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Doing some upgrades or even designing a brand new space can be challenging, but it can also be a lot of fun—and lots of hard work.
Somewhere along the line, you and your pastor figured out that the demands placed on your tech ministry and your control room have outgrown what you can currently handle on a daily or weekly basis. Trust me, you are not alone. Tech ministries everywhere are dealing with a meteoric increase for in-house weekly productions, remote campus work, bible and prayer meetings, and let’s not forget my personal favorite, the special events out in the tent. Then of course, we need to be adding in all those new technologies that seem to be just springing up all over the place. But admit it. Being busy is good, right? Now we just have to figure out how to deal with it all, either by upgrading that existing area or starting with a clean sheet of paper to design something new.
What Space Are You in Right Now?
Speaking from experience, the first thing I learned in doing this is to step back a bit. Or, kind of a measure-twice-cut-once approach. Then, honestly take a good long look at the space and add up what you have. Nothing too formal. Do this when nobody is around and when you aren’t knee-deep getting ready for the next service. Then get some other eyes on the space, as well. Next, you need to decide to go with an in-house team, hire an outside integrator, or a mix of both. If you are planning to upgrade what you have, or if you decide to build out a new space, it takes brain power and asking a ton of questions to get the right questions.
Here is my short list for starters:
- Are we keeping any of the current gear we have, or are we going all new? Will our older gear work with the newer gear?
- Are we keeping the space we have or are we being moved and to where? Think power, A/C, and making all the consoles and gear fit.
- What is the timeline for the project? Are we expected to stay in production mode or will there be some downtime?
- Who is supervising the project?
- Who is doing the bulk of the work? Volunteers or an integrator?
- What is the “real” budget?
- Did parts of the old control room work, and at what level?
This is a great time to bring your volunteers in for a work session to get their thoughts. Be sure to tell them that nothing is set in stone, but that their feedback matters to you.
You can still save money by asking the volunteers to pitch in, but the high-end tech stuff? Hire a pro.
Working Smarter
Now that you have hopefully answered most of the important questions, the next part of your project can begin. Unless you have an engineering staff in place, save yourself and the church a bunch of money by hiring a pro. Maybe even talk to them first. You may be able to direct a 10-camera service, but can you wire up a control room or mesh old gear in with new gear? Even if you don’t buy one new piece of gear but are moving the room, hire the pro.
You can still save money by asking the volunteers to pitch in, but the high-end tech stuff? Hire a pro. Depending on the complexity of the project, they can either do the whole thing for you turnkey, or they can act as a consultant. The bottom line is literally the bottom line here. I have been brought in on a lot of “fix it please” projects because all the details were not thought out prior to starting. Yes, there will be unforeseen circumstances to be dealt with, but having that one person as your go-to pivot point is going to save you.
Putting the Project in Motion
Let’s put things in perspective by looking over the good points and the bad points of an upgrade. I was involved in a L-shaped control room “refresh” a few years back. We had gotten to the “too many kids to fit in the house” stage—we had simply outgrown our control room. So, with limited options, we decided to rearrange the room so we had more space.
The good points in the project included moving master control, playback, and the servers to the back of the space. Then we located our new graphics and switcher away from the front of the room, making a walk-through space. Lastly, we took our older audio board out and installed a new smaller one at a right angle to buy a little more room. The not-so-good part was the labeling and rewiring. All new connectors, all new cable lengths, all pulled through a crawl space. Gosh, where was that computer floor when I needed it?
In my opinion, we saved money, but we added a lot of down time to the process by going to the upgrade instead of just starting with a clean room.
Closing Thoughts
Doing some upgrades or even designing a brand new space can be challenging, but it can also be a lot of fun—and lots of hard work. But when you are doing it with a great bunch of people it is a real tech team-building experience. Planning ahead of time and good prep work, I believe, will give you the results you are looking for.
God bless!
