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Patrick Gourley, associate pastor of worship (left), and Dan Bakies, technical director (right), collaborated on designing and installing the audio, video and lighting systems at Christ’s Church of the Valley’s new Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. location.
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“We were able to get in after the demolition work was completed and put projection points and sound where they belonged.” Patrick Gourley, Associate Pastor of Worship, Christ’s Church of the Valley, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
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Among the physical challenges at Etiwanda was a 10-foot drop ceiling which would need to be reengineered to increase room height to its maximum, 14.5 feet.
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Bakies and Gourley were also tasked with providing the technology to integrate a live (or delayed) broadcast of the sermon from the church’s main campus. They chose to go with a company called Streambox.
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A key element in the design of the new worship center was support for high-definition video with a link to the main campus at San Dimas. Blackmagic’s Atem 1 and 2 M/E switchers, and a Kramer VP-438 high-performance presentation scaler/switcher are vital components.
Christ's Church of the Valley (CCV) has four campuses including a busy main location in San Dimas, Calif., and a growing high-definition online ministry. The church recently made a bold move to take over a nearby Etiwanda Gardens wedding and banquet facility in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., with an eye toward re-engineering one of the large banquet rooms into a modern 500-seat worship center. “The plan,” says Patrick Gourley, associate pastor of worship, “was to integrate the church into the community—and what better way to do it than with a property everyone knows?” But Gourley and the church's technical director, Dan Bakies, knew the work would require a delicate balance to keep the project on schedule and the banquet facility customers happy.
With the church's busy 850-seat main campus offering six services every week, senior leadership was looking for ways to expand. That isn't easy in Southern California where land is at a premium. So when the Etiwanda facility, with a wedding chapel and two large banquet halls, went up for sale, the church saw an opportunity to move into a space that was already a central point in the community. The plan for Etiwanda would convert one banquet hall into a children's area and the other into a modern sanctuary that could still function as part of the events business. In addition to church functions, two full-time staff members would lead a team of contracted employees to facilitate up to four weddings a weekend. With an initial business plan that called for a good balance of event business and church-related activities, revenue from the business side would help supplement the church's programs and growth. According to Gourley, “The church also saw those important personal events held at Etiwanda as adding value to our ministry—getting people onto the campus and closer to the church.”
The back story
Gourley, a long-time church staff member, and Bakies would divide the duties of designing and installing the audio, video and lighting systems. Just 28 years old, Gourley has attended church at San Dimas for 22 years and has progressed from volunteer to stage and lighting director to technical director before being named associate pastor of worship. He oversees the church's large productions and technology. Gourley credits a culture of dedication at Christ's Church of the Valley for the ultimate success of Etiwanda. “Ours has always been more than an 8-to-5 job,” Gourley says. “This project was no exception.”
Bakies also came to the church as a tech-savvy volunteer with experience in graphics, sound and video, directing at nearby Azusa Pacific University's 4,000-seat arena. Since his arrival at the church four years ago, he has progressed from volunteer to video director and ultimately technical director. Now, Bakies would take the lead on video design for the new campus. Gourley would handle the audio and lighting design and communicate progress to church leadership. “We worked as a team,” Bakies reflects, “picking each other's designs apart until we had a good proposal.”
Among the physical challenges at Etiwanda was a 10-foot drop ceiling that would require reengineering to increase room height to its maximum, 14.5 feet. To solve the problem, the team looked to church member and general contractor Eddie Martinez of EM3 Construction in San Dimas, Calif., who would help them through the four-month construction and installation phase. Martinez, already experienced with implementing designs for entertainment facilities, was able to schedule the needed reconstruction so that the room would have minimal down time and the team could get optimal placement for audio, lighting and video pieces. “It was great working with someone who had an understanding of what was needed and who could work around us,” says Gourley. He adds, “We were able get in after the demolition work was completed and put projection points and sound where they belonged.”
CCV is one of the first churches to install the new Aviom A-360 personal monitor mixers with per-channel volume, tone, reverb, three-band master tone control, and a USB port for saving mixer profiles and mix settings.
QSC Audio equipment was deployed at the new campus, because both Gourley and Bakies had good experience with the company's products. QSC's Southern California location also helped with the tight timeline for installation. Four white AP-5102s loudspeaker cabinets from QSC's Acoustic Performance series, powered by two QSC PL340 power amplifiers were installed as the room's mains with four Isis Series I-282H cabinets (also powered by two PL340s) providing fill. The bottom end is held by two GP-218-S W subwoofers from QSC's WideLine series, located on either side of the stage and each powered by a PL340 amplifier. Three EAW SM200ih wedges were provided as stage monitors and powered by QSC PLX3102 amplifiers. In addition, QSC's Basis 914lz provides processing ability to the system. “The ability to use remote login for processing is great,” says Bakies. To mix sound in the converted banquet hall, the team chose Allen & Heath's iLive-T112 digital mixing surface and iDR-48 MixRack DSP combination. “We chose Allen & Heath for ease-of-use and the good experience we've had,” Bakies reports. “Plus, having an Allen & Heath control surface at our main campus makes training volunteers for the new location much easier.”
Audio & video specifics
Gourley's audio design included six Shure handheld UHF-R wireless dual setups with Beta 87 capsules and body pack transmitters and Countryman E6 headset microphones. For additional vocal microphones, Shure Beta 87 and 58s are supplemented by traditional SM58s. Sennheiser e906 microphones are used for guitars and Shure microphones cover the drum kit with SM81s as overheads, a Beta 52 for the kick drum and Beta 98AD/C for the toms. Acoustic guitar, keyboards and bass signals are handled by Radial Engineering direct input boxes.
In addition to six Shure PSM900 in-ear systems with SE425 earbuds, four newly introduced Aviom A360 personal mixers with an A-16D A-Net distributor provide monitor mixing control for performers with per-channel volume, tone, reverb, and three-band master tone control. Along with being optimized for in-ear monitors, the new A-360 also provides a USB port for saving mixer profiles and mix setting. “We use Aviom because we know they are reliable,” says Bakies. “They are easy to use, and we've just had great experience with them.”'
Learn more about CCV's experience with the next generation Aviom A360 personal monitor mixers, please visit:
A key element in the design of the new worship center was support for high-definition video with a link to the main campus at San Dimas. “For our video, we went almost exclusively with Blackmagic Design video equipment,” Bakies explains. “It is easy to use, works consistently and is effectively priced.” To compliment Blackmagic’s Atem 1 and 2 M/E Switchers, Bakies’ design employs a Kramer VP-438 high-performance presentation scaler/switcher to hook up laptops to the facility’s high-definition equipment when presenters want to use their own computers. Blackmagic’s Smart Controller and Videohub patchbays connect the signals and Blackmagic’s Open Gear frame and converters are used for distribution.
“[Streambox] gear allows us to broadcast with near lossless quality from one campus to the next over the Internet.”
Dan Bakies
Technical Director, Christ’s Church of the Valley, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Bakies and Gourley were also tasked with providing the technology to integrate a live (or delayed) broadcast of the sermon from the church’s main campus. “We chose to go with a company called Streambox,” Bakies says. “Their gear allows us to broadcast with near lossless quality from one campus to the next over the Internet.” The Streambox server and software also provide the ability to delay a feed from the main campus, allowing the new campus to start a sermon at any time—even while it is still being recorded. In addition to the Streambox decoder, encoder and enterprise server, the Etiwanda campus employs Blackmagic’s HyperDeck Studio disk recorders equipped with dual 240-gigabyte, 2.5-inch solid-state drives (SSDs) holding a recording from the services the night before as a back up to the Streambox set-up. A Sony EVI-HD1 10x color pan/tilt/zoom camera and Telemetrics control panel allows the video crew (located in a remote room) to see the stage, and two Apple iMac computers with Matrox DualHead2Go graphics hardware and Lacie external hard drives are used for graphics.
With the help of their general contractor, Bakies was able to locate the ideal projection points in the new room. At the center, a Christie DHD775-E 7,000-lumen projector matched with a Christie 1.2-1.5 short lens was rigged and directed at a Da-Lite 9- x 16-foot Tensioned Cosmopolitan Electrol center screen. At either side of the stage, a Panasonic PT-EZ570U 5,000-lumen projector is paired with another smaller Da-Lite Tensioned Cosmopolitan Electro screen. Tensioned screens were chosen for their extra flat surface for optimum image quality. In addition, the team installed three Samsung UN50EH5000F 50-inch 1080p LED flat screens using one as confidence monitor and two in the hallways for digital signage outside the worship center. Similar monitors are used in the control room for multi-views and a Samsung LN40E550 40-Inch LCD HDTV mounted in the green room.
For lighting control, an ETC SmartFade ML 48-channel console was selected for both price and usability along with ETC’s Sensor SR12+ dimmer rack outfitted with eight d20 modules and a Smartlink power module. Flexible and effective lighting designs at the new worship center are supported by six ETC Source Four PAR fixtures and 14 ETC Source Four Junior Zoom 25-50-degree ellipsoidal fixtures with 20 Chauvet SlimPAR 64 LED washes providing color.
The take-away
With their previous installation experience, Bakies and Gourley were able to complete much of the installation working alongside volunteers and [with] minimal outside contract help. A technical director for the new campus, Alex Koziol, joined the team and helped with installation efforts, as well. “Doing much of the work ourselves saved us time and money,” says Gourley, “But everyone had to give up family time.”
Through the six-month period of design, construction and installation, the team was able to keep the project on track as well as honor the banquet center’s existing contracts. “It was a delicate dance,” reflects Gourley, “But our dedication, experience and a good plan helped us to get it done right.”
