.”

For additional information about Custom Sound Designs Group, Inc., visit the company online at www.csdus.com.

For more information about WorxAudio Technologies and PreSonus Audio Electronics, visit www.worxaudio.com and www.presonus.com.