When Mission Hills Church relocated into a high-tech industrial park in Littleton, Colo., in August 2010, church leaders worked with architects to create a 107,000-square-foot worship space that could comfortably seat 1,100 for worship, but with an area behind that back wall that could be used for expansion. The church’s vision for expansion on the Littleton campus became a reality two years ago when Service Programming Director Mike Gerrells moved his teams into the newly remodeled facility, expanded to seat to 1,700.
“I can go to a colored background for worship or quickly switch over to an image that helps people connect with a pastor’s message. These visual impressions help people become a part of the story.” - Mike Gerrells, Service Programming Director, Mission Hills Church, Littleton, CO
“The expansion here was wisely envisioned a long time ago,” notes Gerrells who oversaw the upgrade of much of the production technology for the new worship space, including a sizable investment in video technology. “Knowing that our expansion from here will not be on this property, investing in video was key to our vision for the future,” he says.
Video for expansion
While some equipment could be repurposed in the new room, Gerrells and his teams worked to expand video capabilities to both improve their existing streaming product. This streamed content reaches almost 1,200 worshippers each week, and prepare was necessary for the team to ultimately reach a network of satellite campuses. “The church is looking at cities and hasn’t picked a location for our first satellite campus,” says Gerrells, “but it’s important to us that our product be of the best possible quality right from the beginning.” He remarks that all too often churches expand ahead of their capabilities. “That can result in an inferior product,” he says. “Then, there is a lot of work for the technology to catch up.
“We felt strongly that it was important to do our control room right the first time and not get caught up in a ‘Phase I’ approach, where we would save a little money now, only to have put out more time and money in the future to keep pace.” Mike Gerrells, Service Programming Director, Mission Hills Church, Littleton, CO.
”To capture all that is happening in the new worship space, Gerrells and the church install team made a study of available video camera technology, ultimately landing on a combination of Sony cameras and Fujinon lenses. “We were looking for the best,” notes Mission Hills Church Technical Director Aaron Miller. “And the Sony HXC – FB80 camera bodies gave us everything we were looking for, including fiber outputs. In combination with Fujinon lenses, the cameras deliver crystal-clear images and, at a distance of about 80 feet from camera positions to key positions on the 40-foot deep stage, produce incredible closeups and detail.” The video team at Mission Hills operates two fixed camera locations, one being at the center of the room with two cameras. Equipped with a 55x lens, these positions provide tight and wide coverage of the stage.
“[The Klang approach to monitoring] moves sound from two-dimensional into a more dynamic 360-degree field. This provides more ‘space’ for players to hear what they need to—and hear it better.”
- Mike Gerrells, Service Programming Director, Mission Hills Church, Littleton, CO.
A third camera positioned at house right is equipped with a 22x lens offers side perspective. Cartoni P90 two-stage pedestals were chosen for solid camera support, and Cartoni heads were installed at all three camera positions. To supplement stayed camera positions, the church acquired two Sony PXW-FS7 XDCAM full HD professional camcorders and four Marshall CV345-CS compact progressive cameras equipped with Marshall 15-55mm lens.
Video Wall & Control Room
As part of the upgrade to the video systems, Mission Hills Church added a video control room to facilitate video streaming to online viewers, distribution within the building and drive images on a Coleder 2.9 mm, ground-stacked LED wall. The wall, measuring 36 feet x18 feet, is located at the rear of the stage, and Gerrells leverages its considerable size and clarity in his set designs, as well as to reinforce the song themes and messages from the pastor. His set designs with the LED wall seek to effectively combine religion with theater. “I strive to bring the passion of theater into the church to make the experience more interactive,” he says. Gerrells has found the use of the large LED wall and creative stage lighting provides a more consistent and flexible background for various camera angles used during services. “Plus, it makes it much easier to change the content on an LED video wall used as a backdrop than it is to build or change over a traditional set. I can go to a colored background for worship or quickly switch over to an image that helps people connect with a pastor’s message. These visual impressions help people become a part of the story.”
Mission Hills' LED-wall set designs combine religion and theater. “I strive to bring the passion of theater into the church to make the experience more interactive.”
-Mike Gerrells, Service Programming Director, Mission Hills Church, Littleton, CO
From the control room, the added flexibility of a Ross Acuity 3 M/E video switching system allows producers at Mission Hills Church to control output for multiple uses. “The Ross switcher provides a lot of flexibility,” Miller says. “Not only can we switch video where we want easily, but we can improve the quality of what we do—for example, by color correcting video for a particular destination. It’s that level of flexibility that allows us to ‘dial it in‘ to get it right.”
Gerrells concedes that the expenditure for a large switcher like the Acuity was in anticipation of the church’s needs for the future. “We felt strongly that it was important to do our control room right the first time and not get caught up in a ‘Phase I’ approach, where we would save a little money now, only to have put out more time and money in the future to keep pace.”
To complement the Ross switcher, a NovaStar MCTRL4K independent master controller with a loading capacity of a single unit up to 3840x2160@60Hz is used to create stunning visual effects for the oversized LED wall. A Barco ImagePRO-4K easily and effectively scales, converts and switches video signals for the video wall and two Barco HDX-W12 Projectors with 14k lumen output model trained on 10’x20’ side screens and a Sony 5k lumens projector that creates a 9’x16’ rear “confidence” projection. The video system is tied together via an Ultrix video routing system that can provide 144x144 loaded frames.
Audio & Monitors
Audio at Mission Hills is handled with 17 Clair Brothers C12 line array loudspeakers supplemented by eight Clair Brothers 218 subs configured in a cardioid pattern.
Clair Brother delays, side fills and front fills have been added to reach all parts of the new room design. A Digico SD10 mixing console provides 144 processing channels at 48kHz/96kHz and 64 aux/sub-group busses along with real-time processing and networking with Waves Soundgrid integration. For broadcast, the Mission Hills audio engineers rely on a Digico SD12 with Waves Soundgrid.A Digico SD Rack brings 56 inputs from stage along with a Digico D-rack used either at the drum riser or as a mobile unit on stage. A Digico Orange Box converts audio signals, making them available on the Dante network, and all audio consoles and stage racks connect via Optocore.
“... the Sony HXC-FB80 camera bodies gave us everything we were looking for, includingfiber outputs. In combination with Fujinon lenses, the cameras deliver crystal-clear imagesand ... produce incredible close-ups and detail.”
- Aaron Miller, Technical Director,Mission Hills Church, Littleton, CO.
As part of the recent upgrade, Miller and Gerrells chose two Klang:fabrik monitoring systems that feed 12 stereo mixes. “The Klang approach to monitoring is a departure from typical in-ear stereo mixes,” says Gerrells. “It moves sound from two-dimensional sound into a more dynamic 360-degree field. This provides more ‘space’ for players to hear what they need to—and hear it better.” This is important for the Mission Hills musicians who generate emotion and excitement with a contemporary rock feel, most often in an ensemble with one or more guitars, bass, drums and backing vocals behind a guitar-playing worship leader. “It’s the kind of ‘in-your-face’ concert experience that reaches people,” says Miller. Six monitor mixes go to Shure PSM 1000 wireless IEM systems with six mixes going to wired headphone amplifiers. Eight mixes of JBL floor wedges are fed from the Digico FOH console.
Moving into the future
Gerrells defines his position as service programming director as being the person responsible for all the teams working together to deliver a consistent message. “To be successful, our songs, video and message must relate and resolve into a single message,” he says. “It’s synergy.” Each Tuesday, Gerrells and his team build the service and, during the week, he works with the teams to keep the message on point.
He says, “It all comes together at our production run-through on Saturday before the 5 p.m. service.” At that point, Gerrells takes on a producer role to make sure that what was decided during the week happens as planned. The solid planning and preparation behind each powerful service at Mission Hills Church is not unlike the church’s careful plans and steps toward expansion. Being prepared with the skills and the right equipment to excel at broadcasting to remote campuses is not just in the future for Mission Hills. The church’s recent upgrades have put them well on their way—today.
