Redwood Timberlake Church, Washington

Context

The Team

Timberlake Church in Redmond Gets a Better Church PA Sound System with Kara IIi

Over the past year, Timberlake Church’s flagship location in Redmond upgraded its church PA sound system by installing a new L-Acoustics Kara IIi professional audio system. Originating in 1989, when 156 congregants first gathered together at Redmond, Washington’s Louisa May Alcott Elementary School for worship, Timberlake Church had no idea their grassroots efforts to reach their neighbors would lead to today’s vibrant, multi-campus community of faith. To keep up with its growing congregation, the church’s team decided to update its flagship church PA sound system.

The Challenge

Getting the right pro audio sound system for the shape of the church itself presented some challenges. The concern with fan-shaped auditoriums like the Timberlake Church is getting both consistent impact and coverage. There’s a tendency to trade punch for coverage in situations like this, but the team 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 latest century. The sound in the room tended to be a bit harsh, and coverage was spotty, so those were the main challenges the new system would need to address. The church’s technical team was looking for heightened audio and coverage quality but also wanted to achieve a new level of impact.

The Solution

The church team decided on a combination of six center-hung KS21i subs, flown as adjacent three-enclosure hangs in an Omni configuration, with another six ground-based KS21i subs deployed in an arc under the stage, which gave them the impact they needed, both on the floor and in the balcony, letting them dial in exactly the amount of punch needed for each.

The new sound system’s main arrays comprise eight Kara IIi per side, with four A15i per side—three Focus over one Wide—for out-fill arrays, a combination chosen for consistency across the room. With L-Acoustics, there’s a predictable consistency from one box type to the next, letting the design team mix boxes as needed, knowing they’ll have uniformity across the entire system, picking the boxes based on the coverage the room needs while still achieving impact in every location.

To power the system, they chose three new LA7.16i amplified controllers to achieve consistent FIR responses across all of the main speakers, with a pair of LA12X for the subs.

The Result

With the new LA7.16i amplified controllers, the team was able to get all the power they needed, and with fewer amplifiers, saving them on budget while also increasing the resolution. The consistent level of power and sound across the church sound system has exceeded the church’s team’s expectations.

Project photos