Rivers Church in Sandton, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, has recently built
itself a new home and in so doing doubled its capacity for services. The new church
can accommodate three thousand congregants; the sanctuary is fan shaped with a
single balcony and in many ways conforms to the current trend in contemporary
church architecture. By engaging Stage Audio Works the church solved a classic
dilemma at the same time, as Head of Sound for worship music, Andrew Illgner
explained: “Our pastors Andre and Wilma Olivier, never wanted it to be two
churches, those at the front feeling fully engaged, and those at the back, a little
removed. So it’s in how we address our audience where the benefits of
ArrayProcessing have proved such a discernible difference.’

ArrayProcessing (AP), an advanced line array optimization tool from d&b
audiotechnik, was not yet available when the church first contacted Stage Audio
Works. “In terms of audio system design, Rivers Church has used us previously at
their Youth Facility and the Durban campus,’ began Stage Audio Works’ project
manager Nathan Ihlenfeldt. “They first contacted us about this new-build church two
years ago. I spoke with Stefan Goertz at d&b’s Education and Application Support
department and we designed a sound solution using d&b V-Series loudspeakers
driven by D80 amps. Then AP arrived. We looked very closely at that; it had the
potential to directly address that sense of engagement which the Oliviers so clearly
desired. Initially the additional amplifier channels required to implement AP made
the cost prohibitive, then d&b’s new 30D install amps came along.’

The improved emotional engagement was not without repercussions. “We soon
found that elated congregations, especially the younger members, are more
frequently attracted to stand up and approach the dias,’ said Illgner. “This creates
its own problems, not least blocking the d&b E12-Ds installed by Stage Audio Works
for frontfill. A quick solution easily implemented by Nathan’s team, was to add a
pair of flown V7Ps, the point source V variant. By getting these cabinets flown
above head height the problem has been solved. Myself and Ed Helliwell our
Technical Director got to hear the V7P at Mannheim along with the AP demo, so we
knew what we were getting.

“That illustrates what a great job Stage Audio Works does; other suppliers can often
just sell you a product and then walk away. We have multiple venues in South
Africa and find with Stage Audio Works’ approach it’s not just product led, they bring
their experience and knowledge to aid us in achieving a full solution. Since we’ve
moved to the new church quite a few people have come to me after the service and
commented on the difference of experience. They use words like “connected’ to
describe what they hear, “it’s as if the Pastor is stood right in front of us’, they say.
So in that sense AP has delivered exactly what we were all looking for.’