LA's Grand Olympic Auditorium turned into a 21st Century house of worship

The Electro-Voice XLCi127DVX line array system is helping to breathe a new lease of life into a Los Angeles landmark. Once the largest indoor venue in the US, the Grand Olympic Auditorium has a varied history that reflects the ever-changing face of Los Angeles. Built in 1924 as the boxing, weightlifting and wrestling venue for the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, generations of Grand Olympic audiences witnessed some of the greatest fights and wrestling events of all time. Extending this sporting heritage to the silver screen, some of the most memorable fight scenes ever committed to celluloid were filmed at the venue, adding gritty authenticity to Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky” movies and Clint Eastwood’s Oscar winner “Million Dollar Baby.” LA rockers Rage Against the Machine played their final show in the space in 2000, as captured on the CD and DVD “Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.” Now, what was once hallowed ground in the hearts of Angelino sports and music fans is now a holy place in a more literal sense: in the summer of 2005, the Glory Church of Jesus Christ, a thriving Korean-American church, purchased the property for development as their parish headquarters, probably saving the aging building from the demolition ball. Delicate Electronic Sales (Camarillo, CA) were drafted to design and install a new house PA to help reinvent the Grand Olympic Auditorium as a 21st Century house of worship with all modern conveniences. The audio system of choice was one of the first large-format installations of EV’s XLCi127DVX line array systems in the US, supported by a complete, input-to-output spec of EV, Midas and Klark Teknik sound reinforcement equipment. “This is a serious house of worship system executed with some serious attention to detail,” says Bill Sage of Delicate. “Delicate project manager and lead designer, Curtis Kelly carried out LAPS (EV Line Array Prediction Software) measurements, and even drafted plans by hand using the old venue seating charts, ensuring we thoroughly addressed all the options. For the main PA, we flew two arrays of eight XLCi127DVX with two XLC215 subs per side. Additional low-end is via two Xsubs per side on the deck. It’s a compact powerhouse of a PA that delivers plenty of punch, in keeping with venue's history. That said, when our installation crew (Tony Caraffa and Paul Bange) were running the cables they found all sorts of boxing memorabilia from the auditorium’s golden age, such as fight programs from the 1930s. They even found some ticket stubs from the original Wrigley Field Los Angeles!” Consistent with Kelly’s preliminary LAPS readings, the tri-amped XLC boxes comfortably cover the main and side seating areas and the deep and steep balcony area. For additional side coverage, Delicate installed two Xi1152A/64 boxes per side. Six QRx112 boxes serve as stage monitors. The under-balcony, stage fill and cry room areas are completely covered by 25 Xi-1082 low profile speakers. Power is provided by a combination of EV Precision, CPS and CP series amplifiers. Another Delicate detail that sets Glory Church apart as a state-of-the-art house of worship installation is an 8-in, 32-out EV NetMax configuration. Every component in an audio signal chain can be reliably monitored and controlled from a single remote point with NetMax N8000 hardware/IRIS-Net software, making it far easier to fine-tune rooms of this size. To further ensure seamless audio between the numerous zones and under balcony delays, additional processing and routing is provided via Klark Teknik DN9848E and EV Dx38 units. Klark Teknik DN370 and Square One Dynamics units are on hand for tweaking. A Midas Verona 560 ensures the mix sounds superb. “EV and our factory reps Quantum Sales were very forthcoming and flexible in ensuring product was delivered on time,” says Sage. “This was a team effort, and when we turned the system over to the church they were ecstatic—they couldn’t believe we’d made the room sound so good. Simply put, the church breathed new life into a grimy inner-city building used for rock shows. Now four to six thousand people attend the services there every Sunday, the space looks great, and sounds fantastic. This was a great project to work on.” Equipment List (Selected): 16x EV XLCi127DVX (main line array cabinets, tri-amped), 4x EV XLC215 (sub cabinets), 4x EV Xi-1152A/64 (15-inch side fills), 4x EV Xsub, 6x EV QRx112/75 (stage monitors), 18x EV Xi-1082 (balcony speakers), 5x EV Xi-1082 (stage fill speakers), 2x EV Xi-1082 (cry room speakers), 9x EV P2000 amplifiers (mains), 7x EV P3000 amplifiers (mains), 2x EV CP4000S amplifiers, (Xsubs), 8x EV CPS2.6 amplifiers (balcony speakers / stage fills), 3x EV CPS2.4 amplifiers (stage monitors), 1x EV NetMax N8000 digital audio matrix controller, 3x EV Dx38 loudspeaker processors, 1x Klark Teknik DN9848E loudspeaker processor, 2x Klark Teknik DN370 equalizers, 1x Klark Teknik Square One Dynamics, Midas Verona 560 (56-input mixing console).