Hillsong Church
Sydney, AustraliaSeat Count: 3,500
Project Type: New Construction
Opening: October 2002
Architect: Ridley Smith, Sydney, Australia
A/V Installation: Lots of Watts, Sydney,
Australia
AD Scope: Audio Design
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Hillsong Theatre
Hillsong is possibly Australia's largest church. The two-worship-centre facility has a growing congregation of over 14,000 people. With between 10 and 12 services held across the two worship locations each weekend, the need for a larger auditorium was overdue.
The new auditorium has the ability to broadcast high quality shows and services with outstanding acoustics, lighting, audio visual and data cabling. The stage area incorporates one of the largest projector screens ever built in Australia, flanked by two smaller projector screens.
Because the church’s worship style has had an impact globally, it was vital that the audio systems support the quality of worship for which Hillsong is known. AD designed a split-cluster loudspeaker system that will support full scale concerts. They needed high-power sound with uniform loudness and even tonal response. The system is highly articulate for both speech and music while allowing a sense of envelopment supportive of worship.
The auditorium can be divided into nine classrooms. We designed the systems to put as little energy on the walls as possible. Also, we designed an optical sensor which knows when the walls are closed and turns off the system.
The system at Hillsong is one of the first entirely digital audio systems to be installed in Australia. The digital processing of the audio handles the processing and routing not only for the main speaker system but also for all the ancillary meeting rooms and lecture halls, and interfacing with the other control systems throughout the facility.
AD is currently working with the church on a new performing arts center.
