Maranatha selects L-Acoustics L-ISA for new Kempton Park campus
Maranatha selects L-Acoustics L-ISA for new Kempton Park campus
Maranatha Community Church has opened its new 5,500-seat campus in the Riverfields precinct of Kempton Park, northeast of Johannesburg, with the first permanent L-Acoustics L-ISA hyperreal sound system in Africa. Supplied and installed by DWR Distribution, L-Acoustics Certified Provider Distributor for South Africa, the system is built entirely on A Series loudspeakers: a five-array L-ISA Scene System, cardioid KS28 subwoofers and Spatial fills that carry the immersive image to the seats beneath the balcony.
The new auditorium nearly doubles the capacity of the church’s previous 3,000-seat home and adds a balcony, with a section of seating beneath it. Project consultant Robert Grobler, a South African lighting designer and member of the church since 2007, led the installation with DWR, the church’s longstanding technical partner. “There was no fixed brief when the project began,” Grobler said. “They wanted a system with enough power. People worship here, and it gets loud. L-ISA wasn’t even on the table at first. It was just about finding something that could cover the whole room properly.”
Over nearly two years, DWR proposed several sound and lighting concepts to the church, including simpler stereo options. Every concept was modelled in L-Acoustics Soundvision before it reached the church, including L-ISA, which needs a defined set of criteria to be met in a room to perform well. “We modelled L-ISA in the room before we proposed the concept to the church,” says Richard Smith of DWR. “Instead of needing a large K Series system, you can use A15s. “In the end, Maranatha’s investment came out comparable to a conventional system, with a far more capable result.”
The L-ISA Scene System comprises five A15i arrays of six A15i Focus each, widened by an Extension of two further arrays of six A15i Focus. Eight KS28 subwoofers fly centrally above the stage in a cardioid configuration. “Each console channel is sent directly to the L-ISA Processor II, which delivers unique signals to each array for precise sound localisation,” Smith added. “Areas outside the immersive zone are typically covered by mono downmixes for front fills, outfills and delays.”
At Maranatha, those zones are covered by two A15i outfill arrays, each combining two A15i Focus with one A15i Wide, two A10i Focus as delays and 10 5XT as mono front-fill. The seats beneath the balcony are the exception. There, 20 X6i are configured as L-ISA Spatial fills, so that section hears the same immersive image as the main listening area. Amplification comes from two LA12X, six LA7.16i and one LA4X. “By using the new LA7.16i, we managed to feed each speaker with its own amplifier channel,” continued Smith. “That gives us tremendous flexibility and processing power.”
L-Acoustics application engineer Adriaan van der Walt designed the system with Smith, completing the design roughly a year before the doors opened, then returned to calibrate it and hand it over. DWR’s Jaco Beukes and Kyle Freemantle formed part of the installation team. “The real complexity sits in the L-ISA controller, where the routing and positioning angles have to be exact,” stated Freemantle. “Getting the rigging precisely right was hard work, but genuinely enjoyable.”
“We have a great team, and every musician, every vocalist, wants to be heard,” concluded Pastor Mark Bradshaw. “That’s why you become a musician in the first place. Now they’re heard, because there’s space for them.”
