Electro-Voice EVA Line-Array Loudspeakers Selected for New Sanctuary at Trinity UMC in Arlington, TexasFor decades, the Trinity United Methodist Church of Arlington, Texas was based in a facility featuring an 800-seat sanctuary and adjoining classrooms. But by 2010 growing attendance at worship services made clear that in the long run a new campus would better serve its 3,000-strong congregation. The church raised funds, bought land, and started building. By 2013 it was settled into a brand new $10.65 million home, just over a mile from the old. The centerpiece of the new Trinity UMC is a large, elegantly simple, wood-ceilinged sanctuary designed to serve both present and future generations of congregants. The sanctuary includes a main PA system featuring Electro-Voice Expandable Vertical Array (EVA) line arrays. Designed by Scott Martsolf of Fort Worth, Texas, architectural firm Martsolf Architecture, Trinity UMC's new site provides the church with approximately 75,000-sq.-ft. of total space. The new sanctuary, which is 135' wide by 105' deep, provides at present about the same seating as the old. The difference, Martsolf says, is that the new room was designed with the ability to expand to 1,100 seats in the future. In addition to the sanctuary, the space is used for wide-ranging activities that include a pre-school program, Bible study, music and fine arts programs, children's and youth activities, Sunday school, outreach programs, and ministries focused on singles, seniors, and sports. Acoustical consulting for the new sanctuary was provided by Bill Johnson of Acoustic Design Associates in Dallas, Texas. To design and install the sanctuary's sound system, Martsolf brought in Electro Acoustics, Inc., a Fort Worth company with 30 years of experience in A/V design, engineering, installation, and system support services. Chris Jordan, account manager on the project for Electro Acoustics, says that both the acoustics and the PA were shaped with the church's worship style in mind. "The services are primarily traditional," he says. "They have a custom pipe organ and an exceptional choir. To support that, the room is fairly live, with an RT-60 of 1.7 seconds." The reverberation time puts the room at the short end of the target range typical of concert halls. Jordan knew that the fairly reverberant environment would pose a challenge in terms of maintaining intelligibility for the spoken word portions of the services. But he also knew that this potential issue could be resolved by choosing loudspeakers with well-controlled dispersion, allowing sound energy to be directed toward the seating areas without also spilling onto the room's hard-surfaced walls. "The EVA line arrays have exceptional pattern control even at lower frequencies," Jordan says. "That allows us to provide clear speech to all of the seats in this live environment. Not only do the EVAs provide the clarity, musical quality and uniformity that we were looking for, they are also exceptionally easy to install and they require minimum equalization. Plus they're a great value. There is not a better-performing system for the money on the market. We've had great experience with EVA line arrays." The EVA-2082S full-range elements in the EVA line are available in four different coverage patterns, two of which are utilized at Trinity UMC. "We use the 906s for long throw and the 920s for short throw," Jordan explains. The PA is configured as a left/right pair of arrays, each with two 906s above and three 920s below. The arrays are hung directly above the front lip of the stage, attached to exposed laminated beams using custom-designed rigging hardware. "Being a traditional church," Jordan adds, "Trinity did not want or need subwoofers. The extended low frequency of the EVA arrays met all of their requirements for voice and acoustical performance. In fact the church has received many compliments on the quality and clarity of the sound, so they are very happy with the performance of the system. They could not be more delighted, and they've already referred us for other projects." 
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