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Released on February 5th 2016, Elevation’s newest album, "Here As In Heaven," was recorded live in front of a sold-out crowd at Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena.
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Driving the live show was a compliment of Digico consoles, an SD7 at FOH and two SD10s in monitor world
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The Digico SD7 console at FOH helped capture a full recording in addition to the main feed sent to the truck, utilizing two Digico MGB MADI converters feeding into a Mac Pro running Waves TracksLive software.
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Handling the task of bringing clarity and impact for the live audience, SES provided an all L-Acoustics PA rig.
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The truss circles over the stage were wrapped inside and out with LED panels which displayed visual content as well as being loaded with moving light fixtures. The truss rings were also automated, using Kinesys motion control.
The power of worship in a live setting is rooted in our human craving for connection and shared experience. Few environments come close to matching the the aural and visual spectacle of hearts crying out in gratitude and praise towards heaven. Over the past decade, groups have taken these experiences outside the church walls and into the mainstream market, establishing the demand for live concerts and albums. In recent years, few groups have pushed the envelope of production and popularity more than Elevation Worship.
Born out of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC, Elevation Worship has been a steady and influential presence in the worship genre. When a group not only garners success in the Christian world but sees an album chart in the Top 25 of the Billboard 200, you know they're up to something good. Because of the communal nature of any group worship experience, artists have turned to live recordings; a way to enhance both the ambiance and experiential feel of the music, rich with atmosphere and the voices of thousands. Released on February 5th 2016, Elevation's newest album, "Here As In Heaven," was recorded live in front of a sold-out crowd at Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena. Coordinating live production for a one-off arena show is enough of a task. Adding the need for a live recording and full-camera shoot for a DVD release, you've got yourself a production and planning ballet not for the faint of heart. How does a church, in the midst of normal week-to-week operations, plan and execute this monumental task?
Planning
The initial planning stages for this live event and recording began in the spring of 2015. Brian Poole is the Live Production Technologies director for Elevation Church, a post he has held for the past seven years. “We try to have everyone bring ideas to the table, regardless of budget…dream big then dial down as needed”, he says. Coordinating the live element, audio recording, and filming each took careful consideration to ensure everything worked hand in hand. Poole says taking the time to fully vet and think through each area was extensive yet critical in the early stages. “How is the lighting going to affect the PA placement? How does the lighting design translate on camera, not just in person? How will the rigging affect the load in and load out?” With this being Elevation's second live album and event at Time Warner Cable Arena–the first taking place in 2014–they were able to build in an extra day into the production schedule. Rigging and equipment load in was accomplished during the first day. The second comprised of line-checks, lighting programming, camera staging, and band rehearsals. The final day included more rehearsals leading up to the event that evening. “Having three days proved to be monumental in providing margin and assurance in being able to execute every element at a high level.”
One critical factor in the pre-production phase, different from Elevation's first event of this nature, was finding an all-in-one production vendor. “The first time we did this in 2014, we had separate vendors for audio, lighting, and video. Trying to wrangle different contacts and coordinate changes with design, rigging, and such was a huge headache”, says Poole. For this time around, Elevation turned to Special Event Services out of Winston-Salem, NC. SES provided all audio, video projection, lighting, and rigging. Poole said this made a huge difference in having one contact for everything, streamlining the entire process. “SES did a phenomenal job. They really believe in the ministry we are doing here and bent over backwards to make it all happen.”
Three Digico consoles, an SD7 at FOH and two SD10s in monitor world, controlled sound reinforcement for the live event.
Audio
It's one thing to deliver an arena-worthy audio experience to thousands in attendance. Coordinating that with a live recording takes careful planning on both sides. “Honestly, the recording part of this presented several struggles”, said Poole. “You're looking at microphone choice and placement, even the overall SPL level of the PA and how that might affect the end product.” To capture the recording, Elevation brought in a mobile truck from TNDV out of Nashville, TN. “The truck received an isolated split to record all inputs at 96 kHz.” One interesting aspect in trying to find common ground for the live mix and recording was drum mic'ing. “We actually started with double-mic'ing all of the drums. But what's good for FOH and monitors might not work the best for the recording engineer. We ended up moving away from two mics on all drums due to space and were able to find good placement that met both needs.” Drum mics included AKG 414s for floor toms, Sennheiser MD421s on rack toms, and Shure SM57s and Telefunken M80s on snare.
Driving the live show was a compliment of Digico consoles, an SD7 at FOH and two SD10s in monitor world. With a group of 8 musicians and 10 vocalists, two monitor engineers were utilized, splitting the group between vocals and band in order to adequately handle the large amount of inputs and mixes. With any live recording, you only get one shot, so having redundant backup was critical. The SD7 at FOH captured a full recording in addition to the truck, utilizing two Digico MGB MADI converters feeding into a Mac Pro running Wave's TracksLive software, which Poole says was an easy and rock-solid setup.
Handling the task of bringing clarity and impact for the live show, SES provided an all L-Acoustics PA rig. The main hangs comprised 14 K1 with 6 K2 boxes below each each side. Side hangs featured additional K1 enclosures. For low end support, 8 K1-SB boxes were flown behind the main hangs on each side for long-throw sub coverage. Rounding out the PA were SB28 subwoofers on the floor. Powering the system were L-Acoustics LA8 and LA4X amplifiers.
Lighting and Video
During the pre-production phase, the production design team sought to immerse the audience visually while also providing flexibility for lighting positions and filming aspects. “The title track of the album, “Here As In Heaven”, gave us this idea of a portal, so to speak, into heaven. So we came up with three concentric circles of truss over the center of the stage.” The truss circles were wrapped on the outside and inside with LED panels, which displayed visual content as well as being loaded with moving light fixtures. The truss rings were also automated, using Kinesys motion control, which gave the design unlimited amounts of flexibility and visual looks throughout the show. Additionally, all instrument stage risers were wrapped in LED panels, utilizing the same video content as the overhead truss.
Rounding out the video element were two flown screens, flanking each side of the stage, which provided IMAG and lyric content for the night. The production team also made use of the arena's in-house video screens to supplement coverage for the far side and upper bowl seating areas.
Lighting control was provided by two Grand MA2 consoles–one active and a backup running in tracking mode. Clay Paky Mythos, filling up the circle truss and stage, and A.leda B-EYE K20s dominated the fixture list along with several MGD arena hazers for atmosphere.
An Experience To Remember
Poole, who also served as FOH engineer for the show, said Elevation puts a great deal of time and thought into the worship experience, not only for live recordings but every week in their services. “It's really a non-negotiable for us when it comes to the worship atmosphere. We want people to experience God and worship in a way that is free from judgement, allowing them to fully express themselves. We want to create the sound they hear on the albums, keep it consistent, and have the look and feel that [we think] gives worship the best chance to happen in a powerful way. That atmosphere drives what we do here.”
Elevation Worship will be out on tour this April supporting the Outcry Tour, along with Hillsong United, Kari Jobe, Passion, and others.
