Having audio data integrated with the common data network allows the team access to high-quality audio wherever they need it. Yamaha CL Series consoles are major components of Sun Grove’s audio network, along with Shure ULX-D 24-bit/48kHz digital audio wireless systems and eight channels of Dante wireless that run on the same IT backbone as the rest of the church.
Put a network-knowledgeable technical director and an experienced AVL designer together and present them with a challenge to transform a retail space into a worship center, and what do you get? A model for creating a flexible contemporary worship and a meeting venue that's fully integrated with the church and the community.
The technical director is Sun Grove Church's Mark Cooke and the designer is Greg Slape, director of design-build services at Special Event Services (SES) in Winston-Salem, N.C. Both are sons of preachers who combined their talents and experience to totally revamp a Gold's Gym into a new home for Sun Grove Church—and a valuable asset to the surrounding community of Elk Grove, Calif. “Our goal was to create a reconfigurable space that could be used for meetings or events that volunteers could quickly transform for contemporary worship,” Cooke says, “while keeping some unique aspects of the environmental space.”
One of Cooke's major technical contributions to the project was the design of the data network that is used both by the church offices and for audio networking. For many it would be a daunting task, but not Cooke. “I've always been involved in technology,” he says. In fact, he was helping to install church audio systems through his teens and just after his high school graduation he started working in an engineering lab at Hughes Aircraft. He was also an avid volunteer and part-time staff engineer for a 3,200-seat auditorium. “It was a great experience working with touring acts,” he recalls. “I worked with them on different systems and got a lot of exposure to the production side of things.”
Cooke took every opportunity to work events beyond the church, too, from roadie to monitor mixing. Eventually, he took an interest in computer networking. So when he left Hughes in 1996 he had achieved the title of messaging architect and easily fit in at the IT giant, Intel, heading up engineering groups there. “I enjoyed that work,” he says. “That sort of technical collaboration generates the ideas that ultimately advance technology.”
Experience in action
Describing himself as a bit of a risk taker, and one who is always looking for ways to make things better, Cooke says, “For me, it's about concepts. If you understand what the technologies are supposed to do, that guides you. Then, you can make smart decisions and get a better understanding of what really matters in digital technology.”
During his 12-year stint at Intel, Cooke continued volunteering and improving the technology at neighboring churches and, in 2008, left Intel as senior technologist to do independent consulting. Not long after that, relocation put him close to Sun Grove Church where he started as a volunteer. At the time, Sun Grove was meeting in a high school gymnasium and shopping for a new facility. Just after acquiring the Gold's Gym in 2012, the church's previous technical director took a job at Apple Computer and Cooke came on part-time. His first job was to get the church operational in the building, with portable lighting and sound—but he was anxious to do more.
When Cooke conferred with Slape at SES about designing permanent audio, video and lighting systems at Sun Grove, he knew he had found someone to partner with to take the church to the next level. Also the son of a preacher, Slape pastored with his father and worked for 10 years at Capital Christian Center in Sacramento, Calif. Slape went on to gain industry respect working for leaders in worship technology, including CCI, Michael Garrison Associates and James River Church in Ozark, Mo. It was Slape's work with broadcast mixes that led him to SES, where he has developed the company's worship division. “I had gained considerable experience through my association with some great facilities and touring,” recalls Slape. “I wanted to translate that to worship.”
Slape is generally hired to lead projects like Sun Grove's renovation, but he is always looking to partner. “It's in our DNA to look for partners,” he quips. “We look to develop collaborative relationships that can help us both.” Through the interview process, it became clear to Slape that Cooke had the experience and “IT chops” needed to handle the design of the data-networking portion of the installation. So, Cooke became the network architect. This not only helped with the division of labor, but also helped financially.
"Our goal was to create a reconfigurable space that could be used for meetings or events that volunteers could quickly transform for contemporary worship,"
Mark Cooke
Technical Director, Sun Grove Church, Elk Grove, CA.
AVL design elements
Together, Cooke and Slape began the eight-month installation of Sun Grove's 800-seat flexible worship and meeting space. “One of the features that everyone loved about the building was the 140-foot glass wall,” recalls Cooke. While open, it provides a beautiful vista and serves to connect worship and the message to the community. However, the amount of light in the room hampered any lighting design, video and production techniques. Stage curtains would have been both costly and cumbersome, so Slape designed a cloth-covered shade system with motorized gym divider hardware. “It works really well,” Cooke remarks; he can lower the massive shades completely to create a concert environment or open them partially during the service at the pastor's direction or completely for a community event.
In addition to the glass wall, the room presented significant acoustical challenges. Slape did a complete acoustical analysis to transform the room. A combination of treatments at various locations was used, including using “stretch fabric wall” systems on the finished walls covering absorptive materials. The exposed steel ceiling was treated strategically with an MBI “theater board.”
The size and location of the motorized shade to cover the glass sidewall also acts as an acoustical treatment. In addition, a significant void in the back wall was creatively adapted as a bass trap to help the room support Sun Grove's contemporary, band-driven worship style. Sunday services feature a worship leader who sings and plays acoustic guitar accompanied by electric bass and guitar, drums, percussion, keys, and three vocalists. Cooke acts as technical director and producer, typically assisted by seven volunteers.
Audio groove
Slape designed Sun Grove's audio system as a Nexo GEO S12 line array stereo configuration with seven boxes per side and four Nexo RS18 subs controlled with a Yamaha CL5 Digital Audio Console at front of house. A CL1 console is used for the monitor system. Two Rio 3224-D input/output boxes at the stage and Ro8-D and Ri8-D rack units provide connectivity. “The Nexo system we installed was specifically designed to support the church's style of worship,” says Slape, “but it also has a high performance-to-cost ratio.”
The Nexo audio rig employs six GEO S1210 speakers and one GEO S1230 30-degree downfill for both left and right biamped arrays. Four RS18s on the floor provide low-end and are powered by three NX 4x4 amplifiers. As part of Cooke's network design, the audio system is running on a redundant Dante network from the CL5. Cooke's network design has saved money and provided a more flexible backbone for both audio and other data uses. “We leveraged a common infrastructure for data using solid, off-the-shelf network equipment,” says Cooke.
In addition to Yamaha consoles, major components of Sun Grove's audio network are two Cisco SG-300 Ethernet switches, Shure ULX-D 24-bit/48kHz digital audio wireless systems and eight channels of Dante wireless that all run on the same backbone as the rest of the church. “If data is well managed, it's easy to share,” Cooke says. Having audio data integrated with the common data network allows the team access to high-quality audio wherever they need it, anywhere in the building.
"We leveraged a common infrastructure for data using solid, off-the-shelf network equipment."
Mark Cooke
Technical Director, Sun Grove Church, Elk Grove, CA.
Even though Sun Grove's network design was guided by basic network tenants, the configuration is proving to be exemplary. Local engineers regularly visit to see how IT technology is being applied at Sun Grove. One especially attractive feature of the design is that the LAN configuration for audio can run on a fully redundant network. The redundant design helps to guarantee that should the common network go down, the worship systems would be unaffected. “It's never failed over except in test situations,” says Cooke, “but it's good security to know we have it.”
According to Cooke, the Yamaha CL consoles with Dante were easy to get up and running, and operator training was not an issue—even for volunteers with no digital experience. “The Yamaha CL's Gain Compensation feature has been invaluable in managing preamps with multiple consoles and, as we expected, the Dante network has performed very well,” Cooke reports.
Other features of the Yamaha console get regular use at Sun Grove, as well. “The church uses the Nuendo Live multi-track recording feature for virtual sound checks and also to train audio volunteers,” Slape says. In addition, the worship leader uses the multi-track recordings for musician training and to prime the group for eventually doing an album project. Sermons are also recorded using Nuendo Live for distribution to the congregation and post-produced for online listening.
Lighting moves
For lighting, Slape designed a minimal configuration to provide color and atmosphere. Considering the church's production style and the building's power limitations, a combination of incandescent and economical LED fixtures were installed controlled by High End Systems Nano Hog 4 lighting console. In addition to a house lighting system with 12 incandescent Altman SP4 par fixtures covering the main floor for other events, Slape specified the use of full-color Philips LED PL1 Luminaire zoom spots and fresnels.
“PL1 LEDs worked great for this installation,” says Slape. “They are very dynamic, with good color mixing and great white for broadcast. Plus, we were able to match natural light from Sun Grove's massive windows.” For additional light on stage, four Chauvet COLORdash Batten-quad 12 fixtures are placed on the floor in critical stage locations.
Although the original intent was not to feature IMAG at Sun Grove, a 10-foot by 16-foot motorized LED video wall was designed and installed by Mankin Media Systems of Franklin, Tenn., has made video a regular feature for worship services. Video equipment to capture worship and events features two Panasonic cameras: an AGHPX 255 1/3-inch 2.2 megapixel handheld camcorder and a Panasonic AW-HE60SN full-HD PTZ camera.
A Ki Pro Rack unit is used to record 10-bit Apple ProRes files direct to disk from which Cooke produces a 45-minute sermon each week for the web. The system also employs a Ross Crossover Solo Video switcher and AJA Kumo 16x16 routing matrix routers. Sun Grove runs ProPresenter on an iMac.
With a reconfigurable stage and stackable chairs, Sun Grove's floorplan is flexible for parties, dances and community-oriented events. It's quickly gaining a reputation as the best facility in the area. This fits well with the church's plan to be highly visible and an integral part of the community. In this project and his other design work, Slape sees a marked trend towards multi-function spaces. “Technology,” he offers, “plays a large roll in a room's ability to be multi-use.”
Perhaps most remarkable about the project is the unique partnership between Cooke and Slape, which has allowed for an advanced, cost-effective network design to support industry-proven audio, lighting and video systems that not only exceeded the expectations of Sun Grove worshippers, but stayed well within budget. “It was our collaborative relationship that allowed it to happen,” says Cooke, who has since worked on other data designs with Slape and SES. With the Sun Grove installation completed, Cooke and Slape agree that their combined skills and experience are bound to develop even more value going forward.
