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Kettlebrook Church, West Bend, Wisconsin.
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Kettlebrook has used Roland’s M-300 digital mixer for the past four years with great results, leading them to add it to the new environment.
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Two NEC NP-PX700W2 7,000-lumens 3D DLP projectors were added and directed to two Da-Lite 108- by 192-inch screens at either side of the stage. Lighting is a mixture of ETC SourceFours, ColorSource Pars and Chroma-Q Inspire color-changing pendant lights. Loudspeaker system features L-Acoustics Arcs Wide and Arcs Focus cabinets.
For more than 10 years, Kettlebrook Church's mission of bringing church to the people of West Bend, Wis., included set up and tear down of a temporary worship space every weekend. “We're not really a programming-centric church. We're much more about home groups and serving in our community,” says church elder Paul Fischer. “Having a permanent space just for our purposes that would sit empty during the week doesn't align with our mission.”
That all changed when an opportunity arose to bring several non-profit organizations together to transform a vacant retail space into a combined worship and community center. The renewed structure with 25,000 square feet of floor space can seat up to 550 for Sunday worship and provides office space for the church, but, more importantly, the versatility of the design makes it ideal for the programmed activities presented by the local senior center and family service organizations. The Kettlebrook team worked closely with these non-profits striving to design a space that would be effective for all the partners' needs, as well as facilitate community events. To support the church's contemporary worship style, the team elected to install high-quality AVL systems throughout the facility that would be easy to operate and serve all the partner's needs.
Fischer's experience with both church administration and technology casts him in a unique role with Kettlebrook Church. He serves as both elder chairman and the volunteer technology lead. Fischer and his wife were part of the original team from Northbrook Church in Richfield, Wis., that helped to plant Kettlebrook Church in 2005. Through the years of serving the church, he has been able to exercise, what he describes as, his “gift of administration.” “I had chaired various committees,” he says, “and that prepared me well to chair the elder board.” What Fischer has, that many administrators do not, is a background that includes hands-on experience with technology. In his high school years, his love of music and technical knowhow led him to form a successful DJ business. With the church, he has helped to upgrade and build out several audio systems and has used his technical expertise to make improvements to worship. “I've always enjoyed the technology,” he says. While Fischer does play guitar and piano, he is most comfortable helping to create a worship environment with technology. “Helping people to connect with their Creator is something I truly enjoy,” he says.
Planning AVL Systems
Experience has taught Fischer a lot about technology and how it can help worship. He would call upon his experience designing audio systems, as well as his administrative abilities to make the design and technology recommendations for the new space. “I’ve read a lot of articles about other installations and upgrade projects over the years,” he recalls, “and that really helped us.” Two things, in particular, stood out as key for the technology in Kettlebrook Church’s new home: “We didn’t wait to bring the AVL contractor into the conversation and we knew pretty much what we wanted. Coming from worshipping in a school cafeteria, we’ve never had a ‘high production’ service in terms of equipment. We strive for excellence because of the importance of worship, but we don’t want worship to be seen as a rock concert.” Fischer and his team were able to oversee the budget to get the design of the building right to meet the needs of both the church and its nonprofit partners, as well as focus the technology budget and selection to get the best sounding audio for the space. “We intentionally focused on audio,” he recalled. “Being able to communicate well has always been central to the church’s mission. We needed to get that right. After all, if you can’t hear the teaching and song lyrics clearly, we missed the boat in creating the environment for people to worship without obstacles.”
The Kettlebrook team worked closely with Anderson-Ashton Design/Build of New Berlin, Wis., on a building design that would facilitate both the needs of the church, and accommodate the varied activities of their partners using the facility during the week. Inquiries were also made about other church installations to locate the right partner who would understand their needs and help with AVL technology. Fisher was introduced to Clearwing Systems Integration through their work for Northbrook Church. “We were pleased to know that Clearwing would consider a project of our relatively small size,” recalls Fischer. “They are considered by many to be the best in our area and bring a huge amount of live production experience, as well as church audio design experience to our project.”
Mike Jonas, senior project manager for Clearwing Systems Integration, coordinated with the Kettlebrook project team and the builder to be sure that the right accommodations were considered for each of the production components in the design. “Working with Kettlebrook was a great experience,” recalls Jonas. “It really helps a project when the client takes the time to understand the needs for AVL before the building starts.” Jonas also acknowledges that Fischer and his team clearly understood the importance and role of the integrator. “We were able to participate in the early construction meetings,” he says, “and that helped to guide the process. That made the project go very smoothly.”
Jonas was a good match for the project with his technical expertise, but also personally, as he grew up in the area. “I remember shopping the old grocery store as a kid,” he reminisced. “It’s nice to see the space finally being reused in such a good way for the community.” Jonas has worked in the AV field in one form or another since his high school days. While his formal education focused on construction management, his background in lighting and audio prepared him well for designing and installing systems for a variety of applications. For several years after college, Jonas adeptly handled the daily responsibilities of theatrical technical director. Now, with three more years of experience at Clearwing, Jonas feels that he has worked in all facets of AVL, gaining experience in the many different venues that the company supports.
Fischer made it clear to Jonas from the start that great audio would be needed at Kettlebrook Church. “Paul’s experience allows him to clearly understand what is most important for their service,” noted Jonas, “what they really need and where to focus our resources. The most important decision was about the quality of the audio system.”
"Having a permanent space … that would sit empty during the week doesn’t align with our mission."
Paul Fischer
Elder & Volunteer Technology Leader, Kettlebrook Church, West Bend, WI.
Going with High Quality Audio
For excellent clarity, phase coherence with minimal interference and solid reinforcement throughout the room, Jonas chose L-Acoustics Arcs Wide and Arcs Focus systems which he reports, “installed exactly as modeled.” Arcs Wide and Arcs Focus are compact 12-inch format enclosures with symmetric directivity of 90 degrees in one plane and a choice of 15-degree, 137 dB (Arcs Focus) or 30-degree, 135 dB (Arcs Wide) in the other plane. Audio designers appreciate the combination of compact size, high SPL potential and tight low end that these passive loudspeakers deliver.
The enclosures are driven by three L-Acoustics LA4X amplified controllers. LA4X features Power Factor Correction (PFC) circuitry to maximize amplifier efficiency and take advantage of nearly 100% of the electrical power available with a very high tolerance to unstable mains. The Class D amplification circuits ensure the LA4X is built to be energy-efficient for minimal heat dissipation. LA4X delivers 4 x 1000W RMS power at 8 Ohms (or 4 Ohms) with record hold times along with advanced filtering, reliable system protection and predictable performance.
The team installed a left-right stereo system with each side comprised of three Arcs boxes: two 15-degree by 90-degree Focus systems and one 30-degree by 90-degree Wide system were installed horizontally to achieve 60-degree by 90-degree room coverage. With the WiFo (Wide and Focus) systems covering the majority of the seats, two additional L-Acoustics 8XTi compact coaxial speakers with eight-inch low frequency drivers and 1.5-inch high-frequency diaphragms were added as extreme outfill to cover the area just out of the pattern of the mains. According to Jonas, coverage and transition to the outer seats is very smooth and the L-Acoustics speaker choices “play well together as a system.” Both Jonas and Fischer appreciate that L-Acoustics has gained a great reputation for reliability with Clearwing’s other unit, Clearwing Productions, which services major concert tours and live venues. “With so much experience with L-Acoustics,” says Jonas, “we know we can support it well and we’re very happy with the performance.”
Though originally planned for under the stage, subwoofers needed to be relocated to facilitate the installation of an access ramp. With less than 20 inches of height below the stage, two subwoofers were flown above center stage to support audio low end. “The two subs are very adequate for a solid low end,” observes Jonas. “That amount of reinforcement is not obnoxious and fits well for the multi-generational congregation at Kettlebrook.” With renovations complete and the system in place, Jonas looked to one of Clearwing Productions’ experienced audio technicians, Chris Adler, to make the final adjustments to the installation tuning the audio system to the room. “The result,” according to Jonas, “is a well-rounded system that could be easily pushed to do more, if the need arises.”
Kettlebrook has used Roland’s M-300 digital mixer for the past four years with great results, leading them to add this to the new environment. “We don’t have input capacity issues, and our operators obviously know the board, so it didn’t make sense to spend our budget on a new console at this time. Putting that budget into the L-Acoustics rig was a much better decision,” says Fischer.
To make quality audio available throughout the building, 14 QSC AD-CI52ST high fidelity “shallow can” ceiling fixtures were mounted in ceilings and around the facility powered by a QSC CXD4.3Q processing amplifier. A small gym space was covered using QSC AD-S10T surface mount speakers powered by an additional CXD4.3Q. Jonas’s design called for QSC’s Q-Sys Core 250i Integrated Processor as the controller for an A/V control solution that is both integrated and scalable. “Q-Sys is a well-designed platform that allows us to make quick adjustments to the whole building effectively,” he says. Using Q-Sys allows processing from a central location, but also allows for control locally with convenient TSC-3 networked touch screen controllers that can be located at key spots in the facility.
Lighting & Video with Room to Expand
Jonas worked on lighting for Kettlebrook Church’s worship area with fellow Clearwing engineer, Curt Schnabel, with the goal of providing a basic lighting system that could be easily augmented in the future. Kettlebrook’s vision was to provide modest lighting support for the worship team that features drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitars with keyboards and, occasionally, one or two string players. The team frequently travels from the West Bend to two other portable locations worshiping in the Jackson Community Center and Kewaskum high school. “For us,” says Fischer, “it not so much about large productions or building a bigger church as it is going to reach people in their communities. We like to think of ourselves as ‘one church in three locations’. Plus, we love to mix things up and move the musicians between sites. We don’t want people to get too comfortable or to get stuck in a rut, as that can lead to complacency.”
For house lighting, 16 Chroma-Q Inspire pendant fixtures were added along with a Chroma-Q control box. Twelve ETC 400-FB Source-Four fixtures with 436-LT 36-degree lens tubes provide conventional front stage lighting and six ETC ColorSource PAR fixtures were installed to provide color washes. Lighting control is provided with an ETC Ion 1000 lighting console. As the system is configured, two touch screens allow for easy control of lighting intensity, backline color sources and washes. Jonas describes the Ion 1000 lighting consoles as a good fit for the church, as they are user friendly and well known to lighting technicians in the area. According to Fischer, “Clearwing’s lighting setup made it very straightforward to create different looks as we need. Having the combined control of our colored house lighting and stage set-up, we can easily set a mood for the entire room for worship or create a theme for an event.” For facility architectural control, ETC Paradigm control stations were added in key locations in the worship center and throughout the facility. Another feature Fischer appreciates about an ETC installation with the Ion console is that the operation is well understood. Being close to ETC headquarters means that finding someone knowledgeable for operation or repair of lighting is easy.
Similar to the church’s basic lighting needs, a projection system was designed by Clearwing to meet the basic needs of the room, but with an “open door” for expansion in the future when more video content is expected. Two NEC NP‑PX700W2 7,000-lumens 3D DLP projectors were added and directed to two Da-Lite 108- by 192-inch screens at either side of the stage. This handles the church’s needs today to display the output from EasyWorship software and basic image content, but the forward-looking video design also specified a Blackmagic Smart Videohub 20x20 HD-SDI matrix to route video content throughout the building. Video components were chosen to accommodate future production switchers and cameras, as well as to facilitate the digital signage that will support the facility’s many and varied activities.
Fischer believes that messaging for the multi-purpose facility needs to be as flexible as the space itself. “We need to look like a church on Sunday, but during the week we can shift the ‘look’ to be entirely centered on the Senior Center and Family Center organizations. In order for people to connect, it’s really about helping them to feel comfortable.” The plans call for flat video panels to be installed in the lobby that can be used for various purposes. “With the Blackmagic Videohub, we can send digital signage to the monitors now, then easily add live video of the worship service for overflow seating when we decide to add cameras to the system. We will certainly want to support more video as we grow,” he says.
Technology & Church Leadership
With its high-quality AVL systems, Kettlebrook Church is set for contemporary worship services and growth. Plus, opening the doors of the revamped facility to community groups is also increasing the church’s ties with the community and meeting their mission of community service. “The partnerships are going great,” says the church's senior pastor. “The Senior Center is seeing nearly 1,000 interactions with clients each month, including exercise classes, craft programs, card games, and their lunch program. The Family Center offers classes and activities for new parents and their young children. How cool is it that we get to serve both ends of the age spectrum? Our vision was for this facility to be a blessing to our community and not just a place for Kettlebrook to meet, and we're thrilled with how God is working through us.”
Paul Fischer, elder and volunteer technology leader for the church, with a history as both an administrator and technical lead on the project provided, provided a unique perspective. When asked for advice about developing leadership skills, he can draw upon his experience as an elder, as well as his experience as a technology lead. “It’s critically important that church leaders understand the ethos of their particular congregation,” he says. “Understand the DNA of your church and know what you are about. Take a step back to understand that everything has a place. That can help you to see how technology can support your efforts, as opposed to driving them. Then, if you can help other people to understand those decisions, that’s leadership.”
As a successful church leader, Fischer is quick to add that humility is another key ingredient. “Our experience with setting and striking equipment each week in our temporary locations has given us an appreciation for being intentionally minimalistic. We’ve retained a good deal of that mindset in the design of our new space.” He admits that the technology team at the church has much to learn about lighting and other production aspects, but insists that Kettlebrook is not about creating a production. “Being able to extend what is happening on stage with the audience is something we look forward to doing,” he says. “With our new technology, we have the capability to control a huge show, but, for us, it’s not a show, it’s worship and we can’t look past that.”