The effect is two truly separate spaces that merge, almost
undetectably, for worship services. “When it’s set up for worship, you
don't even know you have a gym there,” Pritchard points out. “You’d
have to look really hard to spot it.”
Stepping outside the worship center, churchgoers encounter “the
mall” — the connecting point between the old and new spaces. This
large atrium lobby allows people to enjoy fellowship in new ways and
provides covered, climate-controlled access in between buildings.
Here, too, the focus was on a seamless experience. In keeping
with the church’s existing design philosophy (brick colors, window
treatments and so on), this expansive area features a clean, modern,
curving curtainwall to connect the existing and new lobby.
Pritchard says “the mall” is his favorite part of the building.
“Walking through it from the old building is like that part in the
Wizard of Oz when everything suddenly appears in color. You just
step into a different world,” he says. “With the couches, the chairs,
the coffee bar, the indoor play area — it’s just wonderful to see God's
people in there mingling and enjoying one another.”
The pursuit of A/V/L excellence
Along with the need to seamlessly integrate these spaces from a
design perspective, ensuring audio, video, lighting and acoustics
excellence was another primary objective for church leaders.
“As the two uses — worship and recreation — are diametrically
opposed with regard to lighting and acoustics, the church [needed to
arrive at] a unique solution using LED lighting with variable colors and
temperatures,” HH’s Bruce Woody. “This, along with many other items,
allowed for the church to be able to transition from one to another
within one hour.”
With a long history of working with churches, the chosen
integrator — Custom Sound Designs, or CSD [ www.csdus.com/
churches ] — was more than up to the challenge of delivering an
integrated, immersive experience. The CSD team’s approach of
designing and building systems that “make it easy for people to
engage and worship” was particularly appealing.
Happily, the church’s tech team says it chose well and calls the
multipurpose worship space’s professional audio reproduction
system “tuned to perfection,” with attention paid to room
acoustics and integration with the various lighting effects which
add to the experience.
Acoustical panels are strategically, yet discretely, positioned on the
gym walls at First Baptist Forney gym to ensure the Word is heard,
even in the farthest-reaching seats.
In the fixed-worship portion of the space, a 25-foot LED display at
the front-of-house and two large screens on the sides of the stage enable
video and image magnification, lending a real wow factor. “The picture
is as clear as the HDTV you have in your home,” Pritchard says.
High-quality cameras capture worship services for broadcast on
these screens and beyond.
With regards to lighting, Pritchard says the options feel virtually
limitless. “You get a color stimulation in this space; you get brightness,”
he says. “It’s just exciting. It lets people know they’re not in their
grandfather’s church, that’s for sure.”
But Pritchard’s personal favorite A/V/L element goes back to basics:
speech clarity.
“Top for me, obviously, it lends a sense of comfort when I'm preaching,”
he says. “As a pastor, if I can’t hear myself or if there’s an echo going on,
that’s a big problem.”
The space even accommodates different types of worship.
“We made it to where worship can be traditional, but we can also
have the liveliest concert you could imagine,” he says. “We hadn’t really
upgraded the technology in our former building for about 20 years. So,
the difference is like night and day; it’s really a gigantic shift.”
The tech team was also looking for a turnkey A/V/L solution —
including service and support after the systems are up and running.
As such, CSD’s national footprint and experience as an integrator was
important, but so was its local presence in North Texas with design and
service personnel.
“With our first building’s sound system, when we had problems
maximizing it, we had problems getting any support,” he says. “This
time, we told [CSD] we’d want them to train us and help us, and then
come back and train us and help us some more.”
So far, so good — the CSD crew has been back onsite several
times already.
“They've been very prompt and very, very good,” Pritchard says. “It’s
kind of like we got a Maserati, but we didn't know how to drive it. We
needed training.”
When it comes to price, Pritchard says he and the tech team didn’t
automatically go with the lowest possible A/V/L bid — and he advises
other church leaders to do the same. “It’s better to spend a little more
money for excellence because once [the systems are] in there, they’re in
there,” he explains. “You really get what you pay for.”
Outside of Sunday, the space is active all week as a community rec
center. First Baptist Forney now offers a full rec program with weights,
classes and more.
Looking further into the future, the church’s tech team says there
are A/V/L aspects they want to incorporate as funds allow. Over the
course of several months, meeting with CSD — as well as coordinating
various design elements with HH Architects — team members feel
the multipurpose worship center’s design is perfectly positioned to
accommodate this. In the near term, it meets the church’s current
needs and budget. In the long term, the setup provides growth options
in terms of audio, lighting and video and allows for future system
update options.
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