Natchez, MS (October 11, 2017)—The First Baptist Church in Natchez, MS may be as old as the State of Mississippi itself, but its current home was built in 1984. Recently the church replaced its audio system—also from that era—with Renkus-Heinz IC32-24-RN digitally steerable line arrays provided by regional audio house, MS Audio.
“The old system sounded okay but getting clarity was not easy because it was exciting so much of the room,” said Trooper Hales, cofounder of AV contracting firm MS Audio of Clinton, MS. “Intelligibility was an issue. The further back you went in the space, the better it sounded but the imaging was such that the sound was coming from 40 feet above. But lowering the old system would have created major aesthetic problems.” It was time for a fresh approach.
Hales’ answer was Renkus-Heinz IC32-24-RN digitally steerable line arrays. By mounting them to columns, Hales’ MS Audio team achieved the church’s aesthetic goals while averting potential issues with the plaster ceiling. Renkus-Heinz’ steerable beam technology enabled Hales to focus the energy on the congregation, not the walls and cavernous ceiling. “We almost cut the room in half horizontally by focusing the energy where it needed to be, as opposed to exciting the entire room,” he said.
Also part of the system are two Renkus-Heinz PN212-SUB dual 12-inch subwoofers. “The PN212-SUB subs are painted white, and they’re low profile,” Hales said. “Nobody even notices them sitting on the floor under the columns. The church has vases with big plants on heavy pedestals, so we set the pedestals on the subs and the vases on the pedestals, and everybody’s happy.”
Renkus-Heinz, Inc.
www.renkus-heinz.com
