Freedom Church Unveils 1,000-Seat Auditorium

Freedom Church has inaugurated a new 1,000-seat auditorium, pairing the expanded space with a purpose-built sound system designed and integrated by MessengerAVL, with support from professional services organisation HWPco.

Centred on Eastern Acoustic Works' (EAW) Newport Series line arrays, the installation targets clarity and consistency across a challenging, steeply raked room.

The church had outgrown its previous 300-400 seat sanctuary, which required four Sunday services to meet demand. While the new auditorium solves capacity constraints, its amphitheatre-style rake, minimal flat floor and sharply rising seating created a coverage challenge that standard loudspeaker patterns could not address evenly.

MessengerAVL, long-time users and advocates of EAW, specified the Newport Series arrays supplemented by additional loudspeakers, subwoofers and amplification to meet the brief. Chad Rigler, Manufacturer Representative for EAW, has collaborated with MessengerAVL for years and points to their affinity with the brand as key to the outcome. "I showed them EAW, and they've just fallen in love with the brand ever since," he said. Parker Gann, MessengerAVL's Director of Product, echoed that view: "We're fans of the product and the people. The EAW team has been great. They’ve supported us really well across a number of projects."

Freedom Church's leaders first encountered EAW during a demo several years ago, where the ADAPTive series made a strong impression. When EAW later launched the NT206L line array, MessengerAVL immediately identified it as the right match for the new auditorium. "When it launched, I immediately recognized it as a night-and-day improvement over the church's existing system," said Gann. "We contacted the tech director and made the decision to replace the speakers, and fortunately, there was still enough time to make the swap."

The final deployment features 22 NT206L line array modules (11 per side), MKD1294 loudspeakers for outside fills, an MKD826 for centre fill, MKC50s as front fills and four flown RSX218 dual-18-inch subwoofers. EAW’s Dante-enabled UXA4807D and UXA4403D amplifiers power the system, with the NT modules operating self-powered.

Gann notes the unusual geometry of the room and why a line-array approach was essential. "It's a big and very unusually shaped room for what most churches build," Gann explains. "There's a very small flat floor and then just straight raked audience all the way up. So, it's the perfect room for line arrays where you need J‑shaped, asymmetrical coverage."

To refine coverage, MessengerAVL implemented per-box processing so each cabinet could be EQ’d to its seating zone. The team also used EAW’s rotatable horizontal dispersion fins to better control energy in the upper rows. “We rotated the horizontal dispersion fins in the top four boxes of the line array,” he says. “By flipping the fins from 110 degrees to 80 degrees, we were able to get more focused energy on the top rows without slamming the sidewalls, which at the time were untreated.”

Rigler underscores how the Newport platform streamlines deployment: "The NT206Ls are designed to be hung and deployed quickly, requiring only minor adjustments. There's far less time spent on the extensive backend work that was previously necessary." Commissioning also proved swift. "I was surprised at how fast it tuned," Gann said, "and Resolution software did a good job. What we saw there matched what we were hearing in real life."

The system's first major outing came during a worship night, the venue’s inaugural public event. "They were pushing 102 to 104 dB for a good 30 minutes, and the system was doing a great job of keeping up," Gann said. "The NT206Ls are by far the most powerful and the highlight of that system."