Park Cities Baptist Church
Dallas, Texas


Seat Count: 1,800
Project Type: Renovation
Opening: 2001
Client: Park Cities Baptist Church
A/V Installation: ASC Companies
AD Scope: Main Sanctuary: Acoustics and
Audio
Gym: Acoustics, Audio, Video, Lighting

Download PDF Page

Although Park Cities Baptist Church appears very traditional at first glance, the church has also embraced a contemporary style service along with their traditional Sunday morning service. This more upbeat service is held on Saturday evenings, and the music is led by a praise team supported by a keyboard, drums, electric guitar and bass. The Sunday morning service retains its traditional pipe organ, choir and orchestra during worship.

The church wanted to provide the right atmosphere as well as the best acoustical support for both distinctively different services. The reflections in the church's existing auditorium provided excellent support for orchestral music but would not support amplified sound. Rather than compromise the existing acoustics, the church decided to hold the contemporary service in the gymnasium.

AD designed a system for the gymnasium which included permanent speakers, video projection, lighting and cabling infrastructure, with portable mixing consoles, monitors, etc., so the gymnasium can be used for athletics during the week. This has enhanced the Saturday evening service immeasurably and still allows for an easy set up and break down so that the area can be used for its original design as a gym.

Although the main sanctuary has wonderful "live" acoustics that support music well, AD provided a redesign of the audio system in the main sanctuary to improve speech intelligibility. This required speaker clusters with excellent pattern control to prevent speech from the platform from sounding "muddy." We re-aimed the main speakers—which had good control over mid-hi frequencies and replaced some of the cabinets with units that provided good pattern control for mid-bass frequencies. Line array speakers were positioned on either side of the platform for imaging, and the back walls above the balcony were treated with acoustic material to decrease reflections off the back wall. A new DSP system, amps and over balcony speakers were also implemented.