Athey Creek Church planned the first-ever PDX Crusade, a two-day worship and evangelism event for the Portland community, attracting thousands of attendees. With a congregation that had grown into the tens of thousands, the church required a venue large enough to host the event – the Moda Center, with a capacity of nearly 20,000. Meeting production expectations at this scale meant delivering arena-quality sound that could handle multiple artists, large audiences, and high-energy performances while preserving clarity and impact.
Spectrum Sound partnered with JBL Professional to design and deploy a VTX A Series system tailored to the venue and touring artists. The system featured 14 VTX A12 out fills per side, 18 VTX A12 front hangs per side, 30 VTX B28 subwoofers flown and ground-stacked, 16 VTX A8 cabinets per side for 270-degree coverage, 12 VTX A8 cabinets per side for backfill, and VTX A8 front fills, all powered by Crown I-Tech 4×3500HD amplifiers.
Bobby George, business director at Spectrum Sound, noted, “We duplicated what the artists typically tour with, so when they arrived, everything was ready to go. The system design, the placement, and especially the sub configuration exceeded expectations. Every engineer left impressed.”
Front-of-house engineers highlighted the system’s balance, clarity, and powerful low-end performance. Aaron Padilla, Anne Wilson’s FOH engineer, praised the precision and impact of the VTX A12/B28 combination, while Stephen Bailey, Chris Tomlin’s FOH engineer, emphasized the smooth, non-fatiguing high-frequency output that allowed higher overall levels without listener fatigue. Shea Taylor, FOH engineer for Zach Williams, added, “The JBL VTX A12/B28 line delivers impressive performance at a highly competitive price point, with surprisingly consistent results across every deployment I’ve mixed on this year. Combining box performance with the ongoing improvements to its Venue Synthesis software – JBL is clearly listening – the platform is becoming an increasingly compelling solution.”
The PDX Crusade achieved its goal of delivering a clear, high-impact audio experience to every seat in the Moda Center. By combining Athey Creek Church’s vision with JBL Professional’s state-of-the-art VTX system and Crown amplifiers, attendees experienced precise coverage, consistent clarity, and powerful low-end performance across both days. The sound system supported each artist’s performance and allowed the audience to fully engage with the message, creating an emotionally resonant and distraction-free experience from the first note to the final closing song.
