Over the past 25 years, Student Life has reached young people across the country through inter-denominational Christian summer camps and conferences. With 1 million+ attendees over this time span, the Gospel-centered worship services at each camp are designed to transform the lives of the students in attendance, as well as those of the technicians behind the scenes.
With multiple student technical teams touring the countryside, Director of Production Jake Brantley needs five powerful and durable tour packages, so he worked with Elite Multimedia Productions of Nashville to supply the audio, lighting and video designs.
“Our summer camps are pretty unique in that we consider ourselves a teaching opportunity to bring in student technicians who have a lot of ability and the right work ethic,” says Brantley. “We have five production teams that will each do between 10-15 camps and 100 services throughout the summer, so we design our rigs to be as simple and effective as possible. We have to consider how to put together a touring rig that is of professional quality, but also usable for young designers who might have limited experience, and Elite Multimedia Productions does an outstanding job.”
Student ministry considerations
In today’s student ministries, the worship design is often a key component in setting the tone for the audience experience. Through their dedication to cultivate the next generation of worship technicians, Brantley is cognizant to give the student designers the freedom to be creative while operating the user-friendly production packages.
“Designing is an art form, and we believe that we can worship behind the console just as much as a music leader can on guitar,” Brantley notes. “On the road, we have a lot of preprogrammed content, but we also believe in letting the technicians run their worship environments on the fly. [Since] we have young designers who are looking to ‘cut their teeth’ on the job, we have to make the rigs approachable and easy to understand, but we also have to provide an engaging worship environment for each camp.”
When the time came to begin filling the tour packages, Brantley knew they not only needed a gear provider, but also a touring partner. Having worked with the design team at Elite Multimedia Productions on a number of projects, he knew that the student technicians would not only receive reliable gear, but also the understanding to maintain it.
“With five gear packages that will travel all summer, we are very blessed to have a great relationship with Elite Multimedia Productions,” he adds. "They also help by doing a bit of training with our techs before they go on the road. This way our technicians are better able to diagnose any problems that may [occur], and if a piece of gear needs maintenance, they have the knowledge to figure it out.”
On the road
Now finalized, the tour designs were ready to hit the road with a complete lighting, audio and video package. Traveling to each location in 26-foot semi-trucks, the designs had to be able to adapt to a multitude of venues from conference centers to universities.
“When looking at our lighting rig, we upgraded this year to an all LED-based moving light package which includes Elation Professional Platinum 7, Artiste DaVinci and Rayzor 360Z luminaires,” explains Brantley. “For audio, each rig is touring with an Electro-Voice XLD line array and subs, and a Midas Pro 2C console. On the video side, they each use Panasonic HS50 Switchers and ProPresenter playback for the content.”
As the 2018 Student Life Summer Camps continue to bring an environment of worship and praise to thousands of students nationwide, behind the scenes, the next generation of technician continues to grow. Understanding that this growth is a vital component to the overall success of the summer, Brantley says he is pleased to have chosen Elite Multimedia as his tour partner.
