When Highpointe Church in Oklahoma City was zapped in an August 2013 electrical
storm, demolishing the main building’s electrical systems and all connected lighting
and audio equipment, its leaders called on 35-year-veteran systems integrator and
designer Enginuity. Headquartered in Tulsa, Enginuity was asked to design and
install new systems for the 1980s-vintage, 680-seat sanctuary, including a state-of-
the art PA system from Fulcrum Acoustic.
“The lightning strike was apparently a static air burst that came through the wiring
in the ceiling, destroying everything local in the building,” says Enginuity CIO Tom
Johnson. “Thermostats exploded, the main power transformer was ruined, wiring
melted throughout the building, keyboards onstage were ruined, and pieces were
blown off the mixing console. The conduit in the floor had previously collapsed, and
much of it had melted wire that we couldn’t get out.”
In the end, the project cost $2.6 to $2.7 million and took 19 months. “Everything
had to be redone,” recalls Johnson. “We built a new electrical room and installed a
new transformer, which was cooled and sound isolated. We did extensive acoustic
work and built a new set design for the stage. When we installed the new sound
system, we couldn’t use the old conduit, so we ran redundant CAT5 and audio lines
to the speaker boxes. All of the wiring fit in a 1 ¾-inch conduit.”
Highpointe is an Assembly of God church with contemporary services. “It’s a rock ‘n’
roll church with a seven- to nine-piece band,” notes Johnson. “They play louder than
in most churches we’ve done, so they needed a very powerful and precise system
that could deliver the sound just to the seats and nowhere else.”
To accomplish this, the Enginuity team chose three custom-built Fulcrum LCR
clusters, each with three powered DX1565AC dual 15-inch cabinets with 60-degree
vertical by 40-degree horizontal dispersion-an unusual configuration. The centre
boxes have rotated horns. Each of the nine cabinets is driven by two 1,500 watt
modules for a total of 3,000 watts per cabinet.
“We use four powered FA28ac dual 8-inch coaxial loudspeakers as front fills, plus
four dual 15-inch TS215 direct-radiating subwoofers in the centre of the stage,
which are tied only to the centre cluster,” Johnson explains. “For sub-lows, we have
four TS221 dual 21-inch direct-radiating subwoofers that are ground-stacked on the
left and right of the stage. We power the subs with Powersoft K20 2-channel power
amps that put out a total of 32 kW.’
DSP is supplied by two Symetrix units. The church’s Yamaha CL5 digital mixer is
Dante-equipped and connected via fiber to the neighbouring youth building so audio
can be sent bi-directionally between buildings.
In a job this extensive, almost everything is a challenge, but the rigging for
Highpointe Church was especially complicated. “The roof is 62 feet high, and we
could only fly the loudspeakers in a few places. The stage had been added to three
different times, and each time they built a new ceiling, one on top of the other. The
triple ceiling was a rigging nightmare. The two main support beams are 12 feet tall
and 2 feet wide, and we drilled through those and made custom rigging mounts,
while making sure we were only putting sound where seats are. We had to use all
custom hardware,” remarks Johnson.
