St. Thomas The Apostle Church is located in the shore community of Brigantine, NJ. During the summer months, the church congregation swells to about 3,000 from approximately 1,000 attendees in the off-season, due to residents that flock to the ocean community from May through September.
“The existing church space could not accommodate the increase in congregation, so they decided to expand services by constructing an overflow event center,” said Bobby Harper, vice president of sales, ACIR Professional. “ACIR Professional was hired to expand the church audio requirements in order to tie the event center to the main sanctuary through a video and audio feed, as well as to renovate the main sanctuary to accommodate more of the congregation.”
Phase One of the enhancement to St. Thomas The Apostle Church included the installation of a 5.1 audio system for playback of media for non-service affairs, as well as a portable audio and video system to handle church services for overflow, and other events such as weddings and meetings.
ACIR accomplished this with the installation of a Yamaha MG series mixer, Eiki Projector, JBL ceiling and wall speakers, JBL portable PRX12M and PRX18 speakers, and Sennheiser wireless microphones. “The church budget was influential in the requirement criteria,” said Harper. “The combination of equipment used fulfilled the budget requirements as well as the quality and portability requirements.”
Phase Two was to renovate the existing sanctuary. The interior of the church was modified slightly with the addition of Naves on Altar L+R. The entire floor was converted from carpet to marble, so an affordable, yet highly intelligible distributed speaker system from Community Professional was used. This system is also driven by a Yamaha MG series mixer (for a total of three Yamaha mixers throughout the premises), and includes a Community DSpec processor, all powered by Yamaha P series amplifiers (four in total). “Sennheiser wireless microphones were chosen for their clarity,” said Harper, “and Shure MX series boundary mics are utilized on the altar, pulpit, and choir area.”
While Phase Two was taking place, the sanctuary was moved to the overflow event center. Because audio I/O panels were placed throughout the room, the church was able to setup a portable sanctuary and perform services as needed, while waiting for the renovation of the main sanctuary to take place. Once the main sanctuary was complete, the services were moved back to the church, with feeds continually sent to the overflow event center.
“The sound system is awesome in the church and the hall,” said Mary Jane Morey, director of liturgy and music. ACIR was exceptional to work with and unbelievably knowledgeable. I was able to contact them with concerns during the installation process and initial use of the system 24/7.”
