EAW Adaptive System Covers Over a Multitude of Seats

When The Brooklyn Tabernacle, a multicultural, non-denominational megachurch, moved into its current facility in the heart of downtown Brooklyn 21 years ago, its three cluster PA system served the church well. As the years have passed, church leaders realised the need to upgrade to more current technology to continue to serve the needs of the church. The Tabernacle found the solution it was looking for with EAW’s ADAPTive System featuring the Anna Loudspeaker and Otto Subwoofer.

Today, The Brooklyn Tabernacle has grown from a handful of people to a congregation of about ten thousand who attend weekly services. The Brooklyn Tabernacle is also home to the world renowned 270-voice choir, which has recorded three videos, three DVDs and numerous albums, winning five Dove Awards and six GRAMMY Awards. 

“Our original system was an EAW rig designed by Craig Janssen, managing director at Idibri, over twenty years ago,” says Michael Archibald, A\V admin at The Brooklyn Tabernacle. “One of the main components of the original project with Idibri was to acoustically treat the room. Craig and Idibri also consulted on the design of the new PA system. They helped us through the selection process. We were looking for a system that would not only give us the coverage, but also the energy.”

Early in the process, Harold Rubens, a good friend of Archibald’s and a veteran FOH engineer who he highly respects, strongly recommended the EAW ADAPTive System and a split array design for the room. “Harold has been working indirectly with our church and choir for a long time and really knew our room and our needs,” adds Archibald. “Harold’s confidence in the system to be able to meet our design needs was a big part of our decision. I met with a sales rep from EAW and he was very helpful throughout the entire process. After hearing the EAW ADAPTive system, the choice was clear. Once we had the design and speaker selection, the wonderful team at Clair Solutions was brought in to do the integration.”

One of the most important factors in The Brooklyn Tabernacle’s speaker choice were that the EAW’s could use the venue’s existing hang points. “Our old system was hung from a ground-supported steel beam structure because there is no steel to hang any arrays,” adds Archibald. “Each split array consists of five Anna’s with four Otto’s in the middle and four Anna’s below. By being able to utilise the existing hang points, we were able to save a lot of money without compromising on sound quality.”

Due to a very large acoustic space, the room presented some unique design challenges. “We have a massive balcony that has the front row approximately 60 feet from the stage and the back row approximately 160 feet from stage,” says Archibald. “Equally as challenging from a coverage perspective is our under-balcony area, which starts at 60 feet from the stage and goes back to approximately 120 feet back. All the while, the FOH mix position is about 50 feet from the stage in a huge open part of the room.  The EAW ADAPTive cabinets gave us the solution with its steering capabilities and is able to cover all the different spaces with equal coverage and energy with a lot less cabinets then other manufacturers.”

According to Archibald, “With EAW ADAPTive, there is not a bad seat in the large room. Our sanctuary holds 3,800 seats, and yet it feels very intimate. The best way I can describe our new system is when you sit in our sanctuary it feels like you have a pair of studio monitors right in front of you. Because of COVID-19, we had to tune the room virtually. John Mills from EAW was able to tune the room remotely with the Clair Solution crew, which was very cool. We are extremely happy with the entire process, the final results and the teams at EAW, Harold Rubens, Idibri and Clair Solutions. The EAW ADAPTive system is amazing and a perfect fit for our space and needs.”

In addition to the EAW speaker upgrade, Brooklyn Tabernacle upgraded the FOH console to a Yamaha PM7 and monitor console to a Yamaha CL5 all being utilized on a Dante network.