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Hope Church makes theatrical comeback with new state-of-the-art systems at The Axis

The auditorium (worship hall) named The Axis by the church, is a classic cinema theatre with a seating capacity of 1,400 and comprises a main floor and a balcony. Keeping most of its structural layout intact, the sanctuary is situated in an open-floor, high ceiling hall that resembles a grand theatre, complete with a colour theme that embodies simplicity and modernism – white, black and royal purple.

The infinite variety of symmetric circular LED lights across the ceiling panels also conduce a serene and warm atmosphere in the worship hall.

The most distinctive feature of the church is its unique tetrahedral structure located along the sides of the auditorium. Made up of over 40 unique shapes, it is structurally designed to envelop the staircase leading to the balcony.

Besides serving its aesthetic purpose, the futuristic masterpiece also helps with the acoustics of the hall, in terms of sound diffusion and absorption. More notably, the structure works as a brilliant environmental projection surface.

The project was carried out in four key phases – planning and visualization; preliminary designs; purchase of equipment; and implementation.

Steven Yeoh, Technical Director at Hope Church, was posed to re-purpose the cinema theatre. He worked closely with Lim Kheong Sen and Gary Low from Acoustickeys Associates (formerly known as Sigma Integration) while Electronics & Engineering Pte Ltd (E&E) was contracted as systems integrator for all audio, video, lighting rigging and projection throughout the church.

“Taking the core ideas and layout concepts from the owner, the consultants were better able to visualize what was required,” shared Steven. Some of the limitations and

E&E transforms classic theatre into modern worship house

challenges involved included electrical and wiring problems, structural conditions to hold the equipment, the need for sound proof rooms for noise control due to the restrictions imposed on commercial buildings.

THE AUDIO ASPECTLike many contemporary churches, Hope Church incorporates music into its worship services, with live musicians and vocalists actively performing for the congregation. As such, the consultants were commissioned to provide a steerable system that catered to good voice and musical intelligibility.

“We went through a shoot out of the speakers based on a few criteria – pricing, weigh ratio, quality, and power. Ultimately, we decided on point source and not line arrays due to the balcony structure. Not only is point source more cost-efficient, it also allows for time delay and tuning.”

Established in 1991, Hope Church Singapore started out as a 600-seater auditorium in Cuppage Plaza. Over the years, the church outgrew the venue with the attendance rising to approximately 5,000 – well beyond what the sanctuary could handle. This instigated the church to look for a new venue. It was in 2012 that they settled in at their current location at Jalan Sultan, Singapore. The church had to revamp the new venue to cater to its needs. The revamp took close to six months – involving the addition and alteration of equipment and renovation.

Tetrahedral structure designed to hide the staircase

COVER STORY

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The audio solutions, supplied by Electronics & Engineering (E&E) include a composition of a pair of QX596-W 3-way high output speakers providing a 90x60 degree dispersion complemented with a EAW QX566-W 3-way high output speakers providing a 60x60 degree dispersion for the main FOH, that were installed above the stage as left and right configuration. A further pair of QX596-W and EAW QX566-W were installed at the front of the balcony ensuring coverage

x Sennheiser E664. 2 units of Headway The Band pickups were used for the Cello and Violin.

The church also purchased a unit of Movek’s MyMix personal monitoring system, that controls up to 16 channels, to help musicians save their tracks for future remixing and rehearsals.

THE VISUAL ASPECTA large 9 x 5m LED wall sits at the center of the stage, adding

for those seated at the balcony. “I’m very happy with the sound quality of the QX series.

It requires very little EQ and performs wonderfully,” remarks Steven.

2 x EAW JF29-W 2-way compact full range passive loudspeakers were installed as side-fills whilst an additional 6 x EAW JF60Z were embedded in the front of the stage to act as front fills. A further 5 units of EAW JF8-W supplemented the under balcony delay fills.

The mono-clustered sub-woofers consisting of 4 x EAW BH822E-W speakers, are positioned directly above the downstage, with the body suspended up the roof and flushed to the front of the ceiling, to keep a minimalist look.

Except for the EAW JF60Zs that were embedded in the front of stage all the speakers were specified in white to blend in with the aesthetics of the worship hall. The FOH, side-fill, and sub-woofers were all powered by Powersoft DiGAM amps. These included 4 x K8 2-CH 1500W amps, 4 x K2 2-CH 1000W amps, 2 x K3 2-CH 1400W amps, 3 x M14D 2-CH 360W amps and 1 unit of M50Q 4-CH 750W amps, M28Q 4-CH 360W amps, M20D 2-CH 600W amps each.

The structure of the stage is modified to accommodate the monitor speakers consisting of 8 x EAW JF8 dual 6.5” compact full range loudspeakers by having them sunk into the stage platform. To create a minimalist and clean look, the speakers were specified in black to blend in with the stage theme. The speakers were driven by 2 units of Ashly KLR3200R amplifiers.

“We wanted nothing protruding on stage. A cut-out and steel plate with perforation was further laid out to fit in the speakers. Thus, we can hear them, but we don’t see them,” said Steven, further adding, “We also did not want the speakers to block the sightline of the screen and so everything is either kept out of sight or blended in with the structures.”

A further 4 x JF29-W speakers were installed as delays above the circle seats to ensure coverage for those seated in that segment.

A unit of Soundcraft Vi6 (96in/32out) digital mixing console is used for FOH mixing with another unit used as a monitoring console at the stage left wing. The FOH mixer is located at the center of the auditorium for optimal listening and mixing. Steven asserted that the Vi6 was an easy choice due to its user-friendly configurability.

A range of microphones were used for instruments and the drum kit as well as for the performers and pastor. These included 12 units of Shure UR2 Beta87A wireless handheld microphones, complemented with 10 units of Shure UR4D+ Dual Channel Wireless System Receiver and 8 units of Shure UR1 DPA4066 headset wireless beltpack. A further two units of Rode NT1A and a unit of Audio Technica AT4033A large diaphragm condensers supplemented the sound reinforcement. 4 units of Shure SM58 and 5 units of Shure SM57 microphones are included in the inventory for general purposes.

The Drum and Percussion instruments featured 1 x Yamaha SubKick, 1 x AKG D112, 3 x Sennheiser e604, 3

a stunning visual to the grandeur of the church. The 1280 x 720 pixel Rn6-S indoor SMD LED Panel by Lighthouse Technologies, can be raised or lowered to meet the needs of the performing stage.

The LED wall is further calibrated to suit the lighting rig and the other projection screens by scaling down to 8% brightness.

To aid the congregation to follow the service, 2 x DA-Lite 100” x 177” custom-made cinema contour fixed frame rear projection screens were placed on the left and right side of the stage with projection provided by 2 x EIKI HDT2000 full HD LCD projectors (15,000 ANSI lumens), that were installed above the stage left and right wings. A further 2 x EIKI HDT2000 full HD LCD projectors were also installed at the balcony wall to project onto the tetrahedral structure for environmental projection and effect purposes.

Two additional DA-Lite 45” x 80” rear projection screens are also placed at the outer front of the parapet, facing the stage, with rear projection provided by 2 x Dell S500 projectors with ultra wide angle lens.

“For the environmental projection design, we opted for a high-brightness projector on the balcony that crossfires; the right projector crossfires to the left wall and vice-versa. Instead of utilizing two to edge-blend, we decided on 15000 lumens projectors,” Steven explained.

A set of QX596 and QX566 for the main FOH

EAW JF29 installed as side-fills

EAW BH822E-W mono-clustered sub-woofers flushed to the ceiling

EAW JF8s embedded in the front of the stage

Steven Yeoh with the Soundcraft Vi6

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THE BROADCAST ASPECTThe broadcast and distribution of live feeds is handled by 1 x Blackmagic Compact Videohub, 40x40 multi-rate SDI matrix switcher.

“We want to control all the outputs to various rooms; backstage, screens, foyers – the Videohub give us the flexibility. Everything can be digitally controlled on the computer or the iPad,” said Steven.

One unit of Blackmagic ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast panel in tandem with 2 units of Blackmagic ATEM 1 M/E production switchers provide the backbone for the visual team. A Kramer VP-730 9-input proscale presentation scaler/switcher is also utilized.

Visual recording is provided by 4 units of JVC GY-HM790CHE ProHD Cameras that are controlled via 4 units of JVC RM-HP790DU camera control units. There are also two units of Panasonic AW-HE50 remote HD cameras that are remotely controlled by a Panasonic AW-RP50.

A separate audio mix for broadcast is handled by a 64 channel SoundCraft Vi1, which takes the signal from the FOH mixer and mixes down to stereo.

THE CONTROL ROOMThe control rack, which Steven coined as the “nervous system of the whole place”, is housed in the control room – it comprises of network connections, analog and digital audio & video, as well as fiber optic lines.

www.enepl.com.sgwww.hopesingapore.org.sgBlackmagic ATEM 1 M/E production switcher

The Rn6 LED Panel and DA-Lite screens in action

Hope Church control room

THE LIGHTING ASPECT

Total Solution Marketing was responsible for the lighting system, in which the Philips Vari*Lite fixtures comprised a huge part of the stage lighting rig.

8 x Philips Vari*Lite VL2500 Spots, together with 4 x VL3000 Spot and 4 x VL3000 Wash were suspended and secured on three flybars above the stage.

Steven comments, “The VL3000 are very bright and deliver great beam effects that work well with the other lights in the rig. The versatility of the VL3000 also made them ideal for the theatre environment.”

Other conventional lighting fixtures, which are strategically mounted on four lighting bridges across the ceiling, include 30 x ETC Source Four PARNEL, and 45 x Selecon SPX series luminaries.

The house and stage lighting are controlled via the Avolites Pearl Expert Titan with the Touch Wing.

www.tsm-int.com

Philips Vari*Lite VL2500 Spots

Avolites Pearl Expert