Fargo, ND - Horace is a burgeoning bedroom community just outside of North Dakota’s largest city, Fargo, with a growing population of young families carving subdivisions into the farmland. In the fall of 2009, Horace Lutheran opened the doors on their new building, housing a fellowship hall, education wing, and a bright and airy sanctuary with state-of-the-art sound and video systems.
Despite a ceiling that peaks at 36 feet, good acoustical design made the 360-seat sanctuary’s sonic challenges manageable, says Tricorne Audio’s Dallas Anderson. “The room is lively, but not cathedral lively,” he says. “With padded pews and carpet floor, the reflectivity wasn’t all that bad.”
Anderson designed a distributed system utilizing three iBOX IHP-Series systems from Community Professional Loudspeakers. A single iBOX i215S subwoofer provides low end extension, and a VERIS 226 cabinet covers the production booth. QSC amps power the system, with a Biamp Audia handling system drive and processing and a Yamaha LS9 live console in the booth.
The sanctuary is a multi-use venue, and the church offers a range of services, from choral and a cappella to contemporary. Anderson says the iBOX was selected as much for its musicality as for its intelligibility. “We’ve used the iBOX in other projects and been very pleased with the sound quality and the consistency,” he says. “It models well in EASE, handles a wide range of music, and intelligibility is excellent. And as the loudspeakers are built in the US, we knew there wouldn’t be any shipping or supply issues.”
Anderson reports the system has been a tremendous success. “We were happy with the Community system we had in our old church, so when Dallas recommended Community for our new building we were very comfortable with that,” says Brian Erickstad, the church’s technology committee chair. “We certainly weren’t disappointed. The quality, range and coverage is just excellent.”
“They’re still learning to work with the new system and the new room,” says Anderson, “but they’ve got good pattern control and excellent sound quality, and they’re not afraid to step forward and share their talents.”
