When King of Kings Lutheran Church in suburban Woodbury, MN decided to upgrade its sound system, their goal was to eliminate uneven coverage while improving clarity and fidelity for both contemporary and traditional worship services. They consulted Saint Paul-based Collins Electrical Construction, a regional firm that had recently installed their new lighting system. Being familiar with the facility, Collins project manager Shawn Withrow had a streamlined, high-performance solution in mind, with loudspeakers from Electro-Voice powered and processed by electronics from Dynacord.

“We do a wide range of commercial contracting, often working with Electro-Voice, and it has become my go-to brand for larger spaces like churches,” says Withrow. “We were confident that it was really just a matter of finding the right system to fit the space. For King of Kings, that turned out to be EVA line arrays.”

According to King of Kings Director of Worship Arts, Chris Vorrie, the decision on a new system happened several months prior to the pandemic, driven by a desire for greater clarity. “With our previous system, the ability to understand the words varied depending on where you were sitting,” he explains. “We needed consistent, highly intelligible sound throughout the nave.”

Shawn Withrow contacted regional sales manager Dave Notch to arrange a loudspeaker demo, incorporating the latest electronics from Dynacord. “The demo made King of Kings comfortable with the EVA system, and it’s also why they decided to upgrade to flown dual-18” subwoofers.”

Electro-Voice and Dynacord’s in-house system design team assisted Collins Electrical Construction in finalizing the deployment details, using EASE mapping software in combination with Dynacord SONICUE Sound System Software to ensure full, even coverage throughout the sanctuary. Local company Twin Cities Sound was engaged to handle the physical hanging of the loudspeakers.

The right and left hangs in the primary system each consist of two EVA-2082S 90° horizontal dispersion cabinets atop a pair of 120° models, ensuring even coverage throughout the main seating area. EVA cabinets contain two fixed-splay loudspeaker modules, which means that each hang comprises a total of eight line-array elements. Splay angles are determined by the specific choice of models. The cabinets are mechanically connected with simple rigging plates, which are completely hidden by cosmetic panels that give EVA a clean and elegant look. The main EVA system benefits from newly-released DSP settings that further enhance acoustical performance and a newly implemented hybrid limiter scheme that maximizes system output.

To cover the side seating areas and choir loft, one Electro-Voice EVF-1122S is angled to each side, and two X12i-128 subwoofers are flown further out above the congregation. All the loudspeakers are finished in white. The system is powered by two Dynacord DSP power amplifiers; an IPX20:4 – a model capable of providing up to 20,000 watts via its four channels – handles the arrays and subs, and a single C2800FDi supplies the EVFs.

With services opening up again, the “less is more” value angle is clear to hear for the King of Kings team and their congregation: “We really love the sound of the new system,” adds Chris Vorrie. “Musically, everything is enhanced and sounds so much better than before – and we actually eliminated multiple fill speakers in the process. Everything is consistent now, and both the spoken word and lyrics are much easier to understand, no matter where you sit.”

Equipment list:
Electro-Voice
4x EVA-2082S/906 (90°H x 6°V) line-array module
4x EVA-2082S/126 (120°H x 6°V) line-array module
2x EVA-EG2 extended grid for EVA
2x EVF-1122S/94 (90°H x 40°V) two-way loudspeaker
2x X12i-128 dual-18” subwoofer
Dynacord
1x IPX20:4 (4x 5000 W) DSP power amplifier
1x C2800FDI (2x 1400 W) DSP power amplifier