An extensive AV system designed by Thorburn Associates enhances New London Church		The words of Pastor Jeff ring out loud and clear in the New London Presbyterian Church, thanks to a first-rate, professional audiovisual system and acoustic treatment designed by Thorburn Associates, Inc. (TA) for the church’s brand new, two-story, 50,000 square-foot building.  The new church was open in time for the Thanksgiving-Christmas season last year. Attendance has been strong, with numbers steadily above 500 in the 700-seat sanctuary. The new audiovisual system serves the facility’s classrooms, gathering areas, offices and a kitchen in addition to the sanctuary.

“The church leadership recognized the importance of good acoustics to a worship experience,” says New London Presbyterian Church Mission Director Mark Ham, “and Thorburn Associates helped make it a reality.”

New London Church selected TA on the strength of the company’s past experience in audiovisual systems design and acoustical consulting for worship spaces. Thorburn Associates, a 15-year-old company with offices in California and North Carolina, has provided similar services to more than 150 such facilities, which find that modern, quality audio and video systems and good acoustics aid in fulfilling their religious and educational missions.

In addition to designing and installing the AV systems, TA completed an acoustical analysis and developed criteria for a lighting plan, keeping in mind plans for the church’s future growth on the congregation’s 60-acre Christian Life campus. The New London congregation is one of the oldest in the US, dating back to 1726.

TA’s design included building in capacity for future growth. “The new church was designed in two phases, with the first now complete,” said Thorburn Associates Principal Steve Thorburn. “Eventually, they will double the size of the new facility, so we developed plans that not only provide the best systems for their current needs, but also support their expansion into the next phase.” 

TA specified a custom system to fit the church’s budget and provide the greatest possible flexibility to meet a variety of current needs. A typical week includes at least eight different groups using the sanctuary and other parts of the facility for spoken-word and musical presentations, education, meetings, satellite transmissions and other events. The new system, installed by Vistacom Inc. to TA specifications, includes:

• A sanctuary audio system with additional loudspeakers located throughout the facility tied into individual level controls.
• A sound reinforcement system that includes wired and wireless microphones, monitors, and loudspeakers.
• Two 9’x16’ projection screens which support images from 10,000 lumen HD projectors.
• Four remote-controllable video cameras that broadcast images from the sanctuary throughout the building via a master antenna television system (MATV).
• A video processing system that facilitates recording of services to be produced on cassette, CD or as MP3 files.
• A 48-channel Yamaha M7CL digital mixing console.