Seattle’s Grace Church has refreshed the audio system in a sanctuary defined by large window banks, extensive wood framing and an open central aisle used for liturgy, music, weddings and special events. The same architecture created demanding sound conditions, including hard reflective surfaces and a pastor who regularly speaks while moving through the center of the room.
Integrator Viation worked with 1 Sound on a visually restrained design built around Cannon C8 point-source loudspeakers with custom wood-matched finishes. Instead of larger long-throw boxes, the system uses compact loudspeakers distributed along both sides of the sanctuary, mounted on the exterior of the beams at roughly 15-foot intervals and angled with the rafters; adjacent church spaces use Cannon C5 loudspeakers, with Powersoft Quattrocanali amplification supporting the installation.
The distributed approach was used to reduce reflections and excess reverberance while keeping coverage consistent across seating areas and the center aisle. Time alignment supports natural localization for speech and music, and after early discussion of subwoofers, the final system relies on the Cannon C8 loudspeakers alone for low-frequency support in the room.