World Autism Awareness Day, April 2, 2015

In Industry Newsby tfwm

AL1_6494+LogoChauvet Lights It Up Blue 

Chauvet is going blue to help fight a disorder that affects 1 in 68 babies born in the US every year, and the company, along with PLSN editor and noted LD Nook Schoenfeld, is hoping that other lighting industry members join in this effort. On March 30, the company lighted its headquarters in Florida, as well as its facilities in the United Kingdom and Belgium, a bright royal blue to kick off the week leading up to World Autism Awareness Day on April 2.

A longtime advocate of autism research and care, Schoenfeld was instrumental in getting the upper floors of the Empire State Building illuminated blue a few years ago as part of the “Light It Up Blue” campaign to draw attention to the disorder on Autism Awareness Day. “The organization Autisms Speaks came up with the idea of lighting landmark buildings blue on Autism Awareness Day to raise awareness of the disorder,” he said. “I’ve been a big supporter throughout.”

This year, Schoenfeld decided to bring the effort closer to home and involve the lighting industry. “It seemed very natural to me,” he said. “As an industry we’re all about lighting, and this event is built on lighting. So I figured why doesn’t our industry light itself to raise autism awareness? I brought this up to some friends at Chauvet and they were all over the idea. Our hope now is that we can inspire the rest of the industry to join us in lighting their buildings for Autism Awareness Day on Thursday April 2.”

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At Texas Trinity Lutheran Church, Meyer Sound CAL Provides “Immaculate Clarity”

In Install Newsby tfwm

trinity_lutheran_church_005With its new steerable Meyer Sound CAL™ column array loudspeakers, Trinity Lutheran Church in Spring, Tex. has discovered a whole new level of speech and music clarity never heard before in its highly reverberant 1,400-seat sanctuary.

“The clarity with CAL is immaculate,” says Patrick Blake, director of worship arts at the church. “The tonality and musicality of the band are delivered to the entire congregation. Our band had evolved over the years from acoustic to electric with a full drum kit, and it was a constant struggle to hear. It’s night and day with CAL. An elderly congregant told me that he could turn off his hearing aid because he didn’t need it in here anymore.”

Originally designed for unamplified organ and choral music, the sanctuary features curved ceiling and marble floors that contribute to an RT60 upwards of 3.3 seconds, while its hard surfaces add to undesired echoes. With CAL, the church is able to control system coverage by directing audio energy only to congregants.

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Bose® RoomMatch® System Chosen for Atlanta-Area Fairfield Baptist Church

In Install Newsby tfwm

Soundman Al-Tee Williams selects a RoomMatch® configuration for his home church after being introduced to the system at a high-profile concert event concurrent with the Sundance Film Festival

FairfieldBaptistThe worlds of house of worship and music are closely linked, with an enormous amount of work going into making a church the kind of environment suitable for music while delivering the message. These were the primary concerns of Alfred “Al-Tee” Williams, a leading live-sound engineer whose front-of-house and monitor mixing credits include Jay Sean, Kool & the Gang, Fantasia and most recently, Ludacris. It was while mixing front-of-house for Ludacris last year at premier music venue Park City Live during the annual Sundance Film Festival that Al-Tee first encountered the RoomMatch® loudspeaker system from Bose® Professional. As soon as he experienced it, he knew it was the right solution for his church, the 129-year-old Fairfield Baptist Church, in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia, where music is an integral part of the worship service led by Pastor Micheal Benton. “We were having a lot of trouble getting good coverage to all of the seats, and the low-frequency response we were getting from the existing system was just not what we needed,” Al-Tee explains.

At the Park City Live shows he did with Ludacris, Al-Tee was consistently impressed. “During sound check, I walked all around the main floor then up to the balcony VIP sections – I was amazed at how good the coverage was in all areas – very smooth everywhere. But the real test came when I played some tracks for sound check that contained some really deep bass parts. The Ludacris song ‘How Low’ has a drop-tone that goes below 30 Hz, and many subwoofers just cannot handle this at the sound levels we need. I was blown away by the low-bass depth and impact that the RoomMatch subwoofers provided. I wanted the church to sound like this.”

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