BAG END
PROVIDES
FOUNDATION
FOR SOUND

The mission of Bishop Charles E. Blake, pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ (C.O.G.I.C.), is to deliver the word of God in a meaningful manner.

But the West Angeles Church of God in Christ at 3600 Crenshaw Blvd., in Los Angeles, is no ordinary church. Its 20,000-member congregation includes movie stars, recording artists and major sports figures - congregation member Stevie Wonder performed at Christmas services. So when the West Angeles Church of God in Christ (C.O.G.I.C.) began making plans to build a new $60 million, 5,000-seat cathedral, the goal was a lofty one: to provide a sound system that could perform at concert levels for live musical performances and clear, high-quality speech and - at the same time - provide broadcast quality sound for radio and television production.

“Our goal was to provide the highest quality concert sound we could in a controlled atmosphere,” said the church's chief engineer, Al Richardson. “We didn't want to leave any aspect of the sound quality to chance, so control of the acoustic environment was very important.” The church called upon Ford Audio-Video Systems, Inc., of Las Vegas to design and install a system that would fulfill its stringent requirements.

“Al is probably one of the best front-of-the-house men in the business,” said Kevin Potts, account manager of Ford Audio-Video. “He had some specific parameters he wanted met. The music is high-impact concert level, and he - and the church - demanded a design that would deliver the sound with feeling and impact.”

The shape of the huge worship bowl is a half round. The pulpit of the large sanctuary is 86 feet wide and 45 feet deep, with steps down to the main floor level and an open area about 15 to 20 feet wide between the stage and the first row of seats. One unusual feature of the cathedral is it's tiered, stadium style balcony, which provides an unobstructed view of the pulpit area all the way to the very back row of the balcony.

“But other than dealing with the geometry of a 5,000-seat room, and the unusual balcony arrangement, it was pretty straight forward,” Potts said. The result was a massive sound system - designed by Ford Audio principal Jim Ford and Al Richardson - utilizing nearly 100 loudspeakers in the main room. The foundation for system is built on eight BAG END QUARTZ quad-18 subwoofer systems - a total of 32 18-inch subwoofers delivering chest-pounding lows down to 8 Hz. Complementing the subwoofer system are include four main speaker cluster arrays, three over-balcony delay rings, one-under balcony delay ring and stage front fill speakers.

Another major feature of the sound system is the on-stage monitor mix handled by a 56-channel monitor console with 20 auxiliary sends. The monitor mix provides signals to floor wedges, in-ear monitors and headphones.

The church also has an extensive radio and television network. “Basically, we run a regular production house on site,” Richardson said. “We record all services and broadcast live on Internet every Sunday. We send audio productions to 20 radio stations throughout U.S. and to approximately 10 television stations across the country, including Armed Forces radio and television.” For the radio and TV production, the sound system features include: a 56-channel main mixing console, a 48-channel recording console, on-site 48 track recording studio, 5-camera television production facility

So the $64,000 question is, how does the system perform? “We had a share of problems but none that couldn't be fixed,” Richardson said. “We're still in the process of tweaking everything, still putting up more baffles and bass traps, but as far as coverage and levels, we're very please with the system.

As for the QUARTZ subwoofer systems, Richardson said, “Lovin' 'em, lovin' 'em. The BAG ENDs are great sounding, great bottom, they integrate seamlessly with the full system. The first time I heard them was about two years ago at an outdoor venue - and I was so impressed with them that I specified I wanted BAG END subs.”

Potts seconded the motion. “We have been exceptionally pleased with h the BAG END speakers. They have done exactly what we were told they would do. They are easy to deal with, and integrated well with the rest of the system. We'll use them again.”