products should be deployed for the new PA and where to place them to achieve the optimal results . De Buglio was also instrumental in the design of the room acoustics and truss deployed .
De Buglio ’ s focus is solely house of worship projects , and he ’ s been involved in over 1,200 church projects over the past nearly 35 years . Jukes credits him with substantial knowledge not only about room acoustics and audio , but the dynamics of the churches he ’ s worked on – pew dimensions , the absorption co-efficient of the seating , how the service functions , what type of church it is , what SPL level they need , and speech intelligibility being among the factors he takes into consideration , drawing on experience from his significant body of work .
The level of sophistication of RPCG ’ s music program is very high and includes a variety of musical genres during their three-hour Sunday morning services . Among those are the church ’ s 60-piece brass band , its large men ’ s choir , combo-based praise band , and other folk and contemporary groups . Interestingly , RPCG also offers a music education program that teaches children to play brass instruments .
“ I ’ m biased , straight up , more to speech than music ,” De Buglio admits , citing church projects in which two loudspeaker systems ( one for speech and one for music ) were ideal , and adds that placement and configuration is generally more important than the products used . On some projects , he adds , people have been surprised by his choices for loudspeaker elements .
“ From the connections I have , other than Jon , I never would have come across the KV2 products , and they are a nice sounding box ,” he says . “ I have yet to hear them side-by-side to Danley Sound Labs products , but I think the two would sound pretty close . In fact , if you even took a Tannoy or Danley and the KV2s ,
I think , just doing minor EQing and equal volume testing , that people would be hard pressed to tell them apart .”
In this case , two KV2 ES1.0s were deployed , with two KV2 subs flown above them . “ Because of time smearing ,” De Buglio offers , “ I know a lot of people put the subs on the floor , but I ’ ve had the opportunity to put a sub on a chain hoist , raise and lower the sub in real time while it ’ s playing music , and the sonic difference between having the subs on the floor and having them up in the cluster is quite different .” A pair of two-way , 8-in . KV2 loudspeakers was also deployed for foldback .
Owing to the room acoustics , that humble package is really all that was required . “ At a throw distance of no more than 70 feet , we ’ re hitting the back of the room with about 110 or 115dB ,” De Buglio says . “ The acoustics allow us to do that .”
“ By changing the acoustics and sound system , it made the makeover complete , as if they just moved into a brand new church .”
Weight issues also played into the choice of KV2 . The ceiling , too low for a line array , required what De Buglio terms “ well-controlled brute force , full-range boxes .”
He elaborates : “ The lightest boxes that can move air the best were at the front of the line .” Ultimately , in the selection process , it came down to weight , size , speaker design , and sonic performance . “ The ES1.0 is only 74 lbs . For this installation , we had a 600-lb . weight limit that could be suspended from the roof that included the truss system , lighting , and speaker system .
“ Speakers with horns that crossover below 1000 Hz [ also ] move to the front of the line ,” he continues . “ In this case , the ES1.0 speakers have a horn crossover at 500 Hz , which means better gain before feedback . When you have a low ceiling , directivity control is very important . Not because the acoustic treatment was not good enough , but because of the proximity of the loudspeakers to open microphones on stage . When loudspeakers are within 15 ft . of open mics and you ’ re trying to mic a choir , you need well-controlled speakers and the KV2s have that .” It was also helpful that the ES1.0s are three-way offerings , he adds .
Of course , aesthetics were also a concern . “ The church didn ’ t want speakers hanging lower than what they had before . Most speakers with crossover points below 1 kHz tend to be very large boxes – some over 40 in . tall when you get closer to a 500 Hz crossover . Here , the ES1.0 is only 27.5 in . tall with the horn being rotatable .” While the offer was initially on the table to have the boxes hung horizontally , the church decided that the speakers would look better placed vertically . “ In this configuration , it made for a smaller looking cluster with the whole assembly hanging at the same height as the previous speaker system ,” De Buglio notes .
As for the previous system , which was comprised of approximately eight loudspeakers , he adds : “ No matter how loud you cranked them up , you ’ d get tons of distortion above 85dB , and the distortion was created by the acoustics of the room .”
The KV2 system performs well for both speech and music , De Buglio says . “ Jon really liked the KV2 speakers . It took me longer to embrace them , but we had a demonstration that won me over . So credit for the choice of speakers goes to Jon .”
“ Every room has unique features ,” Jukes
36 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND