Carrollton, TX — Church Audio System Design, Installation, DSP Tuning & Acoustic Treatment
The Challenge: Adapting an Older Sanctuary for Contemporary Worship
The Great Tree Church moved into an existing sanctuary that had previously served another congregation’s more traditional style of worship. The building came with an existing audio, video, and lighting system already in place, so this was never a blank-slate project — but the system it inherited was built around a different worship style, and it fell short of what The Great Tree Church needed for a Contemporary Worship service: consistent sound coverage, tonal balance, and clarity across a large, multi-tiered seating area, along with the musical impact a modern worship band requires.
Living Sound’s Inspection and Diagnosis
Living Sound visited the site early in the project alongside church leadership and inspected the existing system in detail. The inspection identified several compounding issues: the existing speakers offered limited coverage across the room’s seating areas, output was inconsistent from section to section, low-frequency output fell short of what Contemporary Worship music requires, and the aging speaker system itself had reached the limits of what it could deliver.
Why Replacing the Main Speakers Alone Wasn’t Enough
None of these issues could be solved by simply swapping in newer speakers. Main-floor coverage, balcony-area sound, an under-served seating area beneath the balcony, insufficient low end, stage monitoring limitations, strong room reflections and excessive reverberation, and the need for a system a volunteer media team could run confidently were all part of the same underlying problem. Living Sound treated these as one connected system rather than a list of individual parts, and redesigned coverage, the speaker system, low-frequency reinforcement, balcony and under-balcony coverage, stage monitoring, acoustic treatment, DSP tuning, and volunteer operation together as a single, integrated solution.
Designing Consistent Line Array Coverage
At the center of the redesign, Living Sound specified and installed a 24-unit line array system, split evenly across left and right hangs, to carry consistent sound pressure and tonal balance from the front rows to the back of the room. This main system was engineered to work together with dedicated coverage zones — described below — rather than trying to cover every seating area from a single source.
A Cardioid Subwoofer Design for Controlled Low-Frequency Support
Contemporary Worship music depends on a stronger low-frequency foundation than the room’s prior system could deliver. Living Sound specified a six-unit subwoofer system and designed it in a cardioid configuration to provide strong low-frequency support toward the congregation while reducing unwanted low-frequency energy toward the stage.
Extending Sound Coverage to the Under-Balcony Seating Area
The room’s balcony overhang left a deep seating area beneath it that the main line array alone could not directly and consistently reach. Living Sound designed and installed a dedicated set of eight under-balcony fill speakers to extend direct coverage into that area, and — because the fill speakers sit at a different distance from the listener than the main system — used on-site measurement to set delay and timing alignment between the two systems. The result is more coherent, better-integrated coverage for the seating beneath the balcony, working alongside the main system rather than competing with it.
Rebuilding Stage Monitoring for the Worship Team
The prior system also limited how well the worship team could hear themselves and each other on stage. Living Sound redesigned stage monitor placement and coverage using a new six-unit monitor system, giving vocalists and musicians a clearer, more balanced reference mix. Since the redesign, the worship team has needed to request monitor level increases far less often, and can hear other vocalists and instruments more comfortably during a service — and worship leadership has reported a clearer, more comfortable monitoring experience as well.
Reducing Reflections with a Dedicated Acoustic Treatment Plan
The existing sanctuary carried significant reflections, which worked against the clarity Living Sound’s audio redesign was built to deliver. Living Sound assessed the room’s reflection and reverberation behavior, identified the areas driving the problem, and developed an acoustic treatment strategy — determining the size, quantity, and material of the panels needed and planning where they should go. Living Sound specified and supplied twenty acoustic panels for the project, and provided placement guidance to the church’s installation team, who carried out the physical wall installation according to Living Sound’s plan. Following treatment, reverberation was substantially reduced and room reflections were significantly better controlled, contributing directly to clearer speech and a more defined musical mix.
Measurement-Based DSP Tuning and System Calibration
Once the new system was in place, Living Sound used measurement microphones to evaluate frequency response, tonal balance, and how the room’s various speaker systems interacted with each other and with the space itself. Using a Biamp TesiraFORTÉ-based DSP platform alongside the new digital mixing system, Living Sound carried out measurement-based tuning, speaker timing alignment, and system calibration — bringing the tonal balance to a noticeably more even and controlled state than the room’s prior system had achieved. Where existing infrastructure could be reused responsibly, Living Sound did so — the balcony amplification, for example, kept the church’s own existing amplifier in service rather than replacing it outright, reflecting a system design that upgrades what needs upgrading without discarding what still works.
Supporting the Volunteer Media Team
Living Sound’s involvement didn’t end once the new equipment was in place. Through actual worship services, Living Sound continued tuning the system while providing operational guidance, hands-on training, and direct system explanation, helping The Great Tree Church’s volunteer media team move from an unfamiliar new platform to confident day-to-day operation of the complete system.
The Result: A More Consistent Contemporary Worship Environment
Together, these changes gave The Great Tree Church wider and more consistent sound coverage across the main floor, the balcony, and the seating beneath it; clearer speech and a more balanced tonal character; a stronger, better-controlled low-frequency foundation suited to Contemporary Worship; noticeably improved stage monitoring for the worship team and a more comfortable monitoring experience for worship leadership; and a volunteer media team that can operate the system with confidence. The congregation has also indirectly expressed appreciation for the richer, clearer sound throughout the space. What began as an older sanctuary built for a different style of worship is now a more balanced, controlled, and capable audio environment designed around the needs of Contemporary Worship.
Related Services: Church AV Installation & Upgrade | Church Audio Consultation