Church’s potential is unlimited following DWR Distribution upgrade
The Church Unlimited branch in Mbombela, South Africa, is an independent church driven to be Jesus’ hands and feet in the community. Planted in October 1995, the church is said to have a heart for people, especially orphans, vulnerable children and windows, supporting around 1,100 children every month through its non-profit organisation called Sinani, which in IsiZulu means “we are with you”. The church recently expanded its building to a capacity of 1,100 people and the upgrade included an L-Acoustics A15i system, a DiGiCo S21 audio console, KLANG:kontrollers, KLANG:vocal, an Absen DW2 2.9mm LED screen and lighting to complement its existing stock, all supplied and installed by DWR Distribution.
Kyle Nel of AVS Hire was appointed consultant for the project, working closely with the church’s project manager, Louis Nel. He already had a relationship with the church, his rental company regularly supplying a sound technician or gear for church services. “Involved at the church in various ways over the last few years, either behind or in front of the sound desk, I had direct insight into the challenges that had to be eliminated,” shared Kyle Nel. “The main focus was getting the venue to sound good from any listening position.”
The church had an idea of what it wanted in terms of delivering an experience but relied on Nel to technically pull it off. “A technical upgrade had been on their minds since before lockdown and many quotes had been requested and received with various solutions and proposals,” he added. Kyle recalls a morning meeting where he was asked what he would do if given carte blanch to spec the church in a way that would make it easier behind the console and would make the service sound better. He answered: “It’s simple, an L-Acoustics PA, DiGiCo desk, fully kitted stage boxes, KLANG for immersive IEM with intuitive control, and the right people to do it.” From there, the meeting tripled in length, ideas were thrown back and forth, and he made contact with DWR Distribution.
“Robert Izzett and I went for a site visit at the end of last year after receiving the basic brief,” explained Richard Smith of DWR, who was project manager and audio system designer for the installation. “We always like to verify rigging, power and so on before doing a final quote. The brief was for basic lighting, audio consisting of a PA, cabling infrastructure, a mixing console and personal monitoring system, and lastly an LED screen.”
Louis Nel insisted that budget was a consideration. “The greatest challenge was planning the different phases of the new building and installation as finances allowed. We were grateful that we could complete the new audio system together with the media upgrade. We love the new sound and have only had positive comments. It has been a great improvement to what we had in the past.”
The new audio system comprises an L-Acoustics A15i system consisting of four hangs of two A15i Focus and an A15i Wide each. Six KS21i 21-inch subwoofers are evenly distributed in front of the stage. This is all powered by one LA12X and two LA4X amplified controllers.
The console is a DiGiCo S21 worksurface with a D2-Rack. “We installed a MOD-DMI-Dante2 Dante Card into the console for integration with the KLANG Personal Monitoring system, and other possible Dante devices,” said Smith. “The Personal Monitoring System consists of a KLANG:vokaal processor, and six KLANG:kontrollers for the main band members. The church already owned six wireless in-ear systems, and these were fed by the console, and controlled wirelessly via the KLANG App.”
The new Absen DW2 2.9mm indoor LED screen, driven by a Novastar VX4S Screen Processor, is being used as the main media screen at the centre of the stage, with the church’s existing screens, which make use of a projector, positioned on either side. The install includes a new cabling infrastructure and DWR’s Bugs 32A 3-Phase Distro.
The lighting request was straightforward. The church already had some Longman fixtures used as stage washes. DWR added two lighting bars to the church’s existing bar and supplied a further 12 Longman F8UP, four Longman F4UP, and new cabling infrastructure.
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