COZA moves in with L-Acoustics

NIGERIA: Having moved into a new auditorium, the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) required a sound system capable of catering to its blend of ‘loud and heavy’ Nigerian music. Planning for the project began well in advance, with the church’s senior pastor approaching Olushola Aremu, managing consultant at Acoutech Associates Ltd, back in 2012. Occupying 2,450 sq-m, the auditorium is based at Guzape Hills in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

‘The senior pastor at COZA is someone who loves good music, and being a vocalist, he wanted a sound system that would be clean and crisp with headroom that could handle the style of music at COZA,’ recalled Mr Aremu. ‘They wanted a FOH and a stage mix as well as a separate mix for media and broadcast. They also wanted a design that is aesthetically good, featuring brands that are rider friendly.’

After receiving an architectural drawing of the auditorium, Acoutech modelled the building with LARA (Loudspeaker Acoustical Room Analyzer), in addition to carrying out acoustics and power requirement analysis using Soundcalcs. The final design was performed using Soundvision, with the team trialling different configurations using the software to determine optimum placement. The design was also supported and approved by applications engineers at L-Acoustics.

The installed system comprises four hangs of six L-Acoustics Kara(i) elements (driven by an LA8 amplifier controller) with 12 SB18i recessed into the stage. A further four 8XTi and two 12XTi coaxial loudspeakers were deployed as front fills, with stage monitoring handled by 115XT HiQ cabinets, also recessed into the stage for a cleaner on-camera appearance.

‘What I love so much about the L-Acoustics line source arrays is the DOSC waveguide, and the coherence of the driver assembly in the cabinets is amazing – giving you less headaches when tuning or optimising,’ explained Mr Aremu. ‘The speakers are not harsh. You can sit a few metres from the array without the fear of going deaf.

‘I wanted a system that could handle the dynamic range of the church, and with my experience with L-Acoustics systems, it was my first choice. I also love the L-Acoustics coaxial products, and the HiQ series fitted perfectly as stage monitors. They provide high SPL with great feedback rejection. One other thing that worked in L-Acoustics' favour was the weight of the array. There were weight limits for the stanchions of the auditorium and we needed a speaker system that would provide excellent performance yet was light in weight. Lastly, the subs are just so amazing. They sound really deep and clean. The SB18 is one of the best subs that I have heard.’

The Acoutech team also installed two Midas Pro 6 consoles and one Avid Venue Profile, with the Pro 6s used for both the FOH and stages mixes and the Venue Profile as media/broadcast mixer. The microphone split was done using a Midas DL431 five-way splitter. The DL371 DSP engine drives the system and is connected via HyperMac multimode fibre optic cabling. ‘We used the Midas Pro 6 because of the quality of its preamplifiers and the fact that it would handle the demands of music at COZA,’ offered Mr Aremu. ‘We settled for the Venue Profile because of the ease of multitrack recording with Pro Tools. Signalling was handled via AES/EBU using the Midas DL451 modular I/O box fitted with the DL452 AES/EBU digital cards. One of the reasons we chose the Midas/L-Acoustics combination was the fact that we were able to run all digital signals from the mixer to the amplifiers for the front of house.’

With the new system in place, Mr Aremu is clearly satisfied with the result. ‘Designing and installing this audio system for COZA means a lot for us as a company and for me as a system designer,’ he enthused. ‘I have received commendations from several sound engineers and designers from various parts of the world through social media. We seem to have won a different kind of respect in the industry, so many people see us in a different light. The Ki installation coupled with a network of high-end digital mixing consoles has proven to be a great system for this church.’

www.acoutech-associates.com
www.cozanigeria.org.ng
www.l-acoustics.com