EAW published details on August 6 of the new reinforcement system at Freedom Church in Acworth, Georgia. The congregation had outgrown a 300-to-400-seat sanctuary that hosted four Sunday services each week. Its replacement seats 1,000, with MessengerAVL handling design and integration with support from HWPco.
The room has only a small flat-floor area before the seating rises sharply toward the rear, closer to an amphitheatre than a conventional church auditorium. That geometry calls for very different throw distances from the front row to the top seats. MessengerAVL chose the Newport Series NT206L for a J-shaped, asymmetrical main system comprising eleven modules per side.
Supporting coverage comes from MKD1294 outfills, an MKD826 centre fill and MKC50 front fills. Four flown RSX218 dual-18-inch subwoofers provide the low end. The NT206L modules are self-powered, while Dante-enabled UXA4807D and UXA4403D amplifiers drive the remaining loudspeakers.
MessengerAVL narrowed the horizontal pattern of the top four boxes in each main array from 110 to 80 degrees. The change concentrated energy on the upper seating without driving the untreated side walls. Per-box EQ and EAW's Resolution software were used to align the predicted coverage with what the team heard in the room.
The system's first public worship event included roughly thirty minutes at 102 to 104 dB, according to the integrator. Freedom Church also plans to use the auditorium for youth events, conferences and other gatherings. The notable part of the installation is not simply its available level, but the way individual enclosures are shaped and processed around an unusually steep audience plane.