Description

It all started about two years ago when long time and loyal customer Church in The Son approached us and mentioned a new building project. Their 800-sit worship center was no longer enough space to hold their worship services for the congregation for three services on Sunday. They decided to build a 1600-sit on an adjacent lot that was donated to them by a church member. The "old" sanctuary now became a children and youth sanctuary. Much needed due to the church's high number of youngsters.

From the beginning it was decided that there would be minimum if not none comprise in the audio system. The technical director had a vision in mind where the message and worship experience would not be inhibited due to poor sound system performance. For this reason Entertainment Arts spend hundreds of hours designing a system that would fit both the budget and vision of the client.

One of the first things discussed was the ability to create an all digital signal path for the audio system. This means that microphone signals would be converted to digital as close to the stage inputs as possible, and it would remain digital all the way to the amplifier inputs. Upon determining that this was the proper path to a "no compromise" audio solution we started looking at the option for both console and speaker system. The result of the research was a match between the Allen&Heath iLive 176 digital console and D&B Audiotechnik Q Series speakers with their amps.

The iLive console offers a digital snake system, which allows you to position the console's input at the stage location and transfer audio through a pair of category 5 cable (same cable used for computer internet hook-up) to the console. The console also offers digital outputs, which are connected into the system processor and than to the AES/EBU inputs of the amps. The results of this all digital signal path were phenomenal. Signal clarity and intelligibility were stunning as well as system responsiveness.

Another aspect of the "all digital" approach was taken in the video system. The systems is comprised of JVC cameras, Edirol and AnalogWay digital switchers, a ProPresenter Mac with a Matrox TrippleHeadtoGo device for display of three individual images on the three screens above stage. The projectors used were the brand new 6500 lumens, PDG-DHT100L and they are projecting on sixteen feet wide Da-Lite screens.

Once the video signal leaves the Mac Pro through the Matrox TrippleHeadtoGo, it travels digitally through an Intelix DVI extender all the way to the projectors roughly 200 feet away. Once again the signal stays digital from source to the destination. The result is a stunning picture without any distortion or color artifacts.

The lighting system is equipped with an ETC ION console, over 150 channels of NSI dimmers, ETC and Chauvet fixtures, SSRC dimming strips and Elation DMX distribution.