latest news headlines

Electro-Voice Satisfies Musical Appetite of K.I.C.C. Church

For the Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC), the London Olympic Games have already started. The popular east London church has had to move out of its Hackney premises as development gets underway on the 2012 Olympic Park site, and has relocated to a former cinema in Walthamstow. Although the move is temporary, KICC prioritised the commission of a new Electro-Voice sound system to suit the substantial musical content of its services.

Established for more than 15 years, KICC is one of the fastest-growing churches in Western Europe. Space at its new Hoe Street premises is at such a premium that the Sunday service has to be conducted six times in order to accommodate all members of the congregation. For each service, 1000 people squeeze into the two-level sanctuary, with its large stage housing Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, a 40-piece choir and numerous live musicians.

While KICC seeks planning permission to build itself a permanent new home, the ministry has set about making its Hoe Street premises fully functional. A priority was the sound system, because KICC has always placed great emphaisis on the musical content of its services. "This is the last sanctuary for real musicians," says sound engineer Dipo Fasade. "They play a very important part in our services, creating a distinctive warm sound which everyone can relate to. Also we have very popular youth services, where the teenagers make the music themselves; we needed a PA system with real bass response for their music."

KICC called upon local PA rental and installation company Systems Etc to advise them on equipping their multipurpose venue with versatile sound equipment. The process began with a demo at EV's UK distributor Shuttlesound. "One or two people at KICC were keen on another brand of loudspeaker," explains Systems Etc's Ricky Ramsay, "but, at the demo, they found they preferred the sound characteristics of EV. From our point of view, we were keen for them to use EV because we like working with Shuttlesound, which has the best after-sales service of any company we trade with."

The 1000-seater auditorium has a large balcony, and underneath it, four EV Xi1082s have been installed, chosen for their low profile. Above the stage, two pairs of Xi1152s 64AF are flown, with additional delay speakers (Xi1152 90AFs) on the side walls. For bass, three RX218 units have been built in under the stage. On stage, the musicians are using the Aviom personal monitoring systems, with EV's Phoenix range cabinets supplied for the choir and other vocalists.

Powered by P3000 and P1200 RL amplifiers from Electro-Voice, the system is controlled by EV's NetMax audio processor and matrix. System designer Ricky Ramsay explains that "NetMax makes life much easier, handling the zoning for example. There are six zones here, all independent, and, via simple navigation, you can use NetMax to control the signal distribution and level as well as adding a valuable degree of security. Services are being mixed on a digital console, which gives the technical team a full recall of settings, should anybody alter them without authorisation."

Sound engineer Dipo Fasade reports that Pastor and congregation are happy. "I am delighted with the speech clarity of the system, and with the SPL. I find it handles my kind of production very well." He adds that, "the after-sales service was the best part of the package. Systems Etc provided training, service and support to the eight people in our live sound team."

News Type:

latest news headlines

Electro-Voice Satisfies Musical Appetite of K.I.C.C. Church

2nd July 2008

HEADLINES

news archive

search stories