Living Stones Church
Alvin Texas
"Living Stones Church recently installed a Line Array system custom
designed for our facility by ISP Technologies. Buck and Jon Waller,
along with the entire ISP Team, have achieved an excellent standard of
audio fidelity and clarity that surpasses any system of which I am
aware. Our worship services have literally been transformed as both the
music and the spoken word now have a superb intelligibility and quality
that was previously lacking. I recommend ISP Technologies for all of
your audio needs.
Derwin Ward
Worship Leader
Living Stones Church Alvin, TX "
Reference Line / Line Array
Technology
ISP Technologies has developed several new line array products the
Reference Line 210, Reference Line 112, Reference Line 4215 and
Reference Line 4210. The Reference Line 210 is a 3-way
Active System including two 10 inch woofers, a large format, 4-inch
diaphragm mid frequency compression driver and dual 1.75 inch polyester
diaphragm neodymium high frequency drivers. The Reference Line 112 is a
3-way Active system including a single 12 inch woofer, a large format,
4-inch diaphragm mid frequency and a 1.75 inch polyester diaphragm
neodymium high frequency driver. Both Line Array Systems provide
extremely wide horizontal dispersion and stunning high fidelity
performance. The audio professionals that have heard the ISP Line Array
Systems claim they provide higher performance, better pattern coverage
and the highest fidelity ever heard. We think so too! After thousands of
hours of mathematical simulation, the development of ISP’s proprietary
Line Sim software and rigorous engineering product design ISP
Technologies offer the ultimate in Line Array technology. ISP also
offers application specific, custom Line Array system design. ISP will
design a custom line array specifically engineered for your specific
room or venue.
ISP Technologies, utilizing their proprietary LINESIM™ software program,
has designed a custom line array system for the 3000-seat Living Stones
Church in Alvin Texas. The Living Stone Church presented a formidable
challenge in the design of a high performance sound system. The
structure of the church is a round dome of 88-foot diameter, with a
100-foot distance from the front podium to the sound booth at the rear
of the dome. It is obviously desirable to keep as much of the sound
energy off the dome as possible, yet achieve a horizontal dispersion of
180 degrees.
ISP therefore, decided to custom design a 25,000 watt Reference Line 210
Speaker system with multiple boxes in a vertical line. Individual Line
Array boxes have very narrow dispersion in the vertical direction at
high frequencies, but wide vertical dispersion at low frequencies. The
narrow vertical dispersion at low frequencies is achieved by a long line
of boxes, with a longer line having tighter dispersion at lower
frequencies. Once the wavelength of the sound becomes longer than the
line length, the dispersion broadens out. Because of this tighter, more
uniform vertical dispersion, our line array provides superior
performance in the Living Stones Church. The boxes are over 5 feet in
height (5 boxes per side), and so will maintain vertical dispersion
control to below 200 Hz.
The subwoofers, which handle frequencies below 100 Hz, are floor-mounted
boxes, which afford no vertical dispersion control.
Most line arrays built by other manufacturers use small cone speakers up
to about 1.5 KHz (or higher). These are usually allowed to have wide
vertical dispersion, so that a particular seat hears the summation of
many of them (this is needed, since they are low efficiency devices).
But this is self-defeating, since the curvature of the array and the
shorter wavelengths at these frequencies mean that the summation is not
in phase, which results in a severe response dip in this region (the
missing midrange). This is also combined with the fact that cone
speakers “break up” in this frequency region, meaning the cone does not
move like a solid piston, but rather like a wet noodle, which results in
notches in the response and lack of clarity in the sound. To get around
this, the ISP Technologies Reference Line 210 speaker uses a compression
driver with a 4-inch voice coil and 4-inch diaphragm in the critical 700
Hz to 2.5 KHz region. Its diaphragm does not break up in this frequency
band. Also, it is coupled to a horn with well-controlled vertical
dispersion, so that any person in the audience hears only one or two of
these devices, avoiding response dips due to phase cancellations. The
result is midrange response smoothness and clarity that surpasses all
other line array in this price range.
The high frequency performance of the Living Stones system is
exceptional, due to the choice of drivers used and the sophistication of
the acoustic lens/horn devices. These drivers use polyester diaphragms,
as opposed to titanium that “ring” and can produce an annoying high end.
Also, their 1.75 inch diaphragms and 1-inch throat sized are small
enough to achieve extended frequency response and wide horizontal
dispersion. The acoustic lenses focus this energy in a very tight
vertical pattern, so that multiple drivers do not interact, which would
result in peaks and notches in the high frequency response. Finally, the
horizontal dispersion the Reference Line 210 speakers have, has been
carefully designed to be exceptionally wide (up to 120 degrees).
The Music Director at Living Stones wanted to achieve an SPL level of
110db at 60 feet and the Custom Designed Reference 210 Line Array System
delivered. With headroom to spare and ruler flat response, the Reference
Line Array delivered 115db SPL at 60 feet. The most common comment upon
hearing the system was “WOW”. To find out how to order a Custom Designed
System, or any ISP product, contact ISP Technologies at 248-673-7790.