CODA Audio N-RAY A System for All Nations

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All Nations Church Onnuri (ANC) is located in the Lake View Terrace neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. One of the biggest Korean churches in Southern California, it has a thriving membership of around 3500 and attracts large congregations to its principal services. Recently, ANC took the decision to upgrade its sound system to better meet the needs of its congregation. Music plays a central role at the Church, with bands and musicians playing an important part in a wide range of services and events.

The worship center on the church's campus is a large space accommodating 1200 seats in a fan-shaped, slightly asymmetrical arrangement, including a wide balcony. For a long time, ANC had deployed a system comprising a center cluster of loudspeakers in mono. This system had begun to show signs of deterioration, demanding frequent repair, and the decision was made to seek a modern, high quality system of lighter and more compact units.

The Church wished to significantly improve the clarity and coverage for both music and speech reinforcement, and having conducted detailed research, invited a number of vendors to demonstrate different systems. One of those invited was Troy Choi of Solid Sound Solution. As a member of the strong and close-knit Korean Church community, Troy is a trusted and expert audio practitioner in both the installation and live sound sectors. As well as fixed installations into houses of worship, concert halls and conference venues, Troy has worked with stadium bands such as Toto, as well as a wide range of touring productions, most recently with a number of symphony orchestras on Revolution The Music of the Beatles.' Troy's services are always in great demand, and Solid Sound Solution's ever-growing portfolio of successful church installations attests to why he is a go-to figure for all matters audio.

When Troy considered ANC's requirements for a discreet system that could offer clarity and power in equal measure for both spoken word delivery and full-band setups, he demonstrated a CODA Audio N-RAY system. Having deployed CODA systems to great effect on two previous very challenging church projects where he worked closely with CODA Audio USA's team, Troy was confident that the necessary improvements at ANC were well within the compass of this cutting-edge, next generation technology:

The N-RAY is a beautiful, high quality and compact box that looks gorgeous when it hangs in the air, and produces crystal clear high frequency even at low SPL. For all its compact appearance, it's actually a very powerful beast. Years ago we needed big boxes to create a big sound but now compact boxes make big sounds. N-RAY is the best example!

Around a year ago I installed an N-RAY system at Grace Ministries International Church in LA. They've since had many big events and the results have been brilliant to be honest it's the best high frequency sound I've ever heard so I had a lot of confidence that it would be the ideal choice for ANC's needs.

After CODA Audio N-RAY was considered against a number of systems from other leading manufactures, Solid Sound Solution was awarded the contract to install ANC's new system.

The early stages of the job saw Troy and CODA Audio USA's Technical Director Michael Creason take close account of this large space where reflected sound could prove challenging. Using CODA's System Optimiser software, they were able to make accurate predictions that would ensure that their system design matched the precise requirements of the site.

Michael Creason, Technical Director at CODA Audio USA talks about the loudspeaker selection and system design:

The system needed to be aesthetically acceptable whilst retaining concert-level headroom for high energy praise. It also needed to serve both the existing mix position at the front of the balcony and a new one at the rear of the main floor, whilst giving the ability to separate the balcony zone when not in use. The main N-RAY hangs are supplemented with loudspeakers from our APS (arrayable point source) and HOPS (high output point source) ranges to take care of the balcony, outfill and frontfill areas. The uniform sonic signature across our range of loudspeakers means that we are able to ensure total consistency of quality and coverage.

The main hangs comprise 8 x N-RAY and a single SCN sensor controlled low frequency extension per side, supplemented by 4 x SCV sensor controlled subwoofers flown in a cardioid array. A central array of 3 x APS act as a delayed fill for the balcony, while a single HOPS8 per side acts as outfill. 4 x HOPS5 act as frontfills across the stage lip, with 3 x CUE Four and 4 x HOPS8 as stage monitoring.

Troy reflects on the installation:

Everyone is just blown away by N-RAY. Expectations in the Church were definitely high they had been patient with their process of identifying the right choice of system, so it had to be perfect. We were painstaking in our work to make sure that every aspect was spot on, and while it was a challenging job, we have been rewarded with a universal thumbs-up from everyone involved.

After the first Sunday service with the new system in place I was there to mix and train the senior pastor Tae Kim came to me with a big smile and said that he felt immediately comfortable delivering his sermon, and that members of the congregation had commented to him about the improvement in clarity. The Church's Technical Director, Daniel Shin, who was involved in researching and choosing the system declared that it far exceeded even the highest standards he had considered.

Describing his relationship with the CODA Audio USA team, Troy is in no doubt:

Luke and his team are like family. We're always sharing ideas abou

LINK:	https://codaaudio.com/coda-audio-n-ray-a-system-for-all-nations/...
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