Calvary Chapel Las Vegas is a missions and outreach focused church with a tech crew that supports five worship services each week using an Allen & Heath dLive Digital Mixing System in their main worship space and an Allen & Heath GLD-80 Digital Mixer in a smaller chapel. Vocalists and musicians in both spaces use Allen & Heath ME-1 Personal Monitor Mixers.

The church’s several buildings, including a K-12 school, are connected with a fiber network and its audio systems communicate via Dante so that the chapel can be used for overflow from the main worship space and services or events in either space can be broadcast over a streaming service and recorded for the church’s website.

Technical Director Michael Millington said of the decision to adopt Allen & Heath, “I wanted the dLive because, at 96k, it was an amazing option and it met our budget. Second, it doesn’t scare volunteers away like some of the other digital mixers I’ve used. Also, we have a GLD-80 in our chapel and, if I train someone on the GLD, they have a good idea how to run the dLive.”

Purchased from Apex Audio of Huntington Beach, Calif., Calvary Chapel’s dLive system includes an S7000 Surface and CDM64 MixRack and its GLD-80 includes an AR2412 AudioRack and an AR84 Expander. Ten Allen & Heath ME-1 Personal Monitor Mixers provide monitor services in the main worship space with six ME-1s in the chapel.

Christmas and Easter services may include a full string section, a choir, and additional sources on tracks. Millington manages these using dLive layers and scenes. He has a Waves card in the S7000 Surface and said, “The Waves system sounds phenomenal. I’m running a plug-in chain on almost everything on stage. We absolutely love it.”

Millington designed the monitoring system to feed in-ear monitors for the band and for the vocalists in both of the church’s worship spaces. “I’ve had great success making the ME-1s work the way I needed. And the user interface is extremely easy,” he said.

Calvary Chapel is planning a new building and sanctuary and Millington said, “Not only has the Allen & Heath equipment lived up to our expectations, it has met many of the unforeseen needs that come with larger services. I’m planning to convert my entire campus to some form of Allen & Heath products because they work that well for us.”

For churches and houses of worship in the U.S., AV is no longer a luxury. That makes this market one of best growth areas for your audio, video, and lighting technology expertise. AVTechnology and Panasonic have partnered on an eBook that explains the business, TCO and resource management issues of this unique market, with case studies from the most sophisticated users and AV providers. Just a sampling of highlights include:

• 57% of multi-site churches will launch an additional campus in the next 12 months and spend, collectively, more than half a billion dollars on technology.
  
• Churches are moving to end-to-end 4K/60p production-value solutions.
• Digital scenery is desired through laser projection for I-MAG screens as well as edge-blending projectors.
• Transformation of worship experiences via new technology tools to target millenials.

Click here to download the full white paper: Upgrading Technology for the Highest Purpose—the Joy of Worship

SES Integration specified Clear-Com as the intercom solution for Elevation Church's production facility.Clear-Com has been chosen by AV integrator and supplier, SES Integration of Concord, NC, to be the intercom solution for Elevation Church’s broadcast production facility and church campus in Charlotte, NC. Known as Elevation Ballantyne, the 75,000-square-foot facility produces multiple online video streams that are broadcasted live at Elevation Church’s 15 locations across Canada and the United States, as well as online. In addition to its production facility, Elevation Ballantyne is home to a modern 1,850-seat auditorium with broadcast-quality AV equipment and video cameras.

“We have a longstanding relationship with Clear-Com, and count on them to provide our clients with reliable, flexible, and expandable intercom solutions,” said Trey Blair, director, SES Integration. “When our longstanding client Elevation Church hired us to integrate their new production facility, it only made sense to select Clear-Com as our intercom supplier.”

With its suite of Clear-Com intercom products, Elevation Ballantyne can serve a full range of live broadcast requirements across many locations. This includes producing and distributing weekly sermons by church leader Pastor Steven Furtick and his team, plus integrating live feeds from other campuses; including live baptisms over IP.

“The best part is that the multi-site capability offered by our Clear-Com intercom lets everyone work together as if they were all in one place,” Blair said. “This means that they are one big crew, operationally speaking. That’s how tight the intercom integration is—no matter how many locations happen to be connected.”

To link production crews within Elevation Ballantyne, plus those at the church’s other sites and on-the-road remote crews, SES Integration selected Clear-Com’s Eclipse HX-Delta digital matrix intercom that has built-in slots for expanding the system. For this facility, SES Integration has loaded the Eclipse HX system with an IVC-32 IP Interface card for connecting to its local and remote production crews using the V-Series user keypanels, Agent-IC mobile app, and LQ IP interfaces with local partyline systems over secure IP networks within Elevation Ballantyne and a number of remote campus locations.

“A number of Elevation Church’s on-the-road crews have loaded Clear-Com’s Agent-IC intercom app on their Apple and Android smartphones,’ Blair said. “This app lets the smartphone users not only connect back in and communicate with the production crew at Elevation Ballantyne, but act as if they are active users with their own virtual intercom panel.”

Moreover, an E-Que-HX wireless cell controller card within the Eclipse HX integrates FreeSpeak II wireless beltpacks in the 1.9GHz range to the overall intercom system. Two FreeSpeak II transceiver antenna modules were strategically placed to provide full wireless coverage throughout the facility.

Dante-enabled mixing consoles were added to the front of house and monitor mixing positions, as well as the control room. When Josh Cash was hired to be the new tech director at The Met Church in Houston, TX, he made upgrading the venue’s outdated speaker system his top priority. While the church’s services had evolved with the times to incorporate a full praise band with electric instruments and a broadcast-caliber approach to video production, its audio was a different story. Prior to Cash’s hiring, The Met Church’s Jones Road campus had not undergone a major sound system overhaul since a building expansion in 1997. Atlanta, GA-based Scott Clark, a design engineer from integration firm Diversified Engineering Sciences, worked with Bose Professional on a solution to The Met’s challenges.

The Met Church’s Jones Road campus sanctuary is typical as far as medium-large worship spaces go. The room seats about 2,000, and its most challenging features from an acoustic standpoint are the height and width of the seating area. “The worship center is the standard Baptist church: a fan-shaped room with raked pews that go up side loges all the way to the balcony,” Clark said. “The stage is more contemporary, but the seating is more traditional. It’s a fairly tall seating shape with a reasonably short back wall—from the edge of the stage to the back wall is about 120 feet. Like most churches, you’re not really doing an extremely long throw; you’re doing what I would call a medium throw. But, you are doing a lot of vertical coverage, and that can present issues in terms of design. One of the reasons for choosing Bose was that, with the products that are available today, it’s really nice and easy to design an array system that has a lot of vertical coverage, with fewer boxes, that doesn’t have any high-frequency gaps.”

For his part, Cash knew exactly what he wanted from the new system. “I wanted it to sound the same everywhere,” he said. “And I wanted stereo for music. But I also didn’t want people to get drawn to the sides when somebody’s teaching, which is half of our service, and I think the most important part. So, I wanted center localization, as well.”

The Met Church system includes a total of 21 ShowMatch modules, eight ShowMatch SMS118 subwoofers, two Bose Panaray LT 9702 WR loudspeakers as side-fills, and four RoomMatch Utility RMU208 modules. Each of the two main arrays (arranged in left/right configuration and flown above the stage) consists of five Bose ShowMatch SM5s, one SM10, and two SM20s (equipped with SM20WG12 waveguides). The center array, installed to satisfy Cash’s design criteria for center localization, consists of one SM5, two SM10s, and two SM20s (equipped with SM20WG12 waveguides).

A smaller center localization array is flown in between the main left/right arrays. “The Panarays are located just to the outside of the left and right main arrays,” Clark said. “They are used as side-fill speakers for a very narrow slice of the front corner of the space that is not being covered in the high frequencies by the left and right arrays. So, we rotated these speakers to be 90 degrees in the vertical and 70 degrees in the horizontal, and they’re filling in just the front corners of the space.”

Clark utilized two subwoofer arrays, flown one behind the other. Each array consists of four SMS118 subwoofers. “Both of those arrays are behind the center localization array, and they’re spaced apart 68 inches face to face,” he said. “That provides a nice cardioid pattern to minimize energy behind the speakers going up into [the space] behind the stage wall and into the ceiling.”

A total of 12 Bose PowerMatch PM8500Ns powers the speakers. “The 8500Ns are eight-channel amps that you can bridge and also group into four channels per output,” Clark said. “The subwoofers require four channels each, so one amplifier can handle two subwoofers each. With ShowMatch, the low frequency needs two channels bridged, and the high frequency needs one channel. And we supplied power to each box individually, so there are no boxes that are paralleled with the line array speakers. The side fills are paralleled and the under-balcony fills are in pairs.” A Bose ControlSpace ESP-880 with a Dante expansion card is used for digital signal processing.

The What: Epson has introduced the PowerLite L-Series for corporate, education, and houses of worship. The new Epson PowerLite L615U, L610U, L510U, L400U, L610W, L500W, and L610 are designed to provide high value to customers, featuring an integrated laser light source, up to 6,000 lumens of color and white brightness, resolution up to WUXGA, and enhanced wireless technology to connect to multiple devices.

The What Else: The new PowerLite laser projectors leverage Epson’s 3LCD technology to deliver up to three times higher color brightness than competitive 1-chip DLP projector models, according to the company, and include features to improve the ease of installation and setup.

Epson’s laser technology features full 360-degree installation and projection at any angle, and Epson’s lens shift feature provides additional versatility for both new installations and for upgrading existing lamp projectors. The new PowerLite L-Series also supports advanced wired and wireless solutions, including HDMI and HDBaseT. To support BYOD classrooms, the projectors provide enhanced wireless display technology, allowing teachers to connect the projector to up to 50 Chromebooks, PCs, and Mac computers, and iOS and Android devices. Educators can also simultaneously display up to four screens with the Epson iProjection wireless display solution. The high-end PowerLite L610U and L615U models offer wireless screen mirroring from a smartphone or streaming device with Miracast.

“Epson’s new PowerLite laser series delivers all the benefits of laser technology, in a lighter, smaller design chassis at an affordable price point,” said Remi Del Mar, senior product manager, Epson America. “We pride ourselves in implementing customer feedback into our product roadmap, and the new PowerLite laser models answer a need for strong value laser solutions in the mid-lumen range. We will continue to offer our customers uncompromising image quality, high color brightness with incredible detail, and reliable performance—all backed by Epson’s first-in-class warranty and service.”

The Bottom Line: The new PowerLite L-Series aim to provide strong value for laser projection within the 4,500–6,000-lumen range, and are well suited for corporate spaces, educational institutions, and houses of worship with high ambient lighting. The new series offers virtually maintenance-free operation with up to 20,000 hours of laser light source. Weighing between 17 and 19 pounds, PowerLite L-Series features a compact and versatile form factor for convenient portability or installation, and models equipped with wireless enterprise level security.

In the professional AV industry, from ISE to InfoComm, systems integrators get a lot of fanfare. Rightfully so. One peek at SCN’s Top 50 Integrators List reveals a staggering array of talents and tenacity, not to mention the billions of dollars of value in complex AV projects. But the readers of AV Technology understand that there is much more to the AV installation story than the integrator. Day to day, hour to hour, the tech manager is the gatekeeper of AV system performance and content. The in-house tech director is in charge of the upkeep and uptime of the wireless AV and collaborative tech that helps users work, learn, collaborate, and thrive.

Margot Douaihy

We’re proud to be one of your tech manager forums. AV Technology’s mission is to bridge the knowledge gap between the AV and IT disciplines and equip you with the information you need to make the best technology decisions for your organizations. Our mission is exemplified by our January 2018 cover story, the stellar Julie Johnston, director of learning spaces Indiana University’s IT division, University Information Technology Services (UITS). In her portfolio, Julie leads the Learning Space team that consists of Student Technology Center, Technology Center Consulting, Learning Space Design, Collaboration Technologies, and Classroom Technology Services and Support. Julie has become a formidable force in the edtech world, and her Mosaic Initiative is now synonymous with exemplary active learning. Her creativity, technical rigor, and passion will inspire you. We are thrilled to share her story.

And don’t miss our January guide devoted to real-world scenarios for remote monitoring. As our contributing editor, Cindy Davis, argues: “It is no longer ‘good enough’ to have all of your audio and video equipment and systems on the network.” AV connected to the network should provide actionable information in real time for immediate troubleshooting, diagnoses, or analysis. If not, then it’s time to take a fresh look at your monitoring. Dive into this special guide on page A1.

We explore the opportunities and challenges faced by AV pros as they phase into IP broadcast. We always keep a practical side to our coverage, evinced by Nestor Amaya of Coveloz. “We’re definitely not taking the position that it’s go IP or go home. Different distribution platforms require different post-production workflows, and these are more easily implemented using software-based post production applications running on IP.”

IP was central to the AV conversation in 2017, in 2018 the AV/IT convergence story promises to be even more important. I hope you see your own questions, challenges, and passions for technology reflected in our coverage. What do you want to see more (or less of) in 2018? Tweet me @AVTechnologyMag. Best wishes for a rewarding 2018.

INSIDE
• AV Monitoring Gets Real in 2018: Analysis by Cindy Davis
• Quality Monitoring of Remote AV over IP
• Parametric Analysis
• Mission Critical: The AVOC
• Five Case Studies That Make the Case
• Solutions Showcase

Click here for our January 2018 Technology Manager's Guide to Remote Monitoring.

As a child, I found my passion for the audiovisual world. Working as a sound engineer in my father’s church, I figured out how to utilize different technology to take the congregation higher, both musically and spiritually. Years of running the sound board at church transitioned into consulting with houses of worship (HOW) on the audiovisual, with an emphasis on the audio.

While consulting, I worked with two very different positions: the worship leader and the account. At times, I was playing peacemaker. They both had the same goal of improving the house of worship but came at it from very different angles. One wanted to create the ultimate worship experience. The other wanted to do the same—but within a strict budget.

Oftentimes, others joined in this spirited debate; the pastor would prefer one type of microphone but the lead vocalist had her own request, and, at the same time, you can’t forget the band, which had its own wants and needs.

This was always an exciting challenge, but a time-consuming one. After years of back and forth, I perfected my formula for choosing the right microphone to install in a HOW using three key components.

When installing a sound system in a house of worship, it’s crucial to choose a microphone early in the concept stage, according to Alan Johnson, sales manager at DPA Microphones. “The microphone is the first point in the signal chain after the sound source, and is one of the most important pieces of equipment as it can completely alter the sound of what you’re trying to amplify.”

In most cases, the pastor is the main person delivering the message to the congregation; he’s speaking with the audience every week. It’s a logical choice to start with him and work your way down the chain of users—musicians, readers, etc. Not all pastors like lavalier microphones, and not all pastors stand behind a podium throughout their sermon. Finding out how each source will use the microphones to create each experience is vital in selecting the right microphone to install. Typically, in most live sound environments, you will see dynamic mics deployed because they’re less sensitive and can handle louder sounds.

“The proper choice in a microphone can make the difference between the congregation feeling like they’re listening to the pastor or worship band on speakerphone, or experiencing the service right there in front of them, being fully immersed in the sound and feeling like the pastor is two feet from them having a one-on-one conversation,” Johnson said.

After mapping out all your sources, the fun begins. It’s time to start digging into the different types of mic characteristics, why they matter, and how to leverage these tools to address the goal at hand. It’s a fact that dynamic mics are seen more often in live sound settings, but there are various types of dynamic mics and they all get the job done differently.

There are two main types of microphones used in live sound: condenser and dynamic. According to Michael Moore, market development at Shure, condensers have traditionally been utilized in studio environments, where they’re the ideal choice due to their high sensitivity and more linear response. After years of technological developments, condensers are finally built to withstand the “rigors of live production.”

Dynamic microphones have traditionally been the go-to products for live sound, including in houses of worship, he continued, “due to its less sensitive pick-up and ability to survive the children’s choir!”

Now, with two choices of microphone types, you also need to consider the various pickup patterns. “The Cardioid pattern is the common choice for most dynamic handheld mics,” Moore said. “Although, sometimes a tighter pattern, such as a super-cardioid, is preferred when trying to focus tighter on the sound source. The omnidirectional pattern is normally reserved for the pastor’s headset.”

Polar pattern is another attention-worthy factor. Each polar pattern has unique characteristics that play a major role in how the source is received; installers should always be mindful of the frequency response of a microphone. Having a flat frequency response produces the most precise sound, which is extremely helpful in the mixing process, and also in presenting a clear and clean output.

“When doing a sound design or simply making improvements, it is always helpful for the integrator to convey the message to not compromise the transducers,” said Gene Houck, director of sales, Audix. “When it comes to microphones, a general rule is: good sound in, good sound out.”

Good sound can and should influence purchasing decisions; end users should strive to obtain the best microphones (wireless and wired) their facility can afford. Understand that any microphone for podium use or area-capture use, such as choir microphones, requires the sensitivity of a condenser microphone. When miking a choir, less is more—one good condenser microphone is able to cover up to 20 voices.”

As with everything else in the audiovisual world, there are more than a few choices out there. Integrators and end users have to work together to find what will showcase best, and what will present the most value when it’s time to deliver to their HOW.

Possible Complications of Wireless Mics

This year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made some changes to 600 MHz frequencies, which cut the amount of TV band spectrum for wireless microphones. With the rapid expansion of the megachurch market and high wireless microphone system usage, will we still be able to get the job done?

Not to worry—wired microphones get the job done just as well as a wireless mic, whether you’re in a large space or not. End users and integration pros just need to determine which system will work best for that specific venue.

The first step in determining wired versus wireless is to take a channel count, according to Moore, as there are various tiers of wireless systems available, and each of these systems has a finite compatible channel count. He continued, “It is important to find a wireless system that will work within your available spectrum and allow your house of worship room to grow.”

Once the total channel count is established, you need to verify your geographical location to help determine which radio frequency (RF) bands you should purchase, taking both personal monitor systems (PSMs), in-ear monitor systems, and handheld/body pack wireless mic systems into account. Finally, Moore said, use RF coordination software “to properly coordinate all wireless devices that are free from local DTV and intermodulation [to] ensure successful operation.”

So, with all these considerations, if you choose to go wireless, make sure you have a way to manage all of these systems in one place. There is plenty of free software out there to help manage these systems.

When choosing a microphone for an HOW install or upgrade, be prepared to find and highlight each source; collaboration (and lots of it) is the key to a happy customer. Working with the end users and doing your research will lead to finding the right characteristics to ensure each source sounds its best. Remember, if that choice is wireless, there’s no shortage of prep work that needs to be done. Follow these three key components and you’ll have a solid plan for a successful install.

St. Paul’s Wolf’s ECC recently received a major audiovisual upgrade. With its goal of leading people to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, St. Paul's Wolf's Evangelical Covenant Church in York, PA gathers to inspire parishioners to better their lives and those of the people around them. To do so, it must first be able to offer a clarity of message, which is why St. Paul's Wolf's recently completed a substantial overhaul of its AV infrastructure in October 2017; the house of worship (HOW) recently added a new sound reinforcement system and also included Eiki International projection capability with a Draper screen.

Reynolds AV of East Berlin, PA was contracted to design and deploy the church’s new AV equipment. Karl Reynolds, the firm’s project manager, was tasked with coordinating system design and project management, plus customer training and service. After consulting with church management to determine their goals and requirements for the facility upgrade, Reynolds elected to install an Eiki EK-811W, 8,000-lumen WXGA DLP laser projector to handle visuals in the sanctuary.

The HOW has a very historic, traditional focus. “Services at St. Paul's Wolf's lean toward the more traditional with a blend of hymns combined with some contemporary music,” said Reynolds.

The sanctuary, which seats about 250 people, was last structurally renovated around 1928. At the same time, colorful stained-glass windows were installed. “The cozy atmosphere balances the traditional importance of the worship services,” Reynolds said. “Church officials wanted vivid, clear visuals to help engage the congregation.”

The stained-glass windows, while beautiful and historic, offered a challenge for Reynolds. “From the first meeting, [church officials] expressed concern about the ambient light from the stained-glass windows.”

So, Reynolds set out to alleviate concerns and brought in a light meter to measure the venue’s ambient light. Using this guideline, he was able to ensure “optimum image quality on the screen during typical usage.”

To accomplish his image quality goals, Reynolds used the aforementioned Eiki projector because of its ability to handle a wide variety of content, including PowerPoint presentations, lyrics, and videos. In addition, it is able to play output from a Sony HD PTZ camera used for the church’s children’s programming. “The Eiki projector delivers exceptional images; bright, easy-to-read lyrics; and more,” said Reynolds.

For display of the visuals, the Reynolds AV team deployed a 65-inch-high by 116-inch-wide Draper screen designed for ambient light rejection. This is a “reverse roll” front-projection tensioned screen mounted behind the opening of the chancel area. With the projector located on the balcony at the rear of the sanctuary, the throw distance between the screen and projector is approximately 55 feet.

“Traditional sanctuaries are not designed for AV, so they pose real challenges,” said Penny Sitler, marketing manager at Draper. “It isn’t easy to project clear visuals with sunlight streaming through stained glass windows!”

Reynolds AV used a Draper Premier screen with a TecVision MS1000X ALR ambient light-rejecting surface. According to Sitler, this formula rejects 73 percent of ambient light in the room, and is ISF certified for color accuracy. “The Premier electric screen is a popular choice in houses of worship, because it’s easily retracted and hidden when not in use,” she stated.

Event Name

Date, Location

Website

Consumer Electronics Show (CES)

Jan 9-12, 2018

Las Vegas, NV

https://ces.tech/

Retail’s Big Show (NRF)

Jan 14-16, 2018

New York, NYC

https://nrfbigshow.nrf.com/

TIDE Conference @ ISE 2018

Hotel Okura Amsterdam

Feb 5, 2018

Amsterdam, NL

http://tideconference.com/amsterdam

Integrated Systems Europe (ISE)

Feb 6-9, 2018

Amsterdam, NL

https://www.iseurope.org/

PSNI SuperSummit

Feb 19 – 21, 2018

Houston, TX

https://supersummit18.sched.com/

NSCA Business & Leadership Conference

Feb 28 – March 2, 2018

Irving, TX

https://www.nsca.org/blc/

Digital Signage Expo (DSE)

• March 27-30, 2018
• Las Vegas, NV

http://www.digitalsignageexpo.net/

AVIT Summit (co-located w/SCN Thinktank)

04/19/18

San Jose, CA

https://nbmedia.swoogo.com/avit2017/

SCN Think Tank (co-located w/ AVIT Summit)

04/19/18

San Jose, CA

https://nbmedia.swoogo.com/scn-think-tank

AVIT Summit (co-located w/SCN Thinktank) - Chicago

Summer 2018

Chicago, IL

N/A

SCN Think Tank (co-located w/ AVIT Summit) - Chicago

Summer 2018

Chicago, IL

N/A

AVIT Summit (co-located w/SCN Thinktank) - NY

Aug-18 New York, NY

N/A

SCN Think Tank (co-located w/ AVIT Summit)- NY

Aug-18 New York, NY

N/A

SCN Think Tank (co-located w/ AVIT Summit) -DC

11/28/18

Washington, DC

N/A

SCN Think Tank (co-located w/ AVIT Summit) -DC

11/28/18

Washington, DC

N/A

• Once upon a time, movie theaters were truly palaces, and few were equal in design and texture to Loews five lavishly designed “Wonder Theatres” built in and near New York City between 1929 and 1930. While there are efforts underway to restore several of these opulent octogenarians that have been in and out of commission over the years, Loews 175th Street Theatre—today known as United Palace—has remained in almost constant use since day one and now has a new L-Acoustics sound system that will carry the venue into its next century.
• Located at West 175th Street and Broadway in upper Manhattan, the 3,400-seat facility continues to stay busier than ever hosting church services, theatrical productions, and music concerts. United Palace is also home to two non-profit cultural centers: United Palace House of Inspiration (UPHI), an all-inclusive spiritual center, and United Palace of Cultural Arts (UPCA), an independent, nonprofit arts and cultural center.
• In September 2017, Boston's Audio Spectrum installed an L-Acoustics system in the theater comprised of 20 K2 array elements and six K1-SB subs divided into two flown arrays, eight SB28 ground subs, four X8 coaxials used as front-row fills, and an even dozen LA8 amplified controllers to power them all.
• Jed DeFilippis has been the technical director and production manager at United Palace for a little over 18 months, but, in that time, has soaked up its history as well as its technical needs. “It was repurposed as a church in 1969, after Reverend Ike [Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II] bought it,” he recalled. “But after he stopped preaching, they began to bring in promoters and events to help support the building. It had a tiny PA system—only good for a single person speaking—so most of the promoters were bringing their own sound systems and rigging with them.”

The Palace wasn’t the only thing evolving. The entire neighbor, once regarded as rough-and-tumble, has been gentrifying, pain the way for a renaissance with the Palace as a gem in its crown.“The perception of the Palace is changing, being increasingly regarded as a great concert venue, and by bringing a rider-friendly PA, we’re helping promote that perception,” said DeFilippis.

After this arrival, DeFilippis suggested just that-bring in a rider-friendly PA. He wanted something they could rent to concerts producers, “getting return on that investment and making it easier on the event producers, who wouldn’t have to rent outside systems, and on the building, which wouldn’t have the wear and tear that bringing in rental systems can cause.”

Robert Way, the venue’s COO, was agreed, and the two immediately put together ROI research to consider the upgrade options, and the L-Acoustics equipment was chosen.

The now-installed K2 system solved another issue for the venerable venue. Its massive balcony, divided into an upper and lower loge, and a main balcony, hovers over a huge swatch of the orchestra-level seating.mThe rear sections of both levels were difficult to reach for sound.

K2 and L-Acoustics’ PANFLEX system, a horizontal-steering technology that combines mechanically adjustable fins with DSP algorithms effective from 300 Hz, quickly resolved that issue. Narrowing or widening the horizontal directivity of the adjustable fins can serve many purposes, including, in this case, adapting the throw to fit long- and short-distance coverage/SPL requirements, while also avoiding reflective surfaces.

“Now, we get the sound all the way to the back wall of both levels, clearly and evenly,” says DeFilippis. “And L-Acoustics’ engineer came in and did the tuning in a matter of hours after it was installed. Amazing.”

Rafael Jaimes, principal at Audio Spectrum, said the K2 arrays are well-suited to United Palace’s specific needs: “We used L-Acoustics’ Soundvision modeling program, and its predictions were very accurate—we knew we’d be able to cover the rear seats of the orchestra and balcony areas completely and consistently.”

The 1,000-seat sanctuary features NEXO GEO arrays, Shure ULXD wireless miss on a Dante network, and Panasonic projectors. Lawton First Assembly, located in Lawton, OK was recently in need of an update to its AV and lighting systems, and its management knew which company to call on: AGI Professional of Eugene, OR, with whom the church has been working for 10 years.

“We needed an AVL company that would understand what our needs were,” said senior pastor Don Barnes. “Our church was so outdated, we even had the original red carpet. We were in need of a facelift and without a large budget, AGI always looks ahead so we don’t spend money on products that would soon be obsolete. Greg Slape [AGI owner] knows the church as well as he knows the technology.” The company was again chosen to specify and install complete audio, video, and lighting systems first in the youth auditorium followed by the sanctuary.

The youth auditorium consists of stereo left/right NEXO GEO S1210 arrays, five per side, a NEXO GEO S1230 per side, four PS8 speakers for front fills, four PS10s used as monitor wedges, and two RS18 subwoofers. The center speech array consists of eight NEXO GEO S8s, a Yamaha M7CL-48 Digital Audio Console, and Panasonic video projection.

Yamaha M7CL-48 Digital Audio Consoles handle the audio mix. Moving on to the 1,000-seat sanctuary, AGI installed a similar audio system, replacing the existing loudspeaker system, audio console, and infrastructure, along with theater lighting and staging. The new sanctuary system includes a Yamaha CL5 Digital Audio Console at front of house with two Rio 3224-D input/output boxes on stage, 12 Shure ULXD wireless microphone systems, all on the Dante network. “The Dante network is the backbone for the entire church audio system,” Slape said. The NEXO system is configured left/right with six per side GEO S12 line array boxes, three NXAMP 4x4 amplifiers, two NXAAMP 4x1 amplifiers, two GEO S1230s loudspeakers used for outfills, five NEXO ID24 speakers used for front fills, five LS18 subwoofers, and four PS10 speakers for wedges.

“The church’s musical and spoken word programming, along with a careful study of the room using the NEXO NS1 modeling tool, determined the product choice,” Slape said. AGI also installed acoustic treatments primarily to the space on the audience rear walls and over the stage.

Lawton First Assembly has two Sunday morning services. Contemporary in nature and band-driven in a musical style, the services normally include acoustic drums, bass, electric lead guitar, acoustic guitar, electronic keys, and five or six vocalists.

This article was sponsored by Optoma Corporation.

The growth curve for flat-panel displays in professional settings is anything but flat, but video projectors will continue to thrive in a wide assortment of pro-AV installation applications, led by more affordable and reliable laser-diode projectors.

Flat-panel growth has been propelled by falling panel prices, higher brightness levels, and less maintenance compared to lamp-based projectors, yet in many applications, flat panels aren’t up to the task, said Optoma Technology, a top-three seller of projectors in the U.S. pro-AV channel.

Projectors are the right choice, for example, in medium-size and larger venues, including typical classrooms, where displays exceeding 75 inches are needed to make basic presentations easily readable by everyone in the room. In these applications, projectors are more cost-effective. At screen sizes of 84- to 98-inches, flat panels cost 10 to 90 percent more than the projection alternatives, and at 108-inches and up, flat-panel options just don’t exist. If an interactive solution is needed, projection’s cost advantage grows further (See Interactive Display Solution chart).

Pro-AV Benefits in the Classroom

Size matters in many applications.In the average 22x27-foot U.S. classroom, 13 of 30 students asked to copy six short items from slides displayed on a 70-inch 4K flat panel wrote at least one item incorrectly, Radius Global Market Research found.

With a 65-inch flat panel, only about two students would be close enough to engage in analytical reading of detailed information such as information in Excel spreadsheets and chemistry tables, added Brawn Consulting. Eight students would be positioned optimally only for basic reading. And in a conference room, all viewers must be within 9.5 feet of an 80-inch flat panel to get a desktop-equivalent viewing experience or better, PKE Consulting found.

As a result, projector opportunities abound in class rooms, board rooms, auditoriums, lecture halls, conference rooms, churches, entertainment venues, simulation and gaming, museums, stores, and other venues.

Optoma’s ProScene series ZU850 laser projector

In K-12 classrooms, Optoma suggests laser- and lamp-based ultra short throw (UST) projectors delivering anywhere from 3,200 to 6,000 lumens, such as the Optoma ZH400UST based on room size and ambient light levels (See Optoma Laser Projectors). And in larger venues such as higher education lecture halls, Optoma suggests ultra-short to ultra-long-throw laser- and lamp-based models delivering 4,000 to 12,000 lumens, such as the ZU850.

Optoma’s ZH400UST ultra short throw (UST) laser projector

Additional Opportunity within Large-Screen Applications

Houses of worship and museums need models delivering 5,000 to 12,000 lumens in ultra-short to ultra-long-throw variations, depending on room size and light conditions. And for retail digital signage, ultra-short to ultra-long-throw models, along with ultra-portable LED projectors, will suffice with brightness levels of 500 to 4,000 lumens.

For his part, Futuresource analyst James Kirby foresees “a wealth of lucrative opportunity for projection within large-screen applications and even within certain digital-signage applications.” Because of “large possibilities in relatively untapped markets such as retail and hospitality, projection has the ability to offer a unique display solution to a large total addressable market,” he added. “Projection mainly loses share within those verticals that don’t have a specific requirement for large screens,” Kirby continued. For example, in meeting rooms with less than a 16-person capacity, “a flat panel may compete with a projector in terms of price, and provide great enough size.”

More Advantages: Other projection advantages include the ability to scale images to many sizes, and projectors are easier to install than large flat panels, requiring only one installer instead of three, Optoma said. Projectors also deliver wider viewing angles, better reflection rejection, and greater portability. Projectors can be moved to different walls, rooms and venues entirely.

For now, flat panels have the edge in brightness, but projectors fill niches that flat panels can’t at any brightness level. Among them: projecting images onto curved surfaces and onto 3D objects (projection mapping) such as building exteriors and vehicles in car-dealer showrooms. In addition, creating a large bright image up to 500 or 600 inches is less installation-intensive and more cost-effective when “stacking” multiple projectors instead of tiling multiple flat panels on a wall, said Brian Soto, Optoma’s head of U.S. product management.

In the class room, projectors deliver an additional benefit. Not only are flat panels more likely to get broken accidentally in classroom settings, but interactive flat panels require more maintenance because dust particles collect between the display glass and the touch overlay, Soto said.

Laser direction: With the advent of more affordable laser diode projectors, projection’s future gets even brighter. Laser models offer greater installation versatility and longer light-source longevity than lamp-based projectors. Laser also delivers lower lifetime ownership costs and higher contrast than lamp projectors.

Light-source longevity makes laser ideal for frequent-use applications such as museums and digital signage. Laser diodes’ useful life runs at least 20,000 hours, at which time brightness slips to 50-70 percent of initial levels.

Laser longevity also reduces lifetime ownership costs below that of lamp projectors – even after factoring in laser’s up-front up-to-50 percent price premium. With lamp life typically hovering around 2,500 to 3,000 hours, you’d have to replace a lamp up to eight times to match laser’s 20,000-hour life span. With lamps and filters typically costing $299, plus a $350 labor charge, the cost of eight lamp and filter replacements hits $5,192, said Bob Guentner, Optoma’s senior manager of technical sales and training. “There are virtually no maintenance costs with laser at 20,000 hours,” he said.

For less-frequent usage, laser still makes sense, especially when projectors are mounted in relatively inaccessible locations where lamp replacement isn’t inconvenient.

Laser Versatility: Installation versatility is another laser advantage. Laser projectors run cooler than lamp models, so they can be tucked into cabinets or placed close to walls, sprinkler heads and air conditioning sensors. Power efficiency also reduces size.

Because they run cooler, laser projectors can be mounted in any projection direction at any angle without the risk of heat buildup, which occurs in typical lamp projectors whose airflow might be restricted by an unusual mounting angle. As a result, laser projectors can be mounted on the ceiling to project down to the floor or mounted to the floor to project up to the ceiling. That opens up new sales opportunities because, obviously, ceilings and floors aren’t the best places to install flat panels. Likewise, laser models can be mounted in portrait orientation.

Laser’s growth niches include short- and ultra short- throw laser projectors intended to replace lamp projectors currently in classrooms and conference rooms, Guentner said. Such projectors are well-suited for interactive presentations because users can manipulate images by touching the projected image without blocking the projection beam.

Because of laser’s advantages, “the projection market is growing again in education,” Soto added.

And laser is just getting started. “We’re still in the early stages of laser,” said Jon Grodem, Optoma’s senior director of strategy and planning. “Every generation of laser brings about higher brightness and a higher lumens/watt ratio as laser diodes come down in price.”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Transform the Ordinary

eBrochure: The Future is Here

• Central Lutheran Church has been a Minneapolis landmark since the large stone building was finished in 1928. This church community has a storied history of implementing cutting-edge communications technology to enhance its service, for instance in 1922, when the church pioneered religious services on the radio, broadcasting its first service that year. This tradition of embracing new audio technology continues today with the church’s recent installation of a PA system consisting of a number of Panaray MA12EX modular line array loudspeakers from Bose Professional, carried out by systems integrator EMI Audio.
• The MA12EX modular loudspeakers solve a major issue for Central Lutheran. The system replaces a highly complicated older PA system that relied on large horns but whose insufficient coverage also required the placement of a number of fill speakers throughout the sanctuary, including under some pews, to supplement an inefficient central cluster directly in front of the church’s organ. In fact, some church members, including the church’s senior pastor, felt that those same horns obscured what many consider one of the most beautiful pipe organs in the country.
• The Panaray MA12EX modular line array loudspeakers are set up in 10 triple-stacked arrays and 10 double-stacked arrays closely aligned with architectural columns inside the sanctuary. These modules—just under 8 feet tall and barely 4 inches wide—unobtrusively project the sound everywhere it needs to be in the 2,000-plus-seat church, while also keeping it away from reflective surfaces, thereby greatly enhancing speech intelligibility. The MA12EX arrays also address the church’s architectural challenge, in which a broad but shallow balcony covers much of the main-floor seating.
• The loudspeakers, 50 in total, can be aimed precisely, allowing the speakers to be heard clearly in virtually every seat without significantly increasing the volume. These main speakers are supplemented by nine Bose FreeSpace DS 100SE ceiling speakers, with four allocated over the choir area as monitors and five others covering the church’s lobby area. The entire system is powered by four Bose PowerMatch PM8500N networked amplifiers, and speaker management is handled via a Bose ControlSpace ESP-00 processor.
• “The architecture was quite a challenge,” said Jeff Geisler, director of outside sales at EMI Audio. “But the Panaray MA12EX line arrays were the perfect choice for it. We were able to cut down tremendously on the complexity of the previous sound system while making the church’s sound even clearer and more powerful. And the ESP-00 processor lets us zone the system very precisely: For instance, we have a preset in the system that lets them activate only speakers needed right around the baptismal font near the rear of the church, or the small wedding chapel off to the side of the main altar. That allows for a very efficient use of the system, putting sound exactly where it needs to be, exactly when it needs to be there, and nowhere else. It’s a great system for integrators to work with.”
• The church’s existing sound system, which was nearly 15 years old, was facing some imminent challenges of its own. According to Mark Kieffer, coordinator for sound, lighting and video for Central Lutheran Church, these included ongoing component failures. In addition, a planned demolition of an adjacent structure would necessitate the relocation of the system’s racks, and the ongoing rearrangement of some of the sanctuary’s seating into different worship configurations meant that the sound coverage would need to be completely rethought. “We asked Jeff for a solution,” Kieffer said. “That solution was Bose, and it has turned out great. We had a lot of things driving a change in the sound system, from aesthetics to sound quality, and the Bose system met all of those challenges.”
• Kieffer said that input from attendees indicates that they find the system easier to listen to, with a decrease of between 3dB to 5dB but without loss of coverage or clarity. In fact, the Panaray MA12EX solution has actually increased speech intelligibility while also making people feel as though the pastor was talking directly to them, instead of above and over them. “The sense of presence is dramatically improved, and the sound is spectacular,” Kieffer said. “Bose gave us everything we needed in a sound system.”

• NewBay's AV/IT Weekly Update team puts the latest industry news in context for IT and AV professionals. This week [10.13.17], AV operator Alesia Hendley reports on product news from Listen Technologies, ATEN, and Absen.

The AV/IT Weekly Update is sponsored by Datapath. Learn more about Datapath's award-winning video wall controllers, video capture cards, graphics cards, streaming, collaboration, and compression solutions at https://www.datapath.co.uk/.

NewBay Media’s AV Technology magazine invites technology managers and C-level decision-makers to submit proposal abstracts for the AV/IT Talks Series convening during the AV/IT Leadership Summit in New York City, November 9-10, 2017. The Summit will take place at the stylish Stewart Hotel in Manhattan.

If you are a technology manager or AV/IT user working within institutions of higher ed, corporate, health care, government, transportation, entertainment, and other commercial enterprises facing the challenges of converging AV/IT technologies, please submit a 100-word (max) abstract.

Successful Ingredients of a 10-minute AV/IT Talk:

• Anatomy of an AV over IP Project (We want specifics! The more specific your talk, the better.)
• AV/IT-Related Challenge / Solution
• AV/IT Action Plans (i.e. Networked AV Security, AV as a Service, Data-Driven Designs)
  
• Pain Points and Real-World Remedies
• Great Images to Illustrate Your Points
• Exceptional Case Study of AV in Action
• Lessons Learned and Hard-Earned Wisdom
• AV/IT Technology & Storytelling. What is the EQ (Experiential Quotient) of This Project?
  
• Call to Action! Inspire us. Challenge us to see and think differently about AV/IT.

How to Submit an Abstract

Email your 100-word (max) proposal abstract,* a brief bio note, and two low-res images to support your proposal to Margot Douaihy, editorial director, AV Technology , and Cindy Davis, events producer, AV Technology . Use the subject line: AV/IT Talk Abstract. The AV Technology Advisory Board will review final proposals.

Abstract Deadline: September 5, 2017

*This Call for Speakers is for AV/IT users and technology managers only.* Stay tuned for registration info.

The Chelsea Music Festival has prided itself on the diversity of its programming as well as the spaces in which those performances take place. In its first eight seasons, it has presented events at more than 50 locations throughout Chelsea and the rest of Manhattan, from schools, to parks, to churches. Featuring musical styles running the gamut from classical to jazz, as well as visual and culinary experiences to complement them, its crowd mirrors the diversity of its programming.

Anderson Audio New York was on hand to capture the performances of the Chelsea Music Festival at St. Paul’s German Lutheran Church in Sennheiser’s AMBEO 3D audio.

This year’s festival, which took place in June, utilized St. Paul’s German Lutheran Church as the marquee location for its opening and closing weekend performances. Built in 1884-85 in the Romanesque Revivalist style, it is not only notable for its appearance but also for the acoustics of its main chapel. For the first time, live recording experts Jim Anderson and Ulrike Schwarz of Anderson Audio New York were on hand to capture every note performed there during the festival for delivery via Sennheiser’s AMBEO 3D audio format.

The idea for a 3D capture of the performances germinated during last year’s festival, which Anderson and Schwarz had attended as guests. “We were very impressed with the level of musicianship at the festival, and when we heard that several performances would take place at St. Paul’s our interest was further piqued,” Anderson said. “This chapel was legendary in the 80s and 90s for serving as the location for many audiophile recordings of classical and jazz music.”

• A pair of Sennheiser MKH 8020 were mounted to an A/B bar to handle all primary pickup of instruments on stage.
• Anderson and Schwarz had also recently experienced Sennheiser’s AMBEO 3D immersive audio format in a demonstration at Sennheiser’s pop-up store in SoHo, and realized the potential for a unique recording of a live performance using the cutting-edge format. It was not long before they contacted Sennheiser and with the German audio innovator onboard as a festival sponsor, worked together on selecting the right microphones to capture every nuance of each performance.

Anderson and Schwarz’s miking solution consisted of 10 fixed microphones suspended from wires stretched across the chapel. These included four MKH 800 TWIN microphones suspended above the main seating area above balcony level in a square. A pair of MKH 800 mics and a pair of MKHC 8020 omnidirectional capsules connected to MZE 8120 extension tubes constituted a second, lower square, suspended just below balcony level. “Together they create the AMBEO Cube,” Anderson said. A pair of MKH 8020 microphones were mounted on an A/B bar above the audience at front, facing the stage directly.

The MKH 800 TWIN microphones offer versatility for AMBEO 3D recording applications due to their dual independent capsule design: each of the MKH 800 TWIN’s back-to-back capsules has its own audio output, enabling users to conveniently set and modify the microphone’s polar pattern on the mixing desk, either in the recording process or during post production. Also, equalization can be applied separately to the front and rear of the pickup area to correct room imbalances. “Having that kind of flexibility in the mix stage is very exciting,” Schwarz said.

Anderson Audio New York’s recording setup was only equipped to handle 24 channels this year, so building their entire AMBEO cube with eight MKH 800 TWIN mics was not feasible while accommodating their other miking needs, but they were able to turn to other Sennheiser microphones to round out their sound, including a longstanding favorite, the original MKH 800.

For the lower rear pair, line-of-sight concerns were paramount due to video cameras positioned on the rear balcony, which led Anderson and Schwarz to turn to a pair of Sennheiser’s MKHC 8020 microphone heads suspended from MZE 8120 extension tubes for a compact, omnidirectional solution with deep low-end extension down to 10Hz.

A pair of MKH 8020 microphones constituted their main A/B pair and provided stereo capture of anything the festival put in front of them, which will allow them to enhance the focal point of the audio recording during their AMBEO mixdown as needed. “We’ve had string quartets, piano trios, jazz combos, and we’ve really been able to cover them all quite well with only the occasional spot mic needed if the staging was going very far back,” Anderson said. “We even had a piano quintet,” Schwarz added. Those individual spot microphones included a Sennheiser MKH 8040 cardioid microphone and the active tube system of the MKH 8000 series, which saw use as a freestanding drum overhead during select programs.

For Anderson and Schwarz, recording this year’s Chelsea Music Festival in AMBEO 3D is a chance to preserve these intimate performances in high fidelity with an added component. “I really think it captures the energy of the performances,” Schwarz said. “You get the perspective of the audience being there live in the room, but you also have an optimized recording from the closer microphones. Bass-heavy instruments in particular sound so much better when you bring them into 3D. So I expect both the performances and recording clarity to be spectacular.”

Anderson hopes that their efforts will help illuminate the possibilities of AMBEO. “These are microphones we use all the time, and it’s fun to have a chance to put them in this situation and stretch them a bit with AMBEO,” he said. “I think that when people hear these recordings they’ll be inspired to do more of this kind of thing.”

For the festival’s artistic directors Melinda and Ken-David Masur, these recordings represent an opportunity not only to preserve a memorable experience, but also to share it with a wider audience. “Recreating the atmosphere of an unforgettable musical event is very special and we recognize that Sennheiser is leading the way in finding ways to turn an aural recording into an emotional journey,” Masur said. “We hope to use these recordings to share the extraordinary works we perform, embedded with the personality of the space, with as many people as possible. We at the Chelsea Music Festival believe that the music and art presented here has a unique power to elevate the human spirit, and these recordings, powered by Sennheiser, will allow us to bring an awareness of that experience to as many people as possible.”

Founded in the middle of the last century, Concordia Lutheran Church, in San Antonio, TX, has grown to become one of the denomination’s largest congregations nationwide. Located on a nearly 50-acre complex, the church now has more than 6,000 members. Not surprisingly, the church’s worship-technology needs have expanded with the congregation.

The problem was a common one: Concordia Lutheran was growing into the 21st century using 20th-century technology. That was addressed late last year when AV systems integrator and live-event producer Inspirmedia Productions installed a Roland OHRCA M-5000 Live Mixing Console, the hub of a new audio-management system that also includes the Roland M-200i 32-channel mixer, Roland M-48 live personal mixer, and Roland R-1000 48-Track Recorder/Player, all using the Roland Ethernet Audio Communication (REAC) protocol, and all linked through Dante networking. Since then, the church’s large audio input counts from the stage and other sources have become far easier and more reliable to manage.

“Before we installed the M-5000 and the other Roland components, the church was regularly working with over one hundred inputs from the stage alone, as well as other audio sources such as CDs and DVDs,” said Phil Grimpo, owner and executive director of Inspirmedia Productions, which is based in Lincoln, NE. “They had been using a small digital mixer that only let them work with 48 channels at a time, and the snakes they were using from the stage to the front of house were not even being manufactured anymore. It was a situation that really needed updating to be able to stay even with their growth as a church.”

Grimpo said they were able to use the church’s existing Cat-5 cabling infrastructure and moved all of the stage inputs onto REAC lines, allowing the house mixer to work with up to 80 input sources at a time. A fourth REAC cable connects the M-5000 with a Roland M-200i 32-channel mixer, via a Roland S-1608 digital snake, and is used by the church’s worship pastor to remotely mix a webcast audio feed from the stage on a laptop computer. The M-5000 also feeds the Roland M-48 live personal mix system used for monitors. “Before, they often had to completely reconfigure the stage inputs and monitor inputs before services every week, depending upon the nature of that week’s services,” Grimpo said. “Now, the M-5000’s internal ability to repatch everything virtually and store that information has made everything so much easier for them. We also set it up so that their wireless microphone inputs, and other input sources, such as click tracks and loops for the band or content from Blu-ray discs, can be sent to the M-5000 via Dante.”

Adam Countryman, Concordia Lutheran Church’s director of worship arts, lauds the M-5000’s flexibility. “The options are endless, and different operators are able to customize it for their needs,” he said. “So in a worship setting where more than one engineer is running the system within a week, it is great to have customization available for each engineer’s preferences.”

He’s also appreciative of how a Roland ecosystem can streamline the church’s workflows. “What used to take hours of setup, patching, and soundcheck now is ready to go with the hook up of one Ethernet cable,” he said. “Our keyboard player’s rig used to take up six to eight direct boxes and a ton of ugly cables. Now we need simply one cable. It saves a lot of time and makes everything cleaner on stage.”

Countryman says that the integration of a Roland R-1000 48-Track Recorder/Player with the M-5000 console has produced significant synergies. “The R-1000 is helpful in terms of playback, such as allowing other areas of ministry to hear exactly how we will do a song on Sunday,” he said. “It is also helpful in creating new arrangements during rehearsals and then being able to post those for the band for future reference, as well as in training new sound personnel.”

“The M-5000 has changed the church’s workflow for the better,” Grimpo said. “They have access to so many more channels and much improved management of those channels. The Roland ecosystem, with the M-5000 at the center, has revolutionized their worship process.”

Countryman agreed, adding, “The M-5000’s programming features overall are a blessing to the operation of a multi-ministry venue. Limitation is not something you need to worry about with this desk. And it sounds amazing!”

Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL was the first to explore the possibility of using the new Yamaha RIVAGE PM10 Digital Audio Console for its 40th anniversary event, held at the 25,000-seat United Center in Chicago during the latter part of 2015. Now, the church has installed two in its 7,200-seat main auditorium, one at front of house and one for monitors, along with four RPio622s and one RPio222 I/O rack all with the HY144-D Dante cards. The systems were purchased through TC Furlong of Lake Forest, IL, with integration completed by Clark Productions of Atlanta, GA.

“The church has traditionally loved audio innovation, having been the first to also install two PM1D Digital Audio Consoles over 16 years ago,” said Matt Wentz, audio systems engineer, Willow Creek Community Church. “We are a Yamaha facility and make use of every console, from the TF, CL, and QL, to the M7CL, LS9, and O1V spread across seven campuses around Chicagoland that service a congregation of over 25,000. We know and trust the reliability and the functionality of Yamaha products and have had a longstanding relationship with the company, and know the support we get from them.”

The new RIVAGE PM10s are in use for weekly services as well as three large events held during Christmas, Easter, and a two-day Global Leadership Summit (GLS). The services include a full music production as well as speech, drama, and pastor sermons.

Wentz said the decision to move forward with the new PM10s was the need to integrate into a larger Dante network, with Yamaha integrating with Dante. “We love the Yamaha PM10 feel and ease of use, the main console features including plug-ins, EQ, and, of course, the sound of the board. The system as a whole is extremely easy to set up and run. The TWINLANe network makes getting audio to each of the desks really smooth, and the Dante integration is also very clean. The way the board is set up, how you can have all three banks separate or grouped together allows the operator maximum flexibility and customization in addition to the custom faders.”

“Yamaha has typically always had a very transparent preamp,” said Dan Smith, weekend audio director and front of house engineer. Now that the SILK feature has been added to the preamp, it allows me to color the inputs prior to the channel. That means a closer phase alignment as it is passed through the channel because of less overall EQ adjustments. The onboard Rupert Neve Designs EQ and Compressors add a great color to the mix. I use the EQ773 quite a bit to lift channels out of the mix. Also, having 12 different custom fader layouts per fader bank helps me to get to channels quickly and to customize my workflow.”

Monitor engineer Josue (Josh) Gonzalez said what initially drew his attention was the appealing layout of the console. “Not only does it look great, but it also feels good. The faders are SILKy smooth (pun intended) and the comfort level is unreal. Yamaha once again delivered on a great sounding preamp.”

The Willow Creek upgrade also includes Dante-related gear: Yamaha RSio64-D input/output box; a Yamaha QL1 Digital Audio Console for streaming purposes; four Dante MY-16-AUD2 cards; three Bel Digital BM-A1-64DANTE; a Sound Devices 970; Radius 12x8-EX; nine Symetrix Prism 4x4 for interpretation racks, for “special friends” and monitor communications; a DVS for hearing hotspot; four BSS Blu-806 units to distribute Galileos and QSC amps for PA; a Wohler Dante AoIP Input Card for AMP2-16V-M; an Auvitran AVBx7 and seven Auvitran AxCDante cards, three of which are on the Main Aud VLAN; seven Focusrite Rednet systems; and Cisco Network Switches.

CCS Presentation Systems, a New England based audiovisual integrator, recently completed an AV installation project at Mount Holyoke College, a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

The college’s chapels, the Abbey Chapel and Inter-Faith Chapel, needed to attain adequate sound quality for both music and speech. In previous efforts to correct the problem, several sound systems were installed and modifications were made to the ceiling for the organs, helping acoustically, but not vocally.

Through a collaborative effort between Mount Holyoke’s Design & Engineering Team within the Media Services Department and CCS, a strategy was devised to create sound clarity for both speech and music.

An updated, easy to use speech reinforcement and audio playback recording system would be placed in the Abbey Chapel, with a smaller system in the Inter-Faith Chapel. New microphones, mixers/amplifiers and other system components would be integrated into the space. Speakers from Danley Sound Labs would be installed into the main Abbey Chapel.

Danley’s speakers have a proprietary design, providing the acoustical pattern control of the common line array speakers, without the labor intensive setup of the common line array. These speakers also provide the ability to control the audio pattern, meaning that no matter the pitch of the voice spoken into the microphone, the sound projected would be clear.

Additionally, CCS added audio feeds to enhance live streaming for future chapel events. The final result: The Abbey and Inter-Faith Chapels now have clear, high quality vocal and acoustic sound with constant intelligibility. Audience participation has increased. Best of all, the chapels were technologically enhanced without compromising the integrity of their original, historic design.

INFO

CCS New England
www.ccsnewengland.com

Equipment Used (Partial)
Multi-Faith Room:

• Atlas Sound low-profile microphone stand
• Chief, 20U, 23-inch deep E1 series rack
• JBL 8-inch 2 way vented loudspeaker
• JBL 80-watt, 2-channel, 8-input mixer/amplifier
• Shure cardioid dynamic microphone

Abbey Chapel:

● Chief 36U 23-inch deep E1 series rack with Accessories
● Crown Audio XLC series power amplifiers with 775w per channel @ 4Ohms
● Danley large paraline column loudspeakers
● Danley small paraline column loudspeakers
● Denon Pro 1RU CD, SD, USB player and AM/FM, single play, balanced outs
● Listen standard 3-channel receivers (72 MHz) + antenna kit
● Shure handheld & WL185 lavalier wireless microphone systems + wideband four-way active antenna
● Shure shock mount microphones
● Symetrix 80-0102 12 mic/line inputs, 8 line output scalable DSP, Dante enabled
● Whirlwind 2-channel 2-in/4-out audio distribution amplifier

Sound Productions, an Irving, TX-based integrator that has served the pro audio and commercial audio industry for 44 years, hosted a Technical Arts and Team Leadership Seminar on February 16 with a focus on best practices for houses of worship.

The seminar was held in the company’s training facility and featured presentations by David Leuschner, senior director of technology and technical arts at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX. Leuschner shared with attendees his vast experience working with an array of personalities and talents, and addressed topics such as how to lead when you are not a manager, how to plan through learning from the past, how to solve issues without making excuses, and how to best communicate your vision.

As a member of the senior team at Gateway Church, Leuschner provides oversight for all technology and live production. Gateway Church is located in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and currently averages 30,000 attendees per weekend.

If you play your cards right, churches can be among your most loyal customers. Many of them are in continual expansion mode, and if they feel like you take good care of them, you stand to be their go-to firm whenever they’re upgrading their facilities or building new ones. But while houses of worship may seem like a good bet, not all AV companies are cut out to work with them. For one, if you’re not into church, chances are that churches won’t be into you.

Memo to AV companies: if you’re not into church, chances are churches won’t be into you.

“A lot of people want a quick decision: I want to sit down with you, I want to tell you the plan, I want to tell you how many millions of dollars it’s going to cost, and I need a deposit,” said Andrew Stone, production manager at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK. “And a lot of [churches] are like, ‘Whoa! We haven’t even been to dinner. What’s your wife’s name? Do you attend church? Do you have children? Do they attend a kid’s classroom like we’re trying to build?’ Those are important topics.” He said that no matter who is controlling a church’s finances—be it a committee, an executive pastor, or a senior pastor—if an AV firm won’t take the time to earn trust, it’s unlikely they’ll strike a deal. “There is a high level of trust that has to be earned in those situations, and that is a painstaking, frustrating, time-consuming situation for a contractor. It just is.”

“Churches know instantly if you’re a company that lives and breathes church, and [if] you’re involved in your own church, and [if] you believe in ministry—they know right away, they sense that,” said Doug Hood, president of AV design and integration firm Custom Sound Designs (CSD Group). Hood said that he leads worship at his own church, and that his employees are all involved, at some level, in their own churches as well. “If you’re involved in your church and you’ve got a real heart for helping them, and you’re sincere in that, then it’s great. But it’s not the type of business where you, as an AV contractor, can wake up one morning and say, ‘Hey, these churches are buying a lot of stuff—let’s get in on the action.’ It’s quite a bit deeper than that.”

Know Your Client

At CSD, Hood and his team document what is known internally as a New Church Profile, which tackles questions such as: What is this church all about? How does it communicate now? How does its leadership envision its church communicating in the next five to 10 years? Are all communications happening on just one campus, or are there multiple sites to consider? Does this church stream its services to a worldwide audience? “All of those answers then directly impact the type of technologies that we need to design for them,” Hood said.

To gather this information, the CSD team is usually in contact with various members of the church. From senior pastors and worship leaders, the AV firm can gain a high-level perspective on the church’s vision, while conversations with the people who are actually going to be operating the AV technology can help systems designers understand, for example, how tech-savvy the end users are (which, in turn, influences things like system programming). Finally, to hammer out the nitty-gritty details of what specific equipment will go into the facility, CSD generally works with church tech directors.

The immersive worship experience: treating the whole room as a canvas, not just the stage.

Map It Out

David Roche, project manager at media technology and integration company Diversified, said that his firm follows an intensive discovery process with churches before sitting down at the drawing board. He also noted that compared to those in other markets, church projects tend to have long lead times that sometimes last for years. “We very rarely have a project where somebody calls up and says, ‘Hey, we want to do new cameras,’ and we design it, spec it, go through all the processes, and have it installed in three or four months—that just doesn’t happen,” he said.

One of the reasons for this is because many churches are ruled by committee, which means that AV firms can find themselves struggling to determine who actually has the authority to give a project the green light. Roche’s colleague Tom Larrison, account executive at Diversified, relayed that his first contact at most churches is the media minister or tech director, but these individuals don’t always hold sway over the committee that holds the purse strings. He will also try to meet, even briefly, with the key decision-makers, “but sometimes it is very difficult to get to that point,” he said. Ideally, Larrison will offer to make a presentation to the church committee directly.

The AV Gospel

One of the more frustrating aspects in sales is dealing with customers who shop based on price and price only, and Matt Groves, an Ohio-based tech who has worked in churches for the better part of two decades, conceded that houses of worship often look no further than cost. This puts AV firms in the position of educator.

“They need a company to come in and help them understand, yes, this is very expensive, but this is why, and this is why you need to go with something like this,” he said.

All of this is, once again, time-consuming, and Stone offered the reminder to those considering the house of worship market as a potential revenue generator that without an investment in relationship building, AV firms won’t succeed. “I’m looking for someone whom I can have a relationship with. I’m looking for an integrator who is a friend,” he said. “Are you someone who I can hang out with and we can catch a meal and just talk? Or maybe commiserate about things we don’t like in the world? That’s the stuff I’m more curious about, and those are the people that have my ear, and those are the people we pay—they’re in our corner. We have a relationship. I know their families. I know where they go to church, I know what their favorite food is because I’ve eaten with them. And that’s huge.”

Carolyn Heinze (carolynheinze@free.fr) is a freelance writer/editor.

Do You Demo?

While many AV firms lug equipment out to client sites to A/B, for example, with audio systems, Ohio-based tech Matt Groves, who has worked in churches for much of his career, noted that this practice isn’t the be-all, end-all of making a sale. “Demoing is important, but when you’re dealing with a church, there are probably not too many people who understand [what they’re listening for],” he said. “In the corporate world, or the tech world, those guys know what they’re listening for, [but in a church,] it’s almost always going to come down to cost, and so they’re immediately going to go for the cheaper option. But if that’s not the best option, then it’s up to the company to say, ‘Yes, it is cheaper; but if you go with this one, it’s better in the long run’ because of whatever features may be available.”
—C.H.

Production Lighting for HOW

Traditionally, production lighting rigs in churches focused exclusively on the platform. Doug Hood, president, Custom Sound Designs (CSD Group) noted that more and more, houses of worship are applying this technology to the entire auditorium to create an immersive worship experience.

“We’re doing a lot of rooms with RGBW fixtures over the congregation,” Hood said. “That lets us [remove] that line between the stage and the congregation, so we can treat the whole room as a canvas, and not just the stage.” He said that this enables churches to avoid having to make the choice between turning off the house lights entirely, or keeping the house lights on during worship (which can make more timid worshippers feel awkward), while at the same time maintaining a visual connection between the praise team and the congregation. “When you have colored [fixtures], now instead of just going black you can go with a deep blue, or purple, so it takes the focus off the people [in the congregation], but you’re not in a totally black room.”

Churches are also embracing remote lighting control via mobile devices, whereby operators are no longer tethered to the lighting booth, noted Derek Cook, account executive at Diversified. “They like to be mobile, they like to be able to walk around, to be able to recall and bring up certain things,” he said. His colleague, lighting designer Steven Hetzer, said that this is especially popular among younger church techs: “They want to be able to whip out their iPhone and control the lights, and it takes one less person a lot of times. It does make it easier for them—it’s something to be considered.”
—C.H.

Sandals Church, based in Riverside, CA, recently expanded within its current building, appointing CCI Solutions of Olympia, WA as its AVL provider for a newly constructed, 2,000-plus-seat sanctuary. The church installed new sound, video, lighting, broadcast, and recording systems on a single-mode fiber network transporting HD-SDI video and Dante audio signals throughout the complex, a former commercial structure.

CCI configured a system comprised of 23 RoomMatch speakers that delivers even coverage across 11 seating areas in the Sandals Church in Riverside, CA.

“One of the largest challenges that we faced was working in an industrial commercial building,” said Mark Pearson, CCI’s project lead for the installation. The massive space required some major architectural modifications. “Typically in a warehouse there are columns every 20 feet to support the roof structure. They had to install a mammoth steel structure to support the roof so that they could remove three of the columns.”

The new steelwork, approximately six feet high, lowered the usable ceiling height. “There was no room, in what is considered a rock ’n’ roll church, to put in large J arrays in a stereo configuration,” Pearson said. Happily, the church was already using a system that proved to be an effective solution for the new sanctuary.

“About two and a half years ago they bought a Bose RoomMatch system for a portable church setup and fell in love with the sonic signature of the product,” he said. In a speaker shootout organized by CCI between three speaker brands about 18 months ago, he said, “they again picked the RoomMatch product, because it really fit their culture and their worship style.”

CCI employed Bose Modeler predictive software to configure a system comprised of 23 RoomMatch speakers that delivers even coverage across the 11 seating areas, which are arranged roughly in a fan shape within the rectangular space. The custom-configured system includes 10 different models of RoomMatch modules flown in six arrays: three across the stage in a distributed setup plus three rings of delay speakers. To direct the sound at the seats and away from reflective surfaces, the system incorporates modules with coverage patterns ranging from a symmetrical 120-by-20-degree dispersion, offering broad and even coverage, to an asymmetrical 28-plus-45-by-10-degree spread (that is, 28 degrees of horizontal dispersion from one side of the box and 45 degrees on the opposite side, with 10 degrees of vertical coverage).

Eight RMS218 dual-18-inch subs were installed beneath the stage. The rig is driven by 17 Bose PowerMatch PM8500N network amplifiers and is managed and monitored by a pair of Dante-enabled ESP880 processors.

“The reason we liked the RoomMatch is the simple fact that you can paint the room with sound where you want it to go. The outer delay rings were asymmetrical because we’re covering the triangular shape of the upper stadium seats. We didn’t want to put undesired sound up into the side walls,” Pearson said.

“There are three Yamaha CL consoles driving front-of-house, monitors, and broadcast,” added Duke DeJong, vice president, systems integration for CCI. “Services can be fed to overflow spaces in the old auditorium and chapel, allowing for overflow seating to host over 1,000 additional attendees when needed.”

CCI Solutions implemented a video production suite and broadcast mixdown facility in a room behind FOH. “They’re creating the mix for the recording feed, as well as the live streaming. They stream live to the internet, they record, and they use Streambox to stream to their other two campuses, which capture and DVR the service,” Pearson said.

Stage lighting is provided by more than two dozen Chauvet Rogue moving fixtures, controlled by a High End Systems Road Hog desk. The technical staff can move the fixtures around, but as originally installed, four R2 Washes were positioned on a truss above the stage lip, half a dozen R2 Spots provided back-lighting on the band and drum risers, and a pair of R2 Beams on the upstage deck provided effects. The balance of the fixtures provides coverage from various horizontal and vertical trusses around the stage.

Two new Christie Mirage HD20K-J 1080p digital projectors serve the screens at stage left and right. There is a smaller, custom-configured lyric screen located in the center of the stage set for those sitting at the front and unable to see the main screens. “The switcher is a Ross CrossOver with a 34x34 NK-3G router,” Pearson said. “The three cameras for IMAG are Hitachi ZHD5000s—one onstage and two in the house.”

In This Month's Edition:

—The M&A Chronicles Continue: We've been watching the signs all year as one acquisition has been swiftly followed by yet another—from Samsung Harman, to most recently, Waveguide's acquisition by Compass Group USA.

—Tech Tales: With HDBaseT extenders available for less than $200, it's clear that the value has been driven out of these commodity devices. With so much effort focused on building the matrix switch monsters, little focus is applied at the software layer.

— 2017 Hall of Fame: As we introduce this year's class, we've chosen to evolve the recognition beyond integrators and consultants, to inventors and other key business leaders because it's all of these vital contributors who have furthered our success, singularly and collectively.

—Audio Mecca: Sandals Church in Riverside, CA, recently installed new sound, video, lighting, broadcast, and recording systems on a single-mode fiber network.

— The Experience Economy: Consumers today live in an age of experiences. It's often not enough for hospitality businesses to tout quality, features, value, or even that lowest of common denominators: price. Increasingly, the emotional investment is king.

Similar to many worship families across the United States, the congregation at the First Baptist Church in Thomasville, GA, recently underwent a sanctuary renovation to offer both contemporary and traditional worship services. Working with Thomasville’s S&L Integrated on a complete audio, lighting, and LED video renovation, the church wanted to make sure that while the technical systems received an update, the traditional aesthetics of the sanctuary were not affected. Desiring a solution that would enable the use of a dynamic LED video system for the contemporary services while discreetly hiding it for the traditional, S&L Integrated teamed with JR Clancy to create a unique roll-up LED video system using FLEXCurtain HD from Nashville-based PixelFLEX.

“We’ve developed a wonderful relationship with First Baptist Church over the years, so when they approached us about conceptualizing updated technology for their sanctuary renovation, we jumped at the opportunity,” said S&L marketing and communications director Clay Byars. “Operating under a mandate to keep the aesthetics of the traditional sanctuary intact, they asked us to create an engaging ‘rock-n-roll’ atmosphere for the contemporary services, but the necessity for tucking away the technology during the traditional service was a challenge, and we were thankful for the assistance of JR Clancy and the FLEXCurtain HD LED video technology from PixelFLEX.”

FLEXCurtain HD is a lightweight and flexible LED video screen well suited for high-resolution video playback and video effects for a wide range of worship applications. Its LED video can be driven by any DVI output, and the multi-directional, flexible design makes it easy to store and transport. According to the company, FLEXCurtain HD is 60-90 percent lighter than the competition, and using the quick-lock system, 500 square feet of FLEXCurtain HD can be set up and broken down in less than 15 minutes.

“We developed the idea of a roll-up system so the products didn’t have to be manually taken down during worship service changeovers,” Byars said. “We contacted the team at JR Clancy to discuss the possibility of collaborating on the roller mechanisms, and the church loved the idea.”

“This was definitely a first for our company,” said JR Clancy project manager Michael Braico. “We have rolled, hoisted, and folded many things since our founding in 1885, but a flexible LED screen capable of rolling up and storing in the ceiling was a completely new type of project.”

“We knew that the durability of the LED product would be essential to the success of the video system,” Byars said. “Since the PixelFLEX LED technologies have been road-tested in high-energy touring productions, we were confident the FLEXCurtain HD could handle the challenges associated with a rolling system and give the church a multitude of design possibilities for any worship service.”

Braico added, “The strength of the PixelFLEX LED video screens lies in their flexible, modular, and easily expandable design. One of the challenges was that each section had its own power supply, which increased the space needed inside the hoist housing. On the other hand, this allowed for each screen to stand alone or daisy-chain with the adjacent panels, making this a world-first design.”

With the full renovation now complete, the finished system operates as easily as a group of roll-up window shades: with the push of a button. No longer bound by the constraints of projection, the church is free to explore new levels of creativity for its contemporary services.

“While other LED video products may be hindered by rigid panels that bolt together, the FLEXCurtain HD was the perfect solution for a rolling-hoist system,” concluded JR Clancy systems integrator Eric Huss. “We are constantly asked to develop custom solutions to fulfill customer requests, and it was very exciting to work with both S&L Integrated and PixelFLEX to make the idea at First Baptist Church in Thomasville a design reality.”

Tower Arch Capital has recapitalized Corbett Technology Solutions, Inc. (CTSI) in partnership with its management team. Headquartered in Chantilly, VA, CTSI is an integrator of communications solutions throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. CTSI designs, installs, and maintains audiovisual, sound, safety, healthcare, and education communications technology solutions for clients across multiple markets, including corporate, government, healthcare, education, senior living, multi-family residential, and houses of worship.

"CTSI has a long legacy of success in the Mid-Atlantic, and I am proud of what our team here has been able to achieve since our founding 47 years ago,” said founder and president Chris Corbett. “For our customers, vendors, and employees, I am excited to partner with Tower Arch Capital to continue to grow CTSI within and beyond our current region."

David Topham, partner at Tower Arch Capital, commented, "We are excited to build on CTSI's strong foundation and look forward to expanding their reputation as the provider of choice for complex audiovisual and communications solutions." Ryan Stratton, another Tower Arch Partner, added, "Chris has assembled a world-class management team at CTSI, and we are very pleased to work with Gino Ruta, John Farabaugh, and the rest of the team as communication and collaboration continue to become increased areas of focus for companies across every industry."

It’s no secret that we’re pretty proud here at SCN to compile the Top 50 Systems Integrators list each December. Part of the reason for that is that we’ve been doing it now for over 10 years, and it continues to be an important bellwether of the commercial audiovisual industry, beyond simply who is on it where and for how much. There’s so much reading between the lines to amass in this data goldmine.

And it’s precisely that rich trove of numbers that led us, for the first time, to dig into the nuances of the Top 50 over the past decade. It was a fun project, and we’ve really just scratched the surface of all there is to learn from exploring this history.

Looking back at 2006, about 20 integrators remain on the list 10 years later. Looking at the top 10 in 2006, six remain in the top 10 today. Two of those became one with the 2008 merger of AVI and SPL, effectively securing the top position on the list every year. One stopped submitting, yet by all accounts still successfully exists, and just one of those filed for bankruptcy, in early 2012. There is one newcomer to the list this year that made the top 10. Of the companies occupying the positions 30-50 in 2006, just one remains on the list today. In general, there has been a rotating cast of characters when it comes to the second half of the list.

Mergers and acquisitions are evident throughout the chart these past 10 years. This year’s list reflects that most significantly with Digital Networks Group’s acquisition by Avidex and Technical Innovations’ sale to Diversified.

From a commercial installation projected revenue perspective, the determining ranking figure, the list peaked around $130 million in 2006, cutting off at just over $4 million. Today, that number just tops $600 million, running down to $18 million. Combined, projected revenue from commercial installation of the Top 50 2016 comes out around $3.82 billion.

If there’s one thing you take away from the SCN Top 50 list, let it be the fact that there is a wealth of opportunity; ensuring integrators both large and small can secure a slice of the pie.

As always, Top 50 submissions are voluntary. The chart ranks those willing to share their internal numbers to establish an industry snapshot. While the bottom line is important, the Top 50 is just one way to view an industry where success is determined by more than mere numbers. There’s much left to learn, and we look forward to continuing to explore the inner workings of this business throughout the year.

Click here to read the full list.

Commentary from top systems integrators:
Market Forecast
2016 Challenges
Managed Services

Interesting Installations by Top 50 Firms

• 1.AVI-SPL
• 2.Diversified
• 3.Whitlock
• 4.AVI Systems
• 5.CCS Presentation Systems
• 6.HB Communications
• 7.Avidex Industries
• 8.Ford Audio-Video
• 9.Solutionz Conferencing
• 10.Electrosonic
• 11.Yorktel
• 12.IVCi
• 13.Video Corporation of America
• 14.Tritech Communications
• 15.CompView
• 16.Communications Engineering (CEI)
• 17.Anderson Audio Visual
• 18.Solotech
• 19.Washington Professional Systems
• 20.Alpha Video & Audio, Inc.
• 21.Corbett Technology Solutions
• 22.SoundCom Systems
• 23.Adtech Systems
• 24.Unified AV Systems
• 25.Carousel Industries
• 26.Spinitar
• 27.Parsons Technologies
• 28.Red Thread Spaces
• 29.Verrex
• 30.Sensory Technologies
• 31.Sharp’s Audio Visual
• 32.Advanced AV
• 33.Data Projections
• 34.Spectra Audio Video Design Group
• 35.Tierney Brothers
• 36.Level 3 Audio Visual
• 37.Communications Engineering Company (CEC)
• 38.IES Commercial
• 39.USIS Audiovisual Systems
• 40.ProMotion Technology Group
• 41.Sound Image
• 42.Vistacom Inc.
• 43.Audio Visual Design Group
• 44.Vision Technologies, Inc.
• 45.Presentation Products, Inc.
• 46.Constant Technologies, Inc.
• 47.GENCOMM
• 48.Genesis Integration
• 49.Total Video Products, Inc.
• 50.Interactive Digital Solutions

When Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, TX was looking to upgrade its sound system over the summer, they turned to Nashville-based AV company Morris to design and install the system.

“Our building is fan-shaped, seating about 3,400 people,” said Mark Leonard, audio director for Green Acres Baptist Church. “One of its most unique features is our 300-voice choir loft. On Sundays we have two services, each with its own choir of about 120 singers each. For special occasions such as Christmas, we bring both choirs together to form the larger choir.

“We use a 30 to 50-piece orchestra on the stage with quite a number of brass instruments, and there is always the fight of keeping the orchestra sound out of the choir mics. This was always an issue, and I could never get it all where I wanted it. It was always a back and forth: I would have to duck something else to get the choir over it, when I needed to. We typically use a praise team to enhance the intelligibility of the choir. With 300 voices up there, all you usually had was a big smear of sound. There was a real intelligibility problem. I have always wondered if there was a way to solve all of this in any situation.”

Leonard has been with the church for 17 years and notes that this is the third major system install completed in that time. “One of these installs is in a contemporary venue that is across the way that will seat 2,500,” he said. “Another sound crew runs that room. We also do television broadcasts on a couple of local TV channels and on the local cable channel.”

“The mics had to blend in visually,” said Danny Rosenbalm, CEO for Morris. “They could not hang from the ceiling and needed integrated cable management system. Lastly, they had to be of extremely high quality.”

The main challenge, Rosenbalm said, was in “choosing a mic that had a wide enough polar pattern to minimize the number of microphones required to reproduce the choir appropriately.” With those requirements and challenge in mind, Morris’ team selected the Earthworks FW730 FlexWand choir microphone system for this install.

“We hired Morris from Nashville to do our new sound system install,” Leonard said. “We have worked with them on and off for nearly four years. We purchased SSL L500 mixing consoles and d&b audiotechnik line array speakers. Morris has a nice selection of audio professionals who do all types of installations and also do sound on the road for a wide array of famous recording artists. When I asked them about choir mics, all of them said ‘Earthworks.’ It was unanimous! So I went ‘OK, let’s do it!’ We purchased 14 Earthworks Flexwands and we are using 13 of them in our large choir loft.”

Both Leonard and Rosenbalm were pleased with the immediate results the FW730 FlexWands delivered. “There are not many times that you put a new sound system into a church and the very first time you use it, you don’t have a bunch of bugs and problems,” Leonard said. “We had a number of immediate comments about the sound quality of this new sound system and the Earthworks Flexwands were a big part of this.”

Rosenbalm explained the improvements that the FW730 FlexWand provides as compared to other microphones he has previously used for choir miking applications. “The goal of any mic is to have a one-to-one representation of a performance; the Earthworks FW730 does just that—it takes the content on stage and creates the closest experience to a one-to-one representation available in the choir microphone application.”

“The first Sunday using the Flexwands was pretty amazing,” Leonard said. “Our choir director opened with a heavy choir selection, with no praise team with just piano accompaniment. When I brought up the Flexwands that Sunday morning, there was intelligibility that I couldn’t believe. I had gain that I couldn’t believe. All of this just blew me away.

“The first time we did a choir with orchestra selection, I could not believe the amount of rejection I was getting of the orchestra, compared to what we were getting using previous choir microphones.

Take1 Insurance has introduced the Take1 Combined Crisis Cover, a comprehensive insurance protection policy for the live and special event industry that provides immediate coverage of up to $1 million annually in the event of, or threat of, malicious acts including terrorism, caused by an active assailant who interrupts or cancels a planned live event.

Created by Take1 Insurance as a Coverholder of Lloyd’s, the policy also protects against property damage and general liability caused by an active assailant.

The Take1 Combined Crisis Cover policy contemplates many of the more likely malicious acts, or threat of malicious acts, industry professionals can face in today's increasingly complex world, where unfortunately, professionals need to be concerned about entertainment events becoming a growing target for terrorists and perpetrators of violence. The policy is ideal for event service firms (equipment rental, audio/visual production and installation companies, as well as event planners/promoters), DICE (producers of documentary, industrial, commercial, and educational content), and touring entertainers, shell corporations, festivals, special events, and venues.

Unlike TRIPRA (Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act) coverage that is currently offered on virtually every commercial insurance policy, the new Take1 Combined Crisis Cover is not specific to the commission of a terrorist act as determined on a case-by-case basis by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and which has difficult-to-achieve minimum damage thresholds in order for insurance coverage to respond.

“TRIPRA is designed to protect against extraordinary loss after a minimum of $5-million in aggregate loss is achieved,” said Scott Carroll, Take1 Insurance executive vice president and program director. “We believe that our insureds and their agents need an insurance program that kicks in immediately whenever a malicious act, or threat thereof—which can include terrorism, but does not need to—is either committed or threatened in a way that forces the interruption or cancellation of, or causes property damage or creates certain liabilities at, a planned event. This new multi-peril policy provides them with an affordable way to recoup some of their business interruption, property damage, and certain liability losses.”

According to Carroll, the Take1 Combined Crisis Cover policy includes coverage for Active Assailant, Threat of Malicious Acts, Terrorism Property Damage, and Business Interruption Loss, as well as Terrorism and Active Assailant Liability. A policy offering annual coverage can be purchased for as little as $745, depending on limit and risk profile, and applies anywhere in the United States and its territories. The Combined Crisis Cover is designed to provide insurance protection for companies affected by tragedies that may never be deemed to be an act of terrorism, such as Boston Marathon Bombings and the more recent Pulse Nightclub Shootings—both of which were not certified as acts of terrorism.

Zylight showed white fixture versions of its F8-100 LED Fresnel and IS3c LED panel lights, and introduced the Aladdin professional LED lighting product line, at the Worship Facilities Conference and Expo (USHIO America Booth #941), which ran Sept. 21-22, 2016, in Louisville, KY. The company also demonstrated its affordable new ZyLink Bridge solution for precise lighting adjustments using an iPhone or iPad.

Designed for special architectural and staging applications, white fixtures are popular in worship and professional environments because they blend in better than black fixtures. The F8-100 draws only 90 watts, but has the light output of a traditional 1000-watt Fresnel and an adjustable beam spread (16-70 degrees). Its glass lens delivers traditional Fresnel beam shaping, while a patented focusing system allows spot and flood operations. The fully dimmable IS3c is a wide, high-output soft light with built-in controls for adjusting color temperature and color correction. Both lights offer DMX and ZyLink wireless control.

“More and more churches are moving to professional LED lighting for the power savings,” said Joe Arnao, president of Zylight. “With Zylight, you also get amazing light quality and reliability. Plus, we offer our popular IS3c LED panel light and F8-100 LED Fresnel in white fixtures to blend in better in sanctuaries and other permanent installations. We offer a variety of lighting solutions to fit the needs and budgets of WFX attendees.”

Zylight is the exclusive distributor of Aladdin LED lights and accessories throughout the Americas, Products include the BI-FLEX family of flexible LED panels, which are dimmable (5-100 percent), offer adjustable color temperature, run via AC or battery power, and are available in three sizes up to 200 watts. Aladdin also offers the A-LITE and EYE-LITE BI, two ultra-portable dimmable lights with and internal batteries that allow up to two hours of runtime.

The ZyLink Bridge is a lightweight, wireless fob that allows the ZyLink App for iOS devices to communicate with the integrated ZyLink wireless control found in most Zylight fixtures. There are no routing or network configurations necessary simply turn on the lights, select one of the 10 ZyLink wireless channels, and take control with the ZyLink App. With an intuitive user interface, the ZyLink App provides easy access to brightness and white light temperature controls on lights like the F8-100. Plus, the app offers color and saturation adjustments for the IS3c and other models equipped with Zylight’s Color Mode, which produces millions of colors without gels or filters.

New installations of Meyer Sound CAL column array loudspeakers are delivering intelligible speech along with clear music reproduction in two acoustically problematic worship spaces, with one room also benefiting from a subtle acoustical re-balancing courtesy of a Constellation acoustic system.

Mounted snugly in niches flanking the altar, the custom color-matched CAL 96 loudspeakers virtually disappear within 19th century Italian Renaissance Revival architecture of Mother of God Catholic Church in Covington, KY, providing a boost to the sound quality for the contemporary music.

At Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, DC, what formerly was an unremarkable meeting and exhibit space has been exquisitely transformed—visually and aurally—into the Redemptor Hominis Chapel. Direct reinforcement of speech and occasional music is supplied by a pair of CAL 64 column array loudspeakers. To create an acoustic that is ideal for traditional Catholic worship, the Jaffe Holden team also specified a Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system.

Mother of God Catholic Church

“We are so thrilled with what we are hearing now,” said Cindy Duesing, director of the church’s 14-member contemporary music ensemble. “For the first time we can really hear one another. Now we can distinguish individual voices and instruments, instead of hearing mush.”

Design for the church’s audio renewal was entrusted to consultant David Walters of Stan Roller and Associates. His plan called for acoustical treatment of the rear wall to eliminate slap echoes and replacement of ungainly custom loudspeaker boxes—dubbed “the refrigerators” because of their bulk and profile—with a beam-steering column solution.

“I presented three options for loudspeaker columns, with Meyer Sound as the premium option,” Walters said. “Here I must give credit to Cindy Duesing, who headed the committee, because she pushed hard for the best solution. Musically, the CALs sound just stupendous. In fact, this is probably the best column array room I’ve ever done.”

Programmed in

a split-beam configuration, the top segment of 64 drivers employs a 10-degree vertical beam to cover the middle and rear sections, throwing nearly 100 feet to the back pew, while the bottom 32 drivers project a 20-degree beam to uniformly cover the front sections. Intelligibility proved excellent, considering the extremely reverberant acoustics, with Walters reporting STI readings of 0.65 or better throughout the seating area for about 600. The project’s system integrator was George Smith of Cincinnati-based Smithall Electronics.

Redemptor Hominis Chapel

“Of all the beam-steering columns out there, Meyer Sound CALs are exceptional in both their sound quality and controllability,” said Andrew Nagel of the Norwalk, CT consulting firm Jaffe Holden.

In this application, the beam angle and vertical spread of the CAL loudspeakers are calibrated to carry highly intelligible speech to the rear pews—a distance of about 90 feet—without overexciting what are effectively the “live” acoustics of a large church.

Meyer Sound’s Constellation acoustic system also was well suited for the project. “The room dimensions and ceiling height were dictated by the existing structure and couldn’t be expanded,” said company principal Mark Reber. “But by applying specific absorptive treatments together with the active acoustics of Constellation, we were able to re-balance and enhance the acoustical signature of the room. The result can range from subtle to dramatic, and it is remarkably effective.”

At the core of the system is a D-Mitri digital audio platform, the host DSP engine for the patented VRAS acoustical algorithms. Ambient room sensing is via 14 miniature condenser microphones, and the desired acoustical characteristics are reproduced by 18 MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers, 13 Stella-8C installation loudspeakers, and 10 MM-XP subwoofers.

Kramer has released Kramer Control, the company's new cloud-based solution for control and analytics in any commercial pro AV environment.

Kramer Control lets users seamlessly navigate to any room in an organization and easily control AV systems, infrastructures, and devices, including Kramer wireless collaboration products, audio products and systems, thermostats, HVAC, lights, shades, alarms, security, videoconferencing, and more.

Based on a distributed architecture, Kramer Control offers increased agility and scalability, catering to single-room applications and large global enterprise with the same ease of use. The platform’s combination of software, hardware, and cloud is the result of years of research and development, according to the company, an effort that received funding from the Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. The BIRD Foundation recognized the platform’s high level of innovation and contribution to the IoT field.

"Kramer Control is a major breakthrough, introducing the most cutting-edge modern technologies into a world that has not changed for years," said Aviv Ron, VP business development and strategy at Kramer. "The difference is in the architecture and extensive cloud leveraging, which translates to value for both the user and installer—from the ease of use in the build and admin functions and end-user experience in a room to data capture and analytics reporting.”

The Kramer Control Platform is made up of three modules: Manager, Builder, and Analytics Dashboard, with options for public, private, or hybrid cloud implementation.

The Manager is used for defining project content and scope, for example, building layout, floors, rooms, etc. The cloud-based Builder lets users create, edit, and configure room control systems from anywhere in the world. With access to a library of pre-installed smart device drivers, users can drag-and-drop any device imaginable without any prior programing knowledge.

The Analytics Dashboard (powered by Kramer Network) automatically gathers all control data and generating actionable business analytics such as device health and performance, room usage, operational efficiency, energy usage, and more. Data gathering is optional and can be disabled or enabled based on user preference.

On site, Smart Units are the heart of the solution. Powered by innovative software technology called a "Brain," Smart Units provide bidirectional control of any device, the Manager, Builder, and Dashboard with universal I/O ports. The solution supports industry standards such as IR, serial RS-232, relays, and GPIO.

Upon installation, Smart Units can automatically connect to the Cloud and seamlessly sync for updates in real time. They also update themselves whenever new updates become available. Users can control Smart Units via a user-friendly, customizable interface on a dedicated Kramer Control touchpanel, any third-party tablet, or over the web with BYOD. The solution's non-hierarchical distributed architecture of standalone Smart Units is designed to ensure the system will remain up and running in the case of any single point of failure.