Burlington, VT--Essex Alliance Church, headquartered in Essex, VT, is one of the largest non-denominational churches in the state of Vermont. Each week, the church typically conducts four services so as to accommodate its congregation of roughly 4,000 worshippers. As a means of assembling the entire congregation for their special Easter service this year, the church rented the Patrick gymnasium at the University of Vermont in Burlington. In an effort to ensure the best possible sound quality throughout the venue, a variety of special sound reinforcement provisions were placed into service. For several of the performers, this included new Quadra IEM systems from Lectrosonics.
Hinesburg, Vermont-based Dark Star Lighting & Production, a lighting, sound, video, and production company specializing in design and technical services for the entertainment industry, was contracted to provide sound reinforcement for this year’s special Easter service. Tyler Wainer, production manager for the company’s live events division, discussed the decision to deploy Lectrosonics Quadra IEM systems.
“Essex Alliance Church has a contemporary worship style that incorporates a lot of music,” Wainer said. “In addition to a roughly 75-voice choir, there was a 16-piece band as well as an 8-piece praise team of vocal soloists. The job called for eight discreet monitor mixes that were to be used by a combination of twelve musicians and vocalists. Because the Quadra can accept two stereo or four mono signals, the system is extremely flexible in its ability to facilitate a variety of mixes for each performer. By using two Quadra M4 4-channel transmitters, we were able to assemble an 8-channel system in a single rackspace, which is nothing short of extraordinary. By contrast, if we were to use systems from competing manufacturers, this would have would have required antenna combiners and other components that would have resulted in a considerable amount of additional rackspace.”
“The M4 receiver—the beltpack component that is actually worn by the performer—includes a configurable 4-channel mixer with independent level knobs that enable each performer to mix four discreet audio signals according to one’s preference,” he continued. “This capability makes the system really flexible. Each performer was able to blend various aspects of the signals they received in order to custom create a mix that was right for them. The system offers tremendous customization.”
