Church Production Magazine Online Update

Bill Thrasher

In this edition, from the exhibit floor at WFX 07 in Atlanta Georgia we speak with Bill Thrasher, founder and president of Thrasher Design Group Inc. of Kennesaw, Georgia. Thrasher presented the seminar “How Much Can You Expect from Your Technical Equipment and Operators”.

Download podcast interview (mp3, 18 MB)

The complete session is available on the WFX web site, www.wfxweb.com. For more information on Thrasher Design Group, visit www.TDGi.net.

Equipment provided courtesy of D&M Professional (www.d-mpro.com) and Audio-Technica (www.audio-technica.com).

Evangel Assembly of God Upgrades Audio System
The sound system in the sanctuary of Evangel Assembly of God Church of Bismarck, North Dakota was recently upgraded by Fargo-based, Tricorne Audio. The company utilized a variety of EAW full-range installation loudspeakers to provide much-needed performance audio quality in supporting worship services and music/drama productions.

The EAW AX Series loudspeakers flown in
left-center-right configuration by Tricorne
Audio to provide all main floor coverage at
Evangel Assembly Of God Church.

Working closely with the church’s sound/music team, Tricorne Audio chose to utilize three bi-amplified EAW AX Series loudspeakers flown left-center-right to cover the sanctuary’s entire main floor. Specifically, two AX364 provide 60-degree by 45-degree coverage for left/right, and a single AX366 with 60-degree by 60-degree coverage handles the center.

Three EAW MK2300 Series two-way loudspeakers bolster output to the balcony that runs the length of the sanctuary's back wall, with two MK2366 for 60-degree by 60-degree coverage to the sides and a MK2396 for 90-degree by 60-degree coverage in the center. Four EAW Commercial VR61 full-range loudspeakers utilizing their optional built-in 70-volt transformers handle the shadowed under-balcony area, flown in their low-profile horizontal cabinet orientation (90-degree by 60-degree coverage with horn rotated).

The new monitoring portion of the system serving the front platform includes an EAW Commercial VR21 full-range loudspeaker flown for the choir as well as four traditional mixes provided via EAW Commercial VRM12 compact stage monitors.

"The end result produced by this new system is quite nice. We have even coverage, excellent gain before feedback, and a system that can handle concerts, theatre productions, and, of course, daily worship activities," notes Dallas Anderson of Tricorne Audio.

For more information, contact EAW at www.eaw.com.

HOUSES OF WORSHIP FIND COMFORT IN TRANSITIONING FROM ANALOG TO DIGITAL WITH AFFORDABLE OPTIONS BY YAMAHA COMMERCIAL AUDIO SYSTEMS

With consistency and repeatability becoming the top requests for church audio systems, digital mixing consoles have made significant inroads into the system design of houses of worship. The convenience of recall, built-in signal processing, plus reasonable costs are gaining the interest of many to move into the digital domain. Many mid- to large-sized houses of worship have found the Yamaha M7CL digital console to fit their needs.

The M7CL not only inherits the classic feature set of the PM series and the operational power of Yamaha’s digital consoles, but also includes a uniquely user-friendly control surface, making it an ideal mixing tool and budgetary choice for the house of worship market. Available in 32- or 48-channel formats, the lightweight M7CL is contained in a small footprint, and features a Centralogic™ interface providing intuitive operation by combining a touch panel control surface with Yamaha’s “Selected Channel” structure, guiding the user through a logical navigation system. With the M7CL there are no layers—most physical controls are single-function, and digital controls can be accessed through just two main software screens.

Northwoods Community Church

Bethel Temple

The Church at Rocky Peak

“We want to deliver our message in a relevant way,” says Northwoods Community Church creative arts director, Dawn Henderson. Northwoods main sanctuary hosts regular weekend services as well as attendance by 700 adults at their Wednesday evening Worship service. Given the scheduling demands of the sanctuary, the church believed that digital technology could help both simplify tasks, as well as reduce the chance for error. Northwoods chose the Yamaha M7CL to replace its analog console in the sanctuary. At the same time, the volunteer operators for the M7CL had some experience using Yamaha O1V96s in the other venues. “Because we depend almost entirely on volunteers to run audio at the church,” says Henderson, “our main concern was that the console had to be user friendly; it could be programmed at a higher level, but our operators had to run it during services without the fear of a train-wreck.” Says key audio volunteer, Rich Pflederer: “Once the M7CLs are set up, volunteers with little or no background in audio can run these consoles very easily.”

At Bethel Temple, the 2,200-seat domed sanctuary uses identical M7CLs allowing their staff to train on one console while the other is being used for services so that their personnel can fill in anywhere. “The mixers are perfect for what they do,” says Bob Langlois, systems designer for Audio Analysts who was responsible for the refurbishment at Bethel Temple. “Because we were already using a fiber snake, the mixer itself was brought to a whole new level of performance.” The consoles allow the staff to store settings for entirely different praise teams. A third M7CL is used for recording and broadcast at Bethel Temple.

For the 1,100-seat Church at Rocky Peak, it was a change in music styles to a more contemporary, guitar-driven, and more participatory worship style that led to the installation of a Yamaha M7CL. The console’s technology is easy enough to use for a non-professional and retains the sophisticated features of digital. “When we talked to Yamaha about a console,” says one of the church’s Worship Pastors, Dustin Kleinschmidt, “we had two criteria: we wanted the highest quality of sound, and technology that could be managed by a volunteer staff.” The pastor sights features like the ability to program all of the EQ’s and compression for worship service, to administer security levels, and ability to program the console settings offline on a laptop. Though they once considered hiring a professional audio engineer part-time to handle services, the Church at Rocky Peak decided that it really wanted to empower its own by providing proper training on the digital console. "The volunteers have learned a ton about live engineering with the training they received on the M7CL console that they never would have experienced otherwise."

Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems recently introduced the LS9 digital console providing an even more affordable system solution for the small- to medium sized house of worship. Housed in a small footprint frame, the 32- and 64-input console shares the same sound quality, built-in effects, EQ, and dynamics processing as that of the M7CL console. The inclusion of an MP3 recorder enables audio engineers to record and playback all of a congregation’s performances, whether musical or spoken word, from within the console.

The December edition of the Church Production newsletter will profile recent houses of worship Yamaha LS9 installations.

For more information on complete Yamaha systems solutions for houses of worship, visit www.yamahaca.com.

CAREER CENTER
FROM WORSHIP FACILITIES
AND CHURCH PRODUCTION
MAGAZINES

Churches! Post all your job openings FREE OF CHARGE in Church Production Magazine and Worship Facilities Magazine. Send your text-based ad (50 words or less), including job descriptions and contact information to jobs@pmipub.com.

Design Tools Available Free of Charge
Acoustic Dimensions—which specializes in acoustics, audio, video, and lighting design—is making limited versions of some of their in-house design tools available to the public free of charge at www.acousticdimensions.com/worship_innovation.htm.

Stage Area Calculator

The technology design tools include an LED Resolution Calculator, Video Storage Calculator, Projection Calculator, Conduit Sizer, and Stage Area Calculator. The Growth Calculator allows churches to project attendance and the Cost Escalation Calculator allows the user to calculate the impact of inflation on construction costs over time.

In addition, the Innovation page includes educational concept interactives and an information library with topics such as “Making over Youth Spaces on a Budget” and “Retraining Your Brain from Analog to Digital Mixing.”

For more information go to www.acousticdimensions.com.

Elation Education Experience Award Winners Recognized
Elation Professional presented the 2007 Elation Education Experience award to three young lighting designers at the Worship Facilities Expo (WFX) show in Atlanta.

Elation Education Experience Award Winners
Left to right: James Keely (runner up),
Eric Process (first prize), Andrew Prince
(runner up)

Sponsored by Elation Professional and Church Production magazine, the Elation Education Experience award was started in 2006 to promote future excellence in church lighting design by encouraging young lighting designers to develop skills in working in house of worship settings.

“We regard the house of worship (HOW) market as an important part of what our company is all about,” said Eric Loader, director of Elation Professional. “In our view, it’s important that young lighting designers develop their skills and abilities with HOW applications in mind, just as they do with the theatrical, touring, and club markets.”

To win the contest, the 2007 Elation Education Experience participants had to complete a lighting design project for a hypothetical religious youth center within a specific budget.

Eric Process of Madison, Wisconsin was the first prize winner. The two runners-up were James Keely of Wausau, Wisconsin, and Andrew Prince of Como, Mississippi. The three winners received an all-expense paid trip to the WFX Show, courtesy of Elation Professional, plus free Compu lighting design software.

Details for the 2008 Elation Education Experience will be announced early next year. For more information, contact Elation Professional at (866) 245-6726, or visit www.elationlighting.com.

Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. Appoints Craik to House of Worship Specialist
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. announces the appointment of Dan Craik to the position of House of Worship Marketing Manager. This appointment reinforces the company’s position within the house of worship market as they continue to dedicate resources to this very important sector.

Dan Craik
Yamaha HOW
Marketing Manager

Craik joined Yamaha in 1998 and held the position of product manager for hardware products responsible for Yamaha’s product marketing and support of its digital and analog consoles. Prior to joining Yamaha, he taught audio recording at California State University, Chico and during this period served as the director of the Aspen Audio Recording Institute in Aspen, Colorado. Craik also owned a full-line musical instrument/professional audio retail store where he was a Yamaha dealer.

“The church installation market is very significant for our company and it is extremely important to dedicate resources in order to provide houses of worship, consultants, and contractors with exemplary support,” states Marc Lopez, marketing manager, Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. “Dan understands what this market requires to better support their efforts, so it was a natural choice in appointing him to this position.”

For more information, please visit: www.yamaha.com/ca.


	Robe ColorWash 2500E AT Robe introduces the ColorWash 2500E AT moving light fixture which is the sister of the ColorSpot 2500E AT. It is designed for use in venues and installations of all types specifically in large lighting rigs. It is also made for outdoor applications including washing large surface areas such as walls and buildings and for use as a searchlight effect. The ColorWash 2500E AT is fitted with the Phillips MSR Gold 1200 FastFit lamp and a 1400W electronic ballast for a flicker-free operation. The optical system maximizes brightness and features a high-luminous glass reflector. The color facility includes both CMY and CTO color mixing systems and two color wheels, each with 6 ‘slot+lock’ color options. It also includes various colors tones including 63 color macros. Each color wheel rotates at variable speeds in both directions. There's an option for ‘random color’ selection via audio input, or a straightforward 'auto random' color selection. The dimmer/shutter unit encompasses the full range of dimming and also produces an effective variable-speed strobe effect of 1- 12 FPS. Variable ‘random pulse’ effects can be activated via pre-programmable macros. The unit’s standard zoom range is 7 to 44 degrees. A front-fitting PC lens option gives a 6 - 35 degree zoom, and a front-fitting wide-angle lens offering a 75 – 87 degree range. The unit is controlled, set, and addressed via Robe’s Navigation System (RNS) which features an easy-to-read graphic LCD display, two control buttons for the control wheel, and comes complete with inbuilt demo sequences. DMX operation offers the choice of 5 DMX protocol modes – utilizing 17, 21, 23, 24 or 30 control channels. In addition to standard DMX control, the fixture fully supports Remote Device Management (RDM) operation, and is ready for this “out of the box” with no additional installation required. The CW 2500E AT has an Ethernet port, supports ArtNet and ACN protocols, and can also operate in ‘stand alone’ mode. The fans can be operated in both “Auto” or “High” modes and are virtually silent. The LCD display on the unit’s base is easy to read and understand, and Robe has included an inbuilt analyzer to make fault-finding, pre-setting, and diagnostics as simple as possible. URL: www.robe.cz
	PreSonus Audio Electronics ADL 700 PreSonus Audio Electronics announces the new ADL 700 – a single-channel Class A tube preamplifier compressor equalizer. Presonus’ second partnership product designed by Anthony DeMaria and manufactured by PreSonus, the ADL 700 is an all-discrete and high-voltage Class A channel strip (preamp/compressor/EQ) based on the ADL 600 two-channel tube preamplifier. The preamplifier stage in the ADL 700 circuit is based on the preamp in the ADL 600 with balanced input transformer and three vacuum tubes with 600-volt power rails. The preamp includes instrument, line, and microphone inputs with selectable input impedance, high gain, and high pass filter. The compressor stage in the ADL 700 features a discrete FET-based VCA compressor with variable threshold, ratio, attack, release, and make-up gain. The EQ stage in the ADL 700 is a discrete Class A 4-band parametric EQ with switchable high/low Q. The ADL 700 is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2008. URL: www.presonus.com
	Kramer VP-23C Kramer Electronics announces the availability of the compact VP-23C switcher for presentation and multimedia applications. The high bandwidth VP-23C includes four switcher groups combining the functions of a 2x1 switcher for composite video, a 2x1 switcher for s-Video, a 2x1 switcher for component video/UXGA, and a 4x1 switcher for VGA/UXGA type signals. In addition to composite, s-Video, computer graphics video and stereo audio, the VP-23C offers component video capability for use with high-end DVD players and other component video sources. The HDTV compatible switcher is designed so that each switcher group can be controlled independently from the other sections. Each video input has its own unbalanced stereo audio input, and an independent unbalanced stereo master audio output allows users to select a signal from any of the 10 audio inputs. An additional microphone channel can be inserted by mixing with the master output signal or by muting the master output signal. The VP-23C offers local control with 10 front-panel selector buttons and control buttons for the master audio-output level and microphone level. The VP-23C can be controlled remotely with RS-232 serial commands transmitted by a touch screen system, PC, or other serial controller. A panel lock button on the front panel prevents unwanted tampering. The compact VP-23C frame fits in one vertical space of a standard 19” professional rack enclosure. URL: www.kramerus.com
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James River Assembly, Ozark MO Christmas Production
Illuminating Lighting Consoles
Inside a Thriving Video Production Ministry
How Loud Should It Be? – Part two

James River Assembly, Ozark MO Christmas Production Illuminating Lighting Consoles Inside a Thriving Video Production Ministry How Loud Should It Be? – Part two

James River Assembly, Ozark MO Christmas Production
Illuminating Lighting Consoles
Inside a Thriving Video Production Ministry
How Loud Should It Be? – Part two