Meyer Sound / House of Worship

Aligned Vision Group provides class-leading system design, integration, and support to a wide range of clients. Boasting a core group of highly experienced individuals who have worked together for over 25 years in the audio, visual, and entertainment technology business, Aligned Vision Group has grown consistently since its founding in 2019.

“And we’re growing both in people and sales,” says John Coniglio (Business Development). “We have a lot of interesting projects we’re working on,” he adds, referencing a recent house of worship project at Central Community Church in the Niagara area featuring a Meyer Sound loudspeaker rig.

The Meyer PA inhabits the church’s new facility, which was built to support its growing congregation – effectively doubling its capacity to accommodate 1,500 congregants during Sunday services – as well as deepening the church’s capabilities for community outreach.

Central Community Church had worked with Project Manager Guy Wallace in the past and reconnected with him when their new company, Aligned Vision Group, was being founded. At that point, the church’s new building was still under construction, and the church had begun the design process but required an integrator to complete the design requirements.

Meyer Sound loudspeakers were chosen to provide the church with a “near concert level experience,” explains Wallace. “They’re a progressive church with a strong musical worship component, and a decidedly contemporary and modern focus and so required a degree of audio reinforcement that was full-on.”

“We did a fair bit of advance work designing the rigging system and had supplementary steel put in to allow the arrays to be rigged in such a way to allow for some adjustability as the arrays were not being flown on motors,” Wallace continues. Additionally, before the contract was finalized, Aligned Vision Group worked with Meyer Sound and GerrAudio (Meyer’s Canadian distributor) to complete the predictive modeling, which assisted in determining the optimal layout and placement of the audio system and the final positioning of the lighting and video systems. “Consequently, we didn’t have any surprises. We knew some physical elements on-site would cause some variance, but that was easy to overcome.”

“That’s standard practice,” Coniglio adds, explaining that Aligned Vision Group provides complete predictive modeling, concept drawings, and other design options for all of their clients. That’s one of the benefits of engaging one company to design, oversee, and install production infrastructure instead of multiple integrators. “Not looking at all the segments of construction will have a huge impact on the project timeline and budget,” Coniglio continues. If an integrator is only looking at only one segment, stage lighting, for example, they’re less likely to be able to provide an accurate projection of how the entire audio, video, and lighting system will perform in the space. “So, it’s very beneficial to the client working with one vendor for all segments of the system design, provision, and install.”

The Meyer rig – a mix of Leopard line arrays, 900-LFC and 1100 subs, UPQs, Ultra-X20s, and Ultra-X40s – was deployed in the main sanctuary in a left/centre/right configuration with outfills and delays. In all, there are nine Leopard line array loudspeakers per side, with three 900-LFC subs flown in a cardioid configuration beside them and a pair of UPQ-D2s as a centre cluster. Additionally, the two 1100s are built into the stage, with eight Ultra-X20s on the deck providing lip fill and four Ultra-X40s flown as balcony fills.

DSP is provided via a pair of Galaxy processors. The Galaxy system was the right choice for several reasons. Wallace explains: “For price point and having DSP features specific to Meyer. They work very well with the system, and it’s easy to train the client to use them. The Galaxy gives the user the ability to make changes, create presets, and monitor the Meyer processing – so it’s an excellent choice for a professional end-user as opposed to an integrator who’s used to an open architecture DSP.”

“One of the main reasons for working with Meyer products was speech intelligibility,” Coniglio puts in. “Within a place of worship, speech is key. The message needs to come across clearly. So I thought it would be beneficial to use Meyer.” Beyond that, he adds: “The nice thing about the loudspeakers is that they’re not just for speech; there’s a musicality to them. For that reason, Meyer seemed like a clear choice.”

Wallace also points to their long relationship with GerrAudio as beneficial. “We have a really good working relationship with Gerr, many successful experiences with Meyer Sound, and knew without question they were the right team to work with.”

Those relationships are always valuable, but perhaps even more so currently. “One of the challenges during Covid was manufacturing shortages,” Coniglio says. “We had to make sure that the manufacturer of choice could deliver. During the early stages of Covid, we had been checking in with Meyer, working with Gerr to ensure deliveries were met, and there was never any indication there would be a problem delivering when we required it.”

Beyond serving Central Community Church’s future needs, the system made a welcome impact immediately. “For the last year and a half, the church has obviously been focusing on the online experience,” Wallace says. “Coming out of Covid, they wanted to enhance that experience, open up the doors, and have that heavy impact musical experience as part of their worship with the congregation all together again.”