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May 2012

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Multi-Site Focus: A/V Support for Video Venues

Panel of A/V technical directors agrees that technical continuity is a key to success

by Jim Kumorek

This decade has seen a significant shift in the approach to church. At the beginning of the decade, "big" was in, and megachurches ruled. As this decade draw to a close, some prominent church A/V designers have shared with me that they believe the last serious megachurch facility has been built; the trend now is for churches to grow wider through multiple campuses and video venues instead of bigger. Your church might just have multiple sites and video venues in its future as well.

So what are some of the things that experts in the multi-site/video venue age consider important? Dennis Choy, communications, technology and production pastor of North Coast Church in Vista Calif.; Jim Tomberlin, founder of MultiSite Solutions in Scottsdale, Ariz.; Ted Cumpston, technical director of Jubilee Fellowship Church in Lonetree, Colo.; and Dave Pullin, director of technical production for United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan., share their perspectives on some important multi-site/video venue considerations.

Technical Continuity

All four agree that technical continuity has value. Using the same equipment, or equipment from the same product line, enables volunteers to serve more effectively no matter which room or campus they are in. Pullin adds the caveat that he wouldn't install a piece of equipment that would be overkill for the application just to have continuity with other campuses; but they agree it's a good idea. Choy states, "I call it ‘keeping things simple' so that volunteer operators can be scheduled in any venue or campus and be able to run things. It also makes training simple, and is a huge benefit for troubleshooting and replacement/repair of equipment."

Pullin also emphasizes standardization of planning tools and paperwork. Church of the Resurrection uses Planning Center Online to plan their services and schedule volunteers at all campuses.

Visual Continuity

Pullin, Tomberlin and Cumpston all see value in having there be some consistency in the stage design for a sermon series between the various campuses. This saves time and effort, with having one team come up with a design instead of multiple teams coming up with multiple designs. And if you are doing video venues where the sermon is delivered via video from the main campus, having one stage design be visible on the video with a visually conflicting stage design in the video venue itself can look strange.

However, all also agree that there needs to be flexibility in the design and implementation to accommodate for different room sizes and configurations, as well as different demographics. The stage design that works for the main campus in a suburban "soccer mom" neighborhood might not work well duplicated exactly in an urban, low-income video venue.

"We have all of our venue leaders be in our worship design meeting," states Pullin. "In that meeting is where all the unifying elements for a sermon series is decided." Each venue then implements that theme, but it is interpreted differently based on the facility and community demographics.

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Jim Kumorek is the owner of Spreading Flames Media, providing video/media production and writing services to the A/V/L, technology, architectural and hospitality industries. He has led audio, video and lighting teams in churches as both staff and a volunteer for over 10 years. He can be contacted at james@spreadingflamesmedia.com.