So On My Other Day Job....

Working on a proposal for speakers in a legacy church in downtown Atlanta. We converted them to digital a couple of years ago with an M32 and stagebox, and installed Blackmagic Design switchers and PTZ Optics cameras for streaming, and a couple of 85" flat screens on either side of the baptismal behind the pulpit. At that time they were happy with their Yamaha Club series speaker attached to the walls but continuing frustrations with the audio presentation has led them to consider finishing the job.

A traditional sanctuary space with a wrap around balcony. Balcony sight lines pretty much dictate a center cluster has high as we can get it to cover the room.

After building the model in Mapp 3D and going through some speaker and placement options, it looks like a three cluster of UPQ - D1's will give me the best coverage, with a couple of under balcony fills near the front of the room. Now I'm trying to decide the placement of the subs. I'm thinking flown behind the cluster. Will that be best?

Wow, great job on the design here JD. Yes, i like your sub placement idea. How many do you have? A 2-element gradient is a little too wide here, but is better than omni directional. If you have more, you can tighten the coverage shape.

Thanks Nathan! Turns out behind the cluster won't work. Way too much low frequency energy on stage, so I moved them to in front of the cluster, resulting in… Way too much LF energy on stage. (See Mapp 3d 63hz Prediction.). So your suggestion of gradient makes sense. This will be my first in-line gradient model so I'll work on that over the next few days and see how that looks.

I had a preliminary meeting with the customer and quoted Meyer Sound and after peeling him off the ceiling (It was a zoom call so you can imagine how hard that was!) I agreed to give him a ballpark using less expensive speakers. So instead of the Meyer Sound 1100 LFC dual 18, I'm looking at the DAS UX 218-R which has similar specs at maybe half the cash. However, your suggestion has me thinking maybe I should look at four single 18's instead of two duals so I can elongate my cardioid. I'll play around with both and share my findings.

I haven't done many proposals, but I like to tell people to get the one best speaker than can afford. :)
You can also find 2nd hand Meyer Sound.

The 1100 are pretty big as well. You can probably find second hand 750LFC or other similar Meyer models.
Seems like in this space you could get away with a single sub. You just need two to make a directional array. There are some nice single directional subs from d&b and Fulcrum, among others.

in Belgium, we have to integrate Sub-patern control for open air gigs.
This is done by implementing oposite possitioning about 1/3 of the sub speakers. This need to be time alligned, and is named Cardio mode. The advantage is a reduction of sub on the backside of the rig. Some manufacturers (I think Meyer included) Have dedicated presets in theit speaker processing systems.
Check the Meyer Webside for tutorials on this item. If ever no info is found, different other brands have the tech info.
Apart for visual impact, my choise could be enough subs aligned horizontaly in front. (including the cardio reversed Subs)
when delay per sub is integrated, patern control is possible (more directive to wider.

I believe Meyer will help you out to find the right solution for your customer.
They have an project engineering department

Thanks Philippe, using the methodologies shared in Nathan's Seeing Sound training (Lessons 2.8 and 2.83) I realigned the Subs for an Inline Gradient setup. Here's the pressure map at 63Hz with the setup. Comparing it to the previous set up it has made a real difference in low frequency energy on the stage.

Nathan, you rock! (Do they still say that?)

Cool! Seems to fit that space nicely.