WICHITA, KS--Since opening its doors in June of 1965, Wichita’s Metropolitan Baptist Church has been a vital part of this bustling community, offering a range of services, classes and other events. In 1983 the church added the Jesse Vardaman Fellowship Hall, a multipurpose venue that has seen near-constant use over the years. But with a very rudimentary 70 volt distributed sound system and budget grade ceiling speakers, the hall has long struggled with intelligibility issues.
As Dennis Craven of Wichita-based Vivid Pro Systems explains, the solution came in the form of Community Professional’s new ENTASYS high-performance line array column systems. “We’ve worked with line columns in the past, and Community’s new ENTASYS immediately came to mind for this application,” says Craven. “The system needed to be versatile enough to handle spoken word, movie night, light praise and worship, and ENTASYS fit the bill perfectly.”
With two ENTASYS full-range units installed as the main loudspeakers, Craven says they were able to remove more than 20 ceiling speakers, only leaving a few in the rear of the hall for when the room dividers are in use. “With the ENTASYS, we were able to create a solid localized sound image,” he observes. “It’s really impressive how good the sound is, even at the rear wall, some 94 feet away. There’s little need for delay zones, and the localization is excellent – no listener fatigue.”
Craven reports the client was pleasantly surprised by the system’s clarity, and that they were pleased with the ease of the installation. “The ENTASYS was a joy to work with,” he says. “They’re very musical and clear sounding, and the mounting hardware was high quality and not clunky. We could not have delivered within their budget without the ENTASYS – they really were the star of the show. We’re happy, the client is thrilled, and after 44 years of ceiling speakers, the room is finally finished.”
