Mt Moriah Baptist Church, Charleston, South Carolina, has met the continued growth of its congregation with a new 2,250-seat sanctuary complete with a Danley Sound Labs point source system as well as a HD video suite powered by Vaddio cameras and a Roland video switcher.
Charleston-based NBS Media Systems headed up the AV project, building on a 20-year relationship with the church. After tests against three other sound reinforcement systems, the Danley solution was favoured to meet the audio requirements of vocals from the 150-voice choir and soloists, and instruments such as drums, bass, guitar sax, keyboard, and B3. Also specified was the system’s ability to be ‘rider-ready’ for touring Christian acts.
The newly installed system comprises three Danley SH-96 HO full-range boxes which provide main coverage in an exploded LCR arrangement. A pair of Danley SH-95-HOs provide delay on either side, and two more SH-95 HOs deliver down-fill for the choir. Two Danley SH-Micros serve as apron fills, and two SH-Minis fill in the dead zones on the Deacon and Deaconess boxes on the platform, while Eight Danley SH-LPMs serve as stage monitors. Driving bass is a pair of flown Danley DBH-218 subwoofers situated either side of the stage.
Finally, forty-five Tannoy ceiling-mounted loudspeakers distribute sound throughout the rest of the building. A Yamaha M7CL accepts 48 of 96 possible inputs at a time, and three Biamp Nexia processors provide routing, crossovers, and loudspeaker conditioning. Crown CTs-Series amplifiers power the system. He system also includes a full compliment of stage microphones and six Shure SLX combo wireless mic systems – each including a Shure SM58 handheld mic and a Countryman E6 head-worn mic with belt-pack.
NBS also designed and installed the HD video system for the project. This system includes three two Vaddio HD-19 and one Vaddio HD-20 1080p remote PTZ camera (with a fourth on the way), controlled by Vaddio’s joystick controller. Video processing and distribution is done using a Roland V1600HD video switcher. Camera inputs are all HD/SDI and outputs to projectors and flat-screens are DVI.
Completing the visual side to the system are five Digital Pro E-Vision 7,000 lumens/WUXGA DLP projectors. Two projectors are “stacked” per side to illuminate 16in x 10in VU Easy fixed screens on either side of the proscenium. The fifth E-Vision projector illuminates a Draper 137in 16:10 ratio screen above and in front of the choir seating position and behind the proscenium arch (not visible from the audience). Additional flat-screen monitors are located in various areas on the platform on rolling low-profile mounts so that the celebrants can see the video presentation. There are also flat-screens installed in the Pastor’s Study and conference room with numerous other locations in the building being “roughed-in” for the addition of future displays.
The theatrical lighting system was designed and installed, in partnership with NBS, by High Output with local offices in Charleston and headquartered in Boston. Mark Shore from the Boston office was High Output’s lead engineer and designer on the project.
The theatrical lighting system includes twelve LED Prism Projection RevEAL Profile 14 degree color-changing fixtures at the front of house pipe batten position. There are three lighting pipe battens suspended over the platform area, behind the proscenium with thirty LED Elektralight ElektraLED 1018 color-changing wash fixtures with Source 4 barn doors. The system includes a 1×12 opto-splitter, a programmable wall controller and a Leprecan LPC-96V 96-channel console with touch-screen at front of house.
