A New Sound System for New Contemporary Church, Part 1
Sep 6, 2012 10:40 AM,
With Bennett Liles
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Coming all the way from being a portable church to having their own brand new building, the Living Hope Church in Piperton, Tenn., called in Elite Multimedia from Memphis to outfit their new digs with a complete sound system centered around a Midas Pro2C digital mixing console. Wade Russell of Elite Multimedia is here with details on the installation, coming right up on the SVC Podcast.
SVC: Wade Russell of Elite Multimedia in Memphis, Tenn., thanks for being here on the SVC Podcast and the Living Hope Church sound installation. What’s going on at Elite Multimedia Wade? What do you guys do there?
Elite Multimedia is audio, video, lighting, sales, and installation as well as production rental. We do any type of install and design from large-format sound systems to smaller churches. We also do full line of production rental for concert tours, special events, conferences—you name it, we’ll come out and help you out anything you need just check out our website at elitemultimedia.com. [Timestamp: 1:23]
And obviously churches are on the menu for you there. What sort of worship style do they have at Living Hope Church in Piperton, Tenn.? Traditional or contemporary, live music? What do they have going on?
You know Living Hope is a very contemporary church. Their worship is a high volume, high energy worship style. It’s a good contemporary worship. [Timestamp: 1:46]
And a fairly young congregation then, I figure.
Yeah.
OK and a lot more technical details that you wouldn’t have to deal with in a more traditional church. They’ve really come a long way there. I think that that one started as a portable church and has grown up from there?
It started as a portable church years ago and actually were meeting in a elementary school and doing portable church—setting it up, tearing it down every week. They just kind of grew out of that as their church and congregation grew, so they just moved into a new building there. [Timestamp: 2:17]
Was this just a new home for the church or was it actually new construction? Did you get right in on the original construction point or did you have to retrofit an existing facility?
No, [it was a] brand new building from the ground up. Basically we got contacted and we started meeting with the architect and with the church and started establishing what their needs are and seeing where we could help them in finding a solution for them. So brand new building for them and just a brand new campus really. [Timestamp: 2:46]
A New Sound System for New Contemporary Church, Part 1
Sep 6, 2012 10:40 AM,
With Bennett Liles
Well, I know that was a big advantage being able to get in and know how the place is wired and be able to document everything right from the start. That looks like a pretty big place. How are the acoustics in there? Did you have to do anything with the acoustics before you actually got into the sound system installation?
Yeah, it’s a 700-seat auditorium, and it’s kind of a fan-shaped auditorium, and then we modeled it in the EASE [software] and were able to design the acoustics to really cut down on some flutter that we didn’t want and just different reflections that were unwanted and unneeded for audio reinforcement, and we were able to just kind of customize it as we saw. And then B.J. Shaver did a great job of just integrating that to be a great acoustic design. It’s a great sounding room. [Timestamp: 3:33]
And I think you sort of built the whole thing around a Midas Pro2C mixer for this. Why did you decide to go with the Midas Pro2C?
Pro2C, it was a new console to the market. I mean came out just this year and we just love the Midas name. Obviously they have great quality preamps and just great quality gear sounding amazing. So one is just the Midas name and another is just the integration between going digital behind our design. We wanted to go 96K, and so that was an option as part of the Midas that was very appealing, and then obviously different graphic EQs, the KTs, and the rack effects and stuff. So [it’s] just a very versatile console. Going digital with everything allowed us to recall scenes for volunteers and just made it a very fluid and very easy to use from a volunteers perspective. And then Tim is out there that runs sound, and he’s been able to teach a couple guys as he’s learned about the Midas. So it’s just that it’s an easy console interface and just a great quality. [Timestamp: 4:41]
And that’s Tim Johnson, the front of house engineer at the church?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, he’s most likely got a lot of people to train in there with most of them being volunteers without a lot of sound system experience. The digital board is great for being able to push a button and get right back to where you were on the setup. That’s got to be a real handy feature for him.
Definitely, definitely is.
So how’s it been there? Did everybody seem to take to the mixer OK without any problems picking up on the operation of it?
Well, you know we presented the idea of the Pro2 to Tim and to David at the church, and they were very curious about it because it was new to the market and we actually brought them into the shop and showed them around on it a little bit and Tim took to it very quickly. He learned a lot in a little bit of time and then we actually took the console out to their portable church that they were still meeting at and we let them use it one weekend and once he used it—I mean I sat there that Sunday just kind of walked him through a couple of things and he took control right away—just grew to love the console and it was kind of a no-brain decision as they would tell you after they had used it once. So it was definitely a easy seller. [Timestamp: 5:50]
The central component of the sound system and everything built around that. It’s great when you got a brand new building and a digital mixer everybody can learn to work pretty quickly. Thanks for telling us about it. Wade Russell from Elite Multimedia in Memphis, Tenn., and the Living Hope Church. In part two we’ll get into the stage monitoring and the wireless mics. Thanks again for being here.
Thank you for having me.
