Timberlake Church is a vibrant, multi-campus community of faith where an unwavering dedication to service and excellence remains at the heart of everything it does. This ranges from its mission projects and children’s programs, to its online presence and in-person worship experience. In March of 2023, the church’s flagship location in Redmond further underscored that commitment by significantly upgrading its sound. Here, Timberlake church installed a new L-Acoustics Kara IIi professional audio system flown in its 1,200-seat auditorium by Colorado-based HOW integrator, Summit Integrated Systems.
Addressing the Issues
Summit’s project manager, Andrew Starke, adds that the design and installation hardly involved a paint-by-numbers process. “The challenge for fan-shaped auditoriums like this is getting both consistent impact and coverage,” he explains. “There’s a tendency to trade punch for coverage in situations like this, but we didn’t want to do that because the church’s worship style really called for impact.”
The previous PA system dates back to the turn of the century. “The sound in the room tended to be a bit harsh, and coverage was spotty, so those were the main challenges we needed to address,” explains Timberlake Church’s production and technical director Ben Graf. He is also a longtime commercial-AV veteran in the Seattle area.
Graf adds, “We were looking for heightened audio and coverage quality; but we were also looking to achieve a new level of impact.”
A tour of some recent L-Acoustics church installation projects convinced Timberlake Church’s committee that this was the way to go. Summit’s design team then made critical choices. First, they decided on a combination of six center-hung KS21i subs, flown as adjacent three-enclosure hangs in an omni configuration. The team also deployed another six ground-based KS21i subs in an arc under the stage. “That gave us the impact we needed, both on the floor and in the balcony; letting us dial in exactly the amount of punch needed for each,” says Starke.
Installing the New System
The new sound system’s main arrays comprise eight Kara IIi per side. It also has four A15i per side — three Focus over one Wide — for out-fill arrays, a combination chosen for consistency across the room. “The Kara IIi and A15i compression drivers and voicing are very similar,” says Starke. “With L-Acoustics, there’s a predictable consistency from one box type to the next, letting us mix the boxes as needed, knowing we’ll have uniformity across the entire system. We can pick the boxes based on the coverage the room needs while still achieving impact in every location.”
And finally, they chose three of the new LA7.16i amplified controllers. With this, the team achieved consistent FIR responses across all of the main speakers. They also deployed a pair of LA12X for the subs. “We were able to get all the power we needed, where we needed it, with fewer amplifiers. [This] saved us budget while also increasing our resolution,” Starke says. “That was a huge win for the church.”
The project also included additional key audio infrastructure. This included a DiGiCo Quantum225 console with a Waves server rack at front-of-house and a KLANG:konductor in-ear management system for monitors, all on an Optocore network loop.
“We wanted people worshiping here to feel the services as much as hear them,” remarks Graf. “The loudspeaker system was crucial for that. And the Kara IIi and A15i not only met those expectations, but far exceeded them. In fact, I’d say the sound quality blew us out of the water.”
Click on “View Slideshow” for images of the installation. All images courtesy of L-Acoustics.
