“Full-range audio reproduction was also a priority so a powerful, accurate, and detailed bass system was essential for us and
BAG END subwoofers provided what we needed.”

Central Christian Church in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nevada, is celebrating the opening of its brand new building at 1000 Marks Street.

The growth of the nondenominational church is quite a story. Founded 38 years ago (in 1962) with just 24 people, Central Christian is now the spiritual home for more than 5,000. Central Christian Church's recent history has been largely defined by its current pastor, Gene Appel. Arriving on the scene in 1986, Pastor Appel's philosophy for reaching out placed a high priority on the technical aspects of spreading the word of God, and the church began to use more modern means of communicating its message, including video, and enhanced sound and music, among other things.

More Sunday services were added as the flock grew, and when it became necessary to hold five services on Sunday to accommodate the congregation, it was apparent a new facility was needed.

"Internally, we began work on a new facility nearly five years ago," said Barton Rendel, technical director for Central Christian Church. “We went to sound reinforcement design consultant Acoustic Dimensions of Dallas about three years ago, and the people there had a major influence on the design of our main room.”

“Acoustic Dimensions took our priority of clear communication through the arts and media, and helped design and build a system consistent with that priority,” Rendel added. Craig Jansen of Acoustic Dimensions remembers the assignment as an interesting one.

“Being located in Las Vegas, the congregation was used to a certain level of audio performance,” he said. “That, combined with a very tight budget and an aggressive construction schedule presented a threefold challenge.” The church's criteria clearly called for a concert-level sound system for the centerpiece of the new 186,000 square-foot church: an auditorium, or main room, that seated 3,200.

“We worked closely with the architect, the church's consultant for technology and production, Marty O'Connor of Team Development, Inc.; and Chris Conti, of Signal Perfection, Ltd., the sound reinforcement contractor on the project; to implement a room design that worked well acoustically and utilized simple, low-cost design solutions,” Jansen said.

The general purpose of the system is to reproduce a wide range of programming, consisting of everything from the simple spoken word to full-range music programming - with the emphasis on high quality of musical reproduction. “The stage is quite wide and deep,” Rendel said. “So imaging was considered a priority. Our system is true Left-Center-Right, processed by a Peavey Media Matrix. The Media Matrix gives us the ability to image within the sound field and maintain the integrity of the field at most points in the room.” “Full-range audio reproduction was also a priority so a powerful, accurate, and detailed bass system was essential for us,” Rendel added. “And BAG END subwoofers provided what we needed.” Three speaker clusters flown above the main platform provide the main L-C-R sound source, along with a delay speaker system. Bass if provided by eight double-18 BAG END D18E-I subwoofer speaker systems. The church also has a comprehensive video system that covers the auditorium, a chapel and a multipurpose room. Video and audio for each space is controlled from a central location, with are local controls in each room. The system is designed to allow use of other rooms as “spill-over” rooms - and services in the main auditorium can be easily supplied to other rooms. The primary production format is betacam SP, the production switcher is from Play, running a program called Trinity. A two-channel MATV system runs throughout the building. “The sound system is proved to be all that we had hoped for,” Rendel said. “It provides us with rich, full sound reproduction that moves people, and BAG END plays a large part in achieving that result.” More than 5,000 faithful attend three multifaceted weekend services and more than 500 attend midweek services that focus on music and speaking. Future plans for Central Christian Church include construction of additional educational and multipurpose facilities - and the long-range goal is to build a 10,000-seat auditorium.