EAW line arrays solve church coverage challenge
EAW line arrays solve church coverage challenge
A steeply raked, asymmetrical auditorium has prompted Freedom Church in Acworth, Georgia, to deploy an EAW Newport Series system designed to deliver consistent coverage across its new 1,000-seat worship space.
The growing congregation had previously operated from a 300-400-seat sanctuary, requiring four services each Sunday. Its larger replacement auditorium provides additional capacity but presented a different acoustic challenge, with a small flat floor followed by sharply rising seating.
MessengerAVL designed and integrated the system with support from professional services organisation HWPco, using 22 EAW NT206L line array modules, configured as 11 per side. The system is supplemented by MKD1294 loudspeakers for outside fills, an MKD826 for centre fill, MKC50s for front fills and four flown RSX218 dual-18-inch subwoofers.
The NT206L modules are self-powered, while EAW UXA4807D and UXA4403D Dante-enabled amplifiers power the additional loudspeakers and subwoofers.
“It’s a big and very unusually shaped room for what most churches build,” said Parker Gann, director of product at MessengerAVL. “There’s a very small flat floor and then just straight raked audience all the way up. So, it’s the perfect room for line arrays where you need J-shaped, asymmetrical coverage.”
The system was wired with per-box processing, allowing Gann to equalise individual loudspeakers according to their seating zones. He also adjusted the horizontal dispersion of the upper line-array modules using EAW’s rotatable fins.
“We rotated the horizontal dispersion fins in the top four boxes of the line array,” he said. “By flipping the fins from 110°–80°, we were able to get more focused energy on the top rows without slamming the sidewalls, which at the time were untreated.”
MessengerAVL had previously used EAW systems, while Freedom Church’s leadership had been introduced to the manufacturer through an earlier demonstration of its ADAPTive series. When EAW introduced the NT206L, the team identified it as a suitable solution for the new auditorium.
“When it launched, I immediately recognised it as a night-and-day improvement over the church’s existing system,” Gann noted. “We contacted the tech director and made the decision to replace the speakers and, fortunately, there was still enough time to make the swap.”
Resolution software was used during system tuning, with Gann noting that its predictions aligned with the resulting system performance.
The system faced its first major test during a worship night, the first public event in the new auditorium. “They were pushing 102–104dB for a good 30 minutes and the system was doing a great job of keeping up,” Gann explained. “The NT206Ls are by far the most powerful and the highlight of that system.”
The church has reported improved clarity compared with its previous system, particularly in the rear of the auditorium. The venue will host worship services, youth events, conferences and other large gatherings.
