Approved!

Coming soon to Kensington Troy:  a new PA!  For the background on what’s been going on the past few weeks, make sure you check out this post from 2 weeks ago if you missed it.

I was recently involved in a process to actively prepare for a new PA that lasted almost a year.  However, due to the complete tanking of the economy in Detroit after the church finished pledging for our Trans4mation campaign, the project was put on hold.  A few weeks ago, I brought in a few different, smaller PAs then what we have currently or were planning to purchase, just to see how they would translate in our room.  Along the way, I think our whole team realized that a bit smaller rig (the leading candidate previously was d&b Q-series) turned out to have plenty of horsepower for what we do artistically and where our congregation is at regarding desired SPL.  Both the Kiva/Kilo & ARC’s rigs sounded fabulous in our space and had plenty of get up and go to make everyone satisfied.  It just so happens that there are some really great system options that fit in this category that also save us some pretty significant money which can then be invested into lighting and video, giving us an overall better product as well.  It really is a win/win for everyone.

So, we’re approved to proceed…evaluate, discern, and install!

The goals from a new rig are:

1. Even coverage with as few of boxes as possible so as to avoid all of the phase and comb filtering issues we have currently

2. Crisp, pleasing high end while maintaining rich, buttery, pleasing mids and thick, tight, feel-in-your-chest type lows.  The Kiva did exceptional with the highs and lows but the mids were lacking that pleasing quality.  The ARCs had wonderful mids and lows but were a bit smeary on the high end…especially with imaging and directionality.

3. Through our experimenting with these other rigs, we learned that a system that can get us into the mid-high 90’s without giving up is plenty for our weekend and midweek services.  Since we EXTREMELY rarely, if ever, bring in outside artists where we need to be concerned with rider acceptance or true concert levels, that goal isn’t the most critical for this system.

4. It is also a really good thing for the Troy main campus to have a similar level rig to what our portable campuses own since we’re all working in pretty similar size rooms.  If money were no object, it would be awesome to have a concert level J series or VDOSC in the space, but the reality is those boxes are TOO big for the room, throw too far, and are not the right choice.

D&B released a new PA a few months back that is an interesting solution for our room called the T series.  The system is comprised of T10 main cabinets, the T-Sub which is a single 15″ box that extends the response of the flown array down to 47 hz, and B2 subs for the ultra low-end.  The T10’s biggest claim to fame is that it is extremely flexible, used both as a line array and as a high directivity point source loudspeaker.  The HF driver is fitted to a unique waveguide horn producing horizontal dispersion to 105°, but by rotating the horn by 90°, the T10 is  transformed into a vertically oriented standalone full range loudspeaker with 90° horizontal and 35° vertical dispersion.

In our application this is incredibly unique and helpful because our rig will be comprised of two 6 or 7 box arrays at the front of the room covering 90% of the main floor, but we also need some front fill and balcony delays.  Due to the flexibility of the T10, we can use the same box for every application in the room, ensuring consistent voicing and performance throughout the entire space.  The dispersion of the T’s is also a better fit than the Qs (105 degree vs 75 degree) which will mean less fills to make up for dead spots in the dispersion of the main arrays.

I’ll write more about this as we start down the path of evaluating this rig in a few weeks. I’ve always been a really big d&b fan and this system carries on the same legacy of the larger J & Q series.  Can’t wait!

(For those of you who are more familiar with Kensington’s rigs, this is the same system we are planning for the Lake Orion campus which will be going live this fall.)