CTS Audio recently revamped the Sanctuary for First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, NC. 

Built in 1950, the First Baptist Church in Hendersonville has a long, rich history. Its sanctuary has celebrated countless weddings and baptisms, and has held regular Sunday services for generations of families.  It came as no surprise, then, that when the acoustics and sound system in the sanctuary needed an update, there were many nervous church members. Would the acoustic treatments ruin the aesthetics of the sanctuary they held so dearly? Would the sound system obtrude into the room and block their view of the choir and pastor? Would their sanctuary still feel like their sanctuary? CTS Audio understood all of these concerns, and worked hard to provide solutions that would bring the church into the 21st century while maintaining the aesthetic integrity of the sanctuary that the congregation held so dearly.

Like many churches, First Baptist Church (FBC) provides both a contemporary and a traditional style of worship service. Gordon Butler, FBC’s music minister, felt the need to bring new life to the music program. Gordon noted that the church’s previous sound system was simply not able to support the variety of services held in the Sanctuary.  David Myers, CTS Audio’s Director of Installation, was called upon to provide for the needs of the contemporary service as well as for future growth. His challenge was to redesign the sound system and room acoustics to facilitate both types of services while protecting the aesthetics of the sanctuary.

To meet this need, CTS elected to install a JBL Vertec line array system along with JBL MS26 under-balcony fill speakers and Yamaha IF2205 front fills hidden in the platform steps. The crown jewel of FBC’s new sound system is the Yamaha PM5D digital mixing console. “The PM5D provides flexibility by allowing the church to have a fully digital audio system,” says David.  “We ran fiber optic cabling from the console to the amp rack. The result is that the church is prepared for unlimited flexibility and growth and also has a much cleaner sound - there is virtually no noise floor.”

Revamping the sound system included providing a new monitoring solution for the choir and worship band. To lower stage noise, an Aviom personal monitoring system with in-ear monitors and headphones was selected. Guitar isolation and digital drum kits were also put in place to greatly lower the stage volume from previous levels. In addressing the choir’s needs, David was especially pleased with the choice of Neumann TLM103 microphones. They “provide clarity to the rich, natural tones of the choir,” he says. “They sound like one rounded, unified voice. There is no substitute for high quality large diaphragm microphones [when micing choirs].”

Tackling the room acoustics proved to be one of the biggest challenges in the project. The sanctuary lacked sufficient acoustic treatment. Simply holding a conversation there was difficult, so creating an environment to support a contemporary worship team and a resounding organ was a difficult task. It was important to preserve the architectural beauty of the sanctuary and blend any treatments into the structure. The answer was to design the loudspeaker system and the room acoustics as one entity. This allowed the church to maintain a “live” sounding room for the organ/traditional worship, but maintained the flexibility to provide controlled acoustics for optimum performance of contemporary worship.

Room treatment included an application of a coating to the ceiling to improve acoustic performance, as well as a range of carefully selected acoustic wall panels.

FBC is now able to successfully provide both a traditional and a contemporary worship service. Steve Briggs, Church Administrator, has worked with other contractors and is thrilled at his experience with CTS Audio. “We appreciate your staff working here,” he says. “We appreciate their professionalism and even greater, their humble spirit and character displayed in their work and attitude.” Gordon agrees that, “the spirit of working with the CTS Audio team was invaluable”, and is “thrilled with their rejuvenated worship space.”