Panavid Upgrades Audio System at Calvary Baptist Church In New York City With HARMAN JBL
Loudspeaker System
 
 
ORLANDO, Florida – Calvary Baptist Church was founded in New York City in 1847 as an independent Baptist church, and has been in its current location on Manhattan’s West 57th Street since 1931. Over the years, the church has undergone a series of renovations, and most recently completed a major upgrade to its audio system with the installation of HARMAN’s JBL VRX Series Constant Curvature, AE Series Compact and CBT loudspeakers.

Professional audio/video services company Panavid, Inc. of Pompton Plains, New Jersey was contracted to complete the rigging and speaker installation, led by Client Relations Manager Dennis Mitchell. The Calvary Baptist Church system is based around left/right arrays of five JBL VRX932LAP powered loudspeakers per side, and two VRX918S 18-inch subwoofers per side. Complementing the two main arrays are two JBL AC28/95 compact loudspeakers for front fill and eight JBL AC15 ultra-compact loudspeakers placed under the balcony. There are also two JBL CBT 100LA column speakers in the choir area. Walter Loehr of Panavid did the system tuning and configuration.

“Calvary Baptist Church reached the point where they needed to have professional audio for their sermons and all their events, up to and including concerts,” explained Mitchell. “The church has an exceptional choir and music ministry, led by Colin Fowler, and music is an integral part of the services.”

Mitchell noted, “The system was very much designed as a collaborative effort after numerous conversations with myself, Michael Toombs and Miq Munoz of the Calvary Baptist Church, and Jim Peters of rep firm Sigmet Corporation. Panavid recommended using JBL VRX932LAP loudspeakers with matching VRX918S subwoofers because they are some of the best sounding speakers available; we’ve been amazed at their sound quality.”

Calvary Baptist Audio Engineer, Miq Munoz, said, “The new JBL system punches right through to the back of the room. I used to describe our sanctuary as ‘muddy.’ Not anymore. And low frequency support from the subwoofers is powerful and tight.”

“We also needed speakers that were as unobtrusive as possible, while being able to deliver the large-scale sound quality we needed, and the form factors of the VRX932LAP and VRX918S allow us to do that,” Munoz added. “We used the AC28/95 and AC15 speakers where space considerations precluded the use of larger speakers. We also chose AKG HM1000 hanging microphones to mic the choir with exceptional results.”

“Before the system was even tweaked, we were excited about the quality of the sound the JBL’s were providing to the listening space,” Mitchell continued. “After Walter Loehr used his software, mics and ears to fine-tune the system to the church sanctuary, the sound became even more outstanding. The church is very happy with their decision to install this system and I am thrilled to see their excitement.”

For more information on Panavid, please visit www.panavid.com
HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 11,000 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $3.2 billion for the last twelve months ended March 31, 2010. The Company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE:HAR.