Eastern Star Church Opens Northwest Campus with Yamaha Gear

CSD, Inc. of Fort Wayne, Indiana recently completed a design/build project for the new Northwest Campus of Eastern Star Church in Indianapolis. The church began its history in 1920 with a congregation of 12, and now, three campuses later, has grown to a congregation of over 25,000. The new location was required to fill the need for a larger worship space to accommodate the growing congregation. It also provides a presence for Eastern Star Church on the west side of the city.

"We were chosen as the church's design/build partner for audio, video and lighting, including systems for the sanctuary as well as significant performance systems in auxiliary spaces such as a chapel, conference rooms, youth and the children's area," states Doug Hood, owner/president, CSD.

A major undertaking, the 3,000-seat contemporary gospel northwest campus features a choir, band, praise team and for most sermons, has 120 members located on the stage. Its new audio system is centered around a NEXO GEO S12 line array consisting of 14 GEO S1210s and 27 GEO S1230s all in white, Yamaha PM5D-RH digital audio console at front of house, and M7CL-48 used for monitors.

"We always stay on top of new products from manufacturers, and since CSD and Eastern Star Church were looking for a high output, yet, small format speaker system that could keep up with the high-energy worship style of the church, we knew the NEXO system would be a perfect fit," says Hood.

Hood noted that Yamaha consoles were chosen for this location, as was the case with the first two Eastern Star Church campuses, and that console familiarity by church staff members plays a large part. "Another deciding factor for us was the similarity in the M7CL experience as compared to the PM5D. We felt it was important for volunteers to be able to move from monitors to FOH with as little change as possible.

Additional audio system components include 12 NEXO PS15s and four PS10s, NEXO Alpha Subs, eight 4x4 NXAMPs, and one 4x1 NXAMP. CSD also installed DLP 10K Digital Projectors, a Panasonic PTZ Cam System, and ETC and Leprecon lighting systems. Two Yamaha P3500S amps, two P7000S amps, Aviom personal mixing, Aviom digital snake, and WorxAudio speakers are used in perimeter rooms.