Lawton First Assembly, located in Lawton, Oklahoma, is a church which enjoys its music, contemporary and band-driven. It has recently refurbished all its audio-visual systems to a high standard and an affordable budget, installing NEXO GEO S line arrays, and extensive NEXO and Yamaha audio products.
Lawton First Assembly has a 10-year history with AGI Professional of Eugene, Oregon. Senior Pastor Don Barnes, explains that “our church was so outdated, we even had the original red carpet. We were in need of a facelift and without a large budget, AGI always looks ahead so we don’t spend money on products that would soon be obsolete. Greg Slape (AGI owner) knows the church as well as he knows the technology.” The company was asked to specify and install complete audio, video, and lighting systems first in the youth auditorium, followed by the sanctuary.
The youth auditorium consists of stereo left/right NEXO GEO S1210 arrays, 5 modules plus a GEO S1230 on each side, with 4x PS8 speakers for front fills, and 2x RS18 subwoofers. On stage, 4x PS10s are used as monitor wedges,. A centre cluster for speech reinforcement consists of 8x NEXO GEO S8 cabinets, and the whole system is teamed with a Yamaha M7CL-48 Digital Audio console.
In the 1,000-seat sanctuary, AGI replaced the existing loudspeaker system, audio console, and infrastructure. The new sanctuary system now features a Yamaha CL5 Digital Audio Console at front of house with two Rio 3224-D input/output boxes on stage, all on the Dante network. “The Dante network is the backbone for the entire church audio system,” states Slape. The NEXO line array system is configured with L/R arrays of 6x GEO S12 cabinets, with 5x LS18 subs, powered by 3x NXAMP 4×4 and 2x NXAAMP 4×1 amplifiers. 2x GEO S1230 loudspeakers are used for outfills, and 5x NEXO ID24 speakers provide frontfill. Stage monitoring is NEXO PS10.
“The church’s musical and spoken word programming, along with a careful study of the room using the NEXO NS1 modeling tool, determined the product choice,” says Slape. AGI also installed acoustic treatments primarily to the space on the audience rear walls and over the stage.
“Our new NEXO and Yamaha audio system in the main sanctuary has received many compliments from our congregation about the clarity of the sound and is easier to hear. One of our members is 89 and said, ‘I can hear the words to the songs for the first time!’ Our sound is full, rich, and clear without being distorted so the message comes through for all to hear clearly.”
