Description

The Situation: 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 seating 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 worship center that could accomodate 1600 seats on an adjacent lot that was donated to them by a church member. The "old" sanctuary now became a children and youth sanctuary. This was much needed as the youth member numbers continually increased.

From the beginning, it was decided that there would be minimum if not zero compromise in the audio system. The technical director had a vision in mind where the message and worship experience would not be inhibited due to a poor sound system performance. For this reason Entertainment Arts spent hundreds of hours designing a system that would fit both the budget and vision of the client.

Our Solution: 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 offered a digital snake system, which allowed the positioning of the console's input at the stage location and transfer of audio through a pair of category 5 cables (the same cables used for computer internet hook-up) to the console. The console also offered digital outputs, which were connected into the system processor and to the AES/EBU inputs of the amps. The result of the all digital signal path was phenomenal. Signal clarity and intelligibility were stunning as well as system responsiveness.

Another aspect of the "all digital" approach was applied to the video system. The system was 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 the stage. The projectors used were brand new 6500 lumens, PDG-DHT100L that project on sixteen feet wide Da-Lite screens.

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

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