Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado has completed a full sound system upgrade featuring a new Meyer Sound Lina system designed and installed by Octane AVL.
The project replaces an 18-year-old setup that had reached the limits of its performance, transforming the 1,400-seat sanctuary into a space defined by clarity, balance, and intelligibility.
According to Thatcher Sanders, Octane AVL’s design lead, who led the project’s conceptual design, Calvary approached the company
with a clear goal. “Everything was just outdated,” he says. “They had a pretty expansive production system that was still running well in their other rooms, but in the main sanctuary, they were ready to dream big. They wanted to host a full band, record, and
make sure people could hear clearly from front to back.” Octane AVL delivered a comprehensive technology upgrade that included new audio, lighting, LED, and visual systems, with the Meyer Sound installation forming the centerpiece.
The team modeled and tuned the system using Meyer Sound MAPP 3D.
“Chris Greely, our audio engineer, and I went back and forth to make sure coverage and weight loads would work,” says Sanders. “It’s a diamond-shaped room with a long throw and parallel surfaces, so we put a lot of thought into coverage and reflections,” adds Jonah
Mann, Octane AVL marketing & design.
One of the first steps was addressing the acoustics. “They didn’t have much acoustic treatment before,” Sanders explains. “Everybody always says, ‘Let’s make it dead,’ but we prefer to say, ‘Let’s control it.’ We installed four-inch broadband panels across the
walls to shape the sound instead of kill it.”
The new system comprises four hangs of eight Lina linear line array loudspeakers with six Ultra-X20 point source loudspeakers providing front fill coverage. Low frequencies are powered by six 900-LFC compact low-frequency control elements, three per side
in cardioid configuration. System management and optimisation are handled by Galileo Galaxy 816 and 408 Network Platforms.
Identical eight-box Lina arrays were used for both the main and out fill hangs, ensuring phase alignment and consistent stereo imaging. “It’s the same array everywhere, so you get
phase coherence across the entire room,” says Sanders. “It’s a very unique system. Chris, our engineer, even experimented with left-right stereo placement across the pairs so there’s complete stereo coverage everywhere in the room.”
For Calvary Church, the difference was immediate. “It’s night and day,” says
pastor and worship leader Ian Dizon. “Our old system had a lot of reflections and dead spots. With the new one, the clarity is remarkable. Every instrument is clear, and the low end through the subs is amazing. The room feels like it’s a different building.”