Crystal Cathedral
Garden Grove, California

Seat Count: 2,890
Project Type: Renovation
Original Construction: 1980
Renovation Complete: November 2005
AV Installation: Electrosonic Systems
AD Scope: Audio

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Crystal Cathedral began plans for their new multi-media, interactive production, Creation. The show was designed to completely encompass the audience in the awesome splendor of the formation of the world. From the separation from darkness and light to the fall of Eden, the show is orchestrated to overwhelm the senses.

Electrosonic Systems of Burbank, California was tasked with the logistics of integrating the audio and video elements needed to support the show. Recognizing the importance of sight to sound, Electrosonic hired Craig Janssen and Ryan Knox of Acoustic Dimensions to design the audio systems. The Crystal Cathedral has always had a notorious reputation as an acoustically difficult space, however, the glass walls were not as problematic as they appear because there are no parallel surfaces. We simply had to keep the sound energy off the glass. The real challenge in the room was the balcony face which is a 6.5-foot flat concrete wall that surrounds the main seating on three sides of the space.

The solution wasn't simple. AD used line arrays, beam shaping, and a combination of EQ, band limiting and phase shifting to get the coverage and imaging right while avoiding the balcony face. For the center cluster, there are two arrays of five cabinets each that hang side by side to cover the floor. Amplitude tapering and some frequency shading allowed consistent coverage on the floor and limited overspray on the balcony face. Hanging between those two clusters is another array of boxes that cover the balcony. Beam shaping is used to hit just the balcony and miss the face below. The left and right clusters are a similar concept resulting in an 8 channel surround sound system.

The new systems in the Crystal Cathedral had yet another design parameter. Each Sunday, they had to support the church's nationally syndicated broadcast, the Hour of Power. Supporting the broadcast was a creative challenge because essentially, there are two systems in place – one for Creation which supports surround sound and another designed for speech intelligibility for the services. The technology to make the dual system possible is the churches existing Yamaha PM1D console and a combination of patch bays and differing configuration files for BSS Soundweb audio processors.