Seminole Baptist
Springfield, MO
Project Type
- Houses of Worship
Services
- Audio
Location
- Springfield, MO
Project Overview
First Baptist Church, located in downtown Springfield, Missouri, is a multi-generational house of worship with a wide range of ministries designed to engage its varied congregation. Music plays a vital role in the church’s services however the room is very acoustically challenged and with today's programming changing, the audio experience was becoming a critical need if the church was going to keep the congregation fully engaged. The church looked at several local and nationwide solutions to make sure they got this right. In the end, it was Paragon 360 that was chosen for the project.
First Baptist Church is a very traditional space with a lot of beautiful architectural features. The stage faces into the length of the sanctuary, and the area itself is quite reverberant. The choir assumes a significant role during services that, for the most part, are traditional in nature. During the holidays, the church also hosts large scale musical productions. Thus, it was crucial that the new loudspeaker system be capable of handling music reproduction while also delivering a high level of speech intelligibility regardless of architecture.
Equally important, the loudspeakers had to blend aesthetically into the space so as not to be distracting. With long reverb times associated with a sanctuary built for choir and organ, it was important to keep the sound focused on the seats in order to offer the highest level of speech intelligibility. Thus, the system design was focused primarily on sound reinforcement, as opposed to a full concert environment. However, if called upon, the system has the capacity to handle any praise band or guest artist scenario. In this case, many other local Springfield and national AVL contractors would be too brand specific to find the right solution for the space.
"There's a gentleman in our church that has been using a hearing assist device for a few years. After two weeks, he turned it in and said he no longer needed it, as he could hear the service clearly."
Paragon's Audio Solution
Paragon 360 spent a couple months in the design process for the project studying the acoustics of the space and working through multiple design scenarios. The new audio system at First Baptist Church was installed and commissioned during July of 2016. The Audio Team at Paragon 360™ elected to deploy WorxAudio TrueLine XL1i-P 2-way, high efficiency, powered line arrays augmented by TL215S high excursion sub bass enclosures outfitted with dual 15-inch transducers. The system includes a center flown loudspeaker cluster consisting of nine WorxAudio XL1i-P line arrays with one additional XL1i-P enclosure mounted to the rear of the suspended loudspeakers that serves as a monitor system for the choir. Two WorxAudio TL215S subwoofers reside hidden inside the existing cover behind the loudspeaker array. The system is nothing short of remarkable for that space when considering that nothing was done to the room acoustically.
The WorxAudio solution was one of very few options for this particular room considering the known facility obstacles, aesthetics, rigging options and price points. When selecting a firm for your AVL work, it is critical to ensure that they are not brand specific because it will limit the options in functionally, performance and cost. Many times that is the difference between an adequate solution and a home run.
"I am very impressed with Paragon 360. They were given the challenge of a very complex room acoustically, and they rose to the challenge. Good audio work is not about loudness. It is about clarity. I was also impressed with the ease of working with Paragon during the installation process. It was a great experience!"
