L-Acoustics unveils Africa’s first permanent L-ISA system in a 5,500-seat church

Maranatha Community Church has opened a new 5,500-seat campus in Kempton Park, north-east of Johannesburg, equipped with Africa's first permanent L-Acoustics L-ISA system. Supplied and installed by DWR Distribution, the system is built entirely around A Series loudspeakers.

The new auditorium nearly doubles the capacity of the church's previous 3,000-seat home and includes a balcony. Project consultant Robert Grobler, a South African lighting designer and member of the congregation since 2007, led the installation alongside DWR, an L-Acoustics Certified Provider Distributor in South Africa and the church's long-standing technical partner.

When the project began, no specific requirements had been established. They wanted a system with enough power. People gather here to worship, and sound levels can get very high. At first, L-ISA wasn't even being considered. We were simply looking for a solution that could provide proper coverage throughout the venue, explains Grobler.

Modelling first, followed by a live demonstration

Over almost two years, DWR presented three or four sound and lighting proposals, including simpler stereo solutions, all modelled using Soundvision. "We modelled L-ISA in the room before presenting the concept to the church", explains Richard Smith of DWR.

The final decision came after the pastors experienced L-ISA during a Jonathan Roxmouth concert at Montecasino. "Once they'd heard it for themselves, there was no turning back", says Smith.

"With a stereo system, you get a wall of fairly uniform sound", explains Pastor Mark Bradshaw, who oversees music and training at the church. "With L-ISA, if the drums are on the left, the sound comes from the left. What you see is what you hear, and that separation makes everything clearer and easier on the ear".

Immersive sound on a stereo system budget

Because L-ISA distributes individual instruments and voices across different arrays, rather than sending every channel to a single left-right pair of loudspeakers, each array has less work to do.

Instead of needing a large K Series system, you can use A15s. In the end, Maranatha's investment was comparable to that of a conventional system, but with far greater capabilities, explains Smith.

Bradshaw puts it simply: "I thought it would be out of our budget, but it wasn't".

The system

The L-ISA Scene System comprises five A15i arrays, each containing six A15i Focus loudspeakers, extended by an Extension configuration consisting of two additional arrays of six A15i Focus each. Eight KS28 subwoofers are flown centrally above the stage in a cardioid configuration. To cover areas outside the immersive zone, two A15i out-fill arrays have been installed, each comprising two A15i Focus and one A15i Wide, along with two A10i Focus delay loudspeakers and ten 5XT front-fills. Meanwhile, 20 X6i loudspeakers, configured as L-ISA Spatial fills, allow audience members seated beneath the balcony to experience the same immersive sound image as those in the main seating area.

Amplification is provided by 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", explains Smith. "That gives us tremendous flexibility and processing power".

L-Acoustics Application Engineer Adriaan van der Walt designed the system alongside Smith approximately a year before the opening and later returned to calibrate it. DWR's Jaco Beukes and Kyle Freemantle were also part of the installation team. "The real complexity lies in the L-ISA controller, where the signal routing and positioning angles have to be exact", notes Freemantle.

For the church's worship team, the difference was immediately noticeable.

We have a great team of musicians and singers, and they all want their performances to be heard clearly. After all, that's one of the reasons they dedicate themselves to music. Now, thanks to the system, every instrument and every voice has its own space in the sound field, making it easier to distinguish and hear each one clearly, says Bradshaw.

For Van der Walt, this is only the beginning: "L-ISA is new to them, but once they've received the necessary training, they'll discover ways to use the system that none of us has even imagined yet".