The history of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Chicago suburb of Oak
Lawn is deep. Founded by German immigrants shortly after the Civil War, the
church grew steadily through the 1930s. To accommodate that growth, Trinity
constructed a 350-seat sanctuary in 1940 that still serves the church to this day.
The Gothic, limestone structure is considerably longer than it is wide, and its
stained glass and ornate architecture make it a beautiful and transcendent place to
worship. These days, Trinity holds two Sunday services, one in a more traditional
style and one that’s more contemporary. Though beautiful, the Sanctuary has been
challenged by unintelligible sound quality and poor gain-before-feedback. In order
to address these issues, the church called on Peoria-based Advanced Audio &
Lighting Systems, who solved these problems with the excellent pattern control and
point-source purity of a single Danley Sound Labs SM-96 loudspeaker.

“There were several challenges at Trinity Evangelical,’ said Ryan Winstead, sales
and design consultant at Advanced Audio & Lighting Systems. “The pastor wears a
wireless mic and likes to move about to engage the parishioners, and the praise
band is positioned in a nook to the side in back of the platform. Regardless, the
low-mid energy from the old front-loaded boxes they had been using found its way
everywhere and made it impossible to get an open microphone stable at an
adequate volume.’

He continued, “They really needed a design that took the acoustics into account,
accomplished their goals and would fit into their budget. I did an EASE model to
verify loudspeaker coverage, and it quickly became apparent that the most
accommodating places to put loudspeakers were already claimed by stained glass,
holy symbols, or the projection screen. That screen had the one piece of real estate
we would have liked most of all, but they really didn’t have any other place to
mount a screen. Truly, the only solution that would give them deep pattern control
to energize the seats but not the stage, walls, or ceiling, was a Danley SM-96. It
gave us perfect coverage, great fidelity, very efficient output, and worked in the
available mounting location.’

Winstead gave the pastor a new Countryman E6 headset microphone with a Shure
QLXD wireless system. This element had much better directionality & fidelity than
his previous microphone. His team mounted the Danley SM-96 transverse to match
the depth and breadth of the room. “It’s rare to need 90-degrees vertical and only
60-degrees wide, but the shape of Trinity Evangelical’s sanctuary demanded it,’ he
said. “That way, we kept energy squarely on the listeners and away from the
platform, which is directly below the hang, and the band “nook.’’ A PowerSoft M30
provides both processing and amplification for the new system.

The church is thrilled with the upgrade, which now delivers an even +/-4dB from
the front of the room to the back of the room.