Jericho Horns find sanctuary in Tennessee
Jericho Horns find sanctuary in Tennessee
Located in Springfield, the South Haven Baptist Church has served as a community centre for a steadily growing congregation for over three decades. The campus expanded in 1997 to include a high school and a gym, before adding an elementary school and a daycare facility eight years later. When worshippers could no longer comfortably fit within the sanctuary, the church services relocated to the high-school gym for several years.
Fulfilling the temporary service requirements, Centerline AV designed and installed a Danley Sound Labs sound reinforcement system for the gym. Following the construction of a 1,000-seat sanctuary, South Haven Baptist Church called upon Centerline AV to design and install a new sound reinforcement system in the worship space.
“South Haven Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church that holds services that are more on the traditional end of the spectrum,” explained Centerline AV principal, Scott Oliver. “Where other Baptist churches would have a praise band, they have a full orchestra, a choir and a grand piano. The rectangular-shaped sanctuary is wider than it is deep, but it is a big improvement over the gym that they had been using. There’s always an element of geometrical challenge when you try to put a speaker – which emits sound as a cone – in a rectangular room, but Danley’s excellent pattern control makes it a lot easier.”
Having been won over by the high-quality audio in the gym, a stereo pair of Danley J1-94 Jericho Horns was selected. Weighing in at 327kg and measuring 1.5m x 1.2m (HxW), the J1-94 is far from discreet and compact. However, for those who have heard the system, the dimensions appear small given the 148dB SPL it is capable of continuously outputting. Having repurposed two Danley SH50 and two SH95 cabinets from the gym to serve as out-fills and choir monitors, respectively, Oliver optimised the two remaining SH50 cabinets in the gym. Powered by Crest Pro-LITE amplifiers, two Danley DSPs perform loudspeaker management functions.
“A lot of people think of Danley Jericho Horns as rock-and-roll boxes, but you should hear them with an orchestra and choir,” commented Oliver. “It’s wonderful and the system has headroom for days.” Expecting continued growth, the church included the potential to expand the sanctuary by extending its depth. However, this will require no change to the sound reinforcement system. “They could add another 60m without needing to change a thing. This Danley Jericho system is definitely the last sound reinforcement system they’ll buy in my lifetime.”
Jason Royalty, director of music and communications at South Haven, added: “The visual impact is minor and much less than it would have been with line arrays, but the new system sounds phenomenal without subwoofers. We benefit from perfectly consistent sound from wall to wall and from front to back across the entire frequency range. It’s really like mixing on giant studio reference monitors.”