Tauranga Elim Church, New Zealand


The Opportunity

Among Elim Church’s several locations throughout New Zealand and other countries, Tauranga Elim recently moved to a new facility. A move that was nearly two years in the making, the new location is much larger than the previous building and includes an auditorium that is able to accommodate 550 people. Wanting to offer guests and attendees an engaging experience with crystal-clear speech intelligibility and great acoustics to support its live modern contemporary music, Tauranga Elim required a premium sound system that delivers consistent tones at all volume levels with smooth, even coverage across the entire facility.

The Solution

After experimenting with various speakers from different manufacturers, Tauranga Elim selected a state-of-the-art HARMAN Professional audio solution that offers pristine sound for worship services and other events. The church outfitted its auditorium with two JBL CBT 1000 line array column loudspeakers supplied through Sound and Vision Connection. Custom-flown in a left-right configuration, the CBT 1000s feature JBL’s Constant Beamwidth Technology™, which provides adjustable vertical coverage and a tapered horizontal waveguide to deliver consistent sound across the auditorium. Further ensuring even sound distribution, a JBL CBT 70J-1 two-way line array column loudspeaker was added to provide audio to the auditorium’s mezzanine level.

Complementing the column loudspeakers with accurate, low-frequency performance, the system also includes a JBL VT4883 subcompact dual 12” subwoofer that is used as a flown low-mid extension and a VTX G28 dual 18” ground subwoofer providing a solid low-end for the contemporary worship. To power and process it all, Crown I-Tech 4×3500HD high-powered tour sound amplifiers and CDi 4|300 amplifiers were deployed, providing proven reliability along with the convenience of four inputs per amplifier. OMNIDRIVEHD delivers enhanced performance on the iTech 4×3500HD.

The Impact

“As a church, we were blessed to have the opportunity to develop the shell of an industrial building into an awesome place of worship that speaks to the flavor and character of our people,” said Sean Verwey, Audio/Visual Coordinator at Tauranga Elim. “For the audio system in our auditorium, our requirements were simple; we wanted a system that sounded great, was punchy yet smooth through the dynamic range of a service, suited our style of music, covered the wide space evenly and overcame the challenging acoustics of the venue.”

“We are very pleased with the result. We heard some great systems, but we felt what HARMAN and JBL Professional offered met our requirements perfectly,” Verwey said. “The JBL CBT 1000 loudspeakers provide more than enough grunt for youth services and special events, yet is easy to mix during a regular Sunday service, it simply sounds amazing.”

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