EAW delivers the message at Shades Mountain Baptist Church

When the leaders at Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, gave the green light a full renovation of the church’s 2,700-seat main worship centre, the job of designing and building the audio system was awarded to Blackhawk Audio. In addition, the HOW also wanted to ensure that the new system was discreet and contained within a compact grille cloth area. Blackhawk found the solution with EAW and its ADAPTive line, including its Anya and Anna Loudspeakers and Otto subwoofers, as well as its VFR89i stage monitors.

“One of the biggest selling points of the EAW ADAPTive speaker system was that in addition to its audio quality and excellent coverage, it also was low profile and would not visually overwhelm the sanctuary,” said Blackhawk Audio president, Rick Shimer. “The previous look of the sanctuary had a very large ‘speaker cluster’ with grille cloth. Ensuring that the PA system was less obtrusive while also offering pristine sound was a main factor for this project; they wanted a particular look and we are able to achieve this using EAW’s Anya, Anna and Otto.”

The upgrade, which consisted of over 30 EAW speakers, included two Anyas each for far house left and far house right, six Annas each for house left and right, two Annas for down fills, six Otto subwoofers for centre and eight VFR89i passive two-way stage monitors for the choir.

“The EAW ADAPTive platform has proven to be the best choice for sonic clarity and acoustical control across our worship centre,” added Ryan Maynard, production manager, Shades Mountain Baptist Church. “Blackhawk’s design and deployment of the system has given equal attention to all seats in the room, so that everyone has an engaging experience, no matter their preference of seating location. For a system this powerful and configurable to fit within the confines of the new ceiling structure is quite an accomplishment.”