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“The point is to draw people in, and create an environment to introduce them to the Gospel,” says John Capezzuti, facility director at LifeAustin Church (left), shown here with Joe Diaz, video production manager (center) and Evan Payne, technical director (right).
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“The point is to draw people in, and create an opportunity to introduce them to the gospel, We understand that just getting people on the property can result in people asking additional questions. We’ve seen that happen a lot.” - Facility Director John Capezzuti Photo courtesy of LifeAustin Church.
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Loudspeakers are from d&b Audiotechnik. Six 10AL loudspeakers are used in both the left and right arrays, as well as for the delay ring. A d&b 10S is used as a center fill, and the company’s E5 cabinets (shown here) are placed on the apron of the stage to provide front fill. Photo courtesy Zach Richards.
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“The learning curve on the Vi1 was easy, and the sound quality is really good. Just about anyone who’s run a digital console can figure it out in minutes.” -- Evan Payne, LifeAustin Technical Director. Photo courtesy of Shannon Lafayette Photography.
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Austin, Texas-based Big House Sound installed AV systems in LifeAustin Church’s new 1,000-seat auditorium. “They’re a top-notch company, and get most of the big live events in the area,” says Evan Payne, technical director for the church. Photo courtesy Zach Richards.
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“The overall design is geared not only for the church’s needs, but [so] community can come out and enjoy [it] regardless of whether they come to church here. This philosophy carries all the way into the building.” -- Facility Director John Capezzuti. Photo courtesy of LifeAustin Church.
Pastor Randy Phillips has a vision for LifeAustin Church of Austin, Texas, of being a place where the community would feel welcome—a place where the facilities are utilized for far more than the church's needs. “His mindset in purchasing these 68 acres and building our campus is to make a space that is available to the community,” states Facility Director John Capezzuti. “The overall design is geared not only for the church's needs, but [so] community can come out and enjoy [it] regardless of whether they come to church here. This philosophy carries all the way into the building.”
With the focus on creating a community environment, the campus sports a dog park, disc golf course, and has plans for an outdoor amphitheater to be used for concerts, graduations, and other community events.
“The point is to draw people in, and create an opportunity to introduce them to the gospel,” Capezzuti says. “We understand that just getting people on the property can result in people asking additional questions. We've seen that happen a lot.”
Staffing from within
Prior to opening the new facility in October of 2013, LifeAustin met at the West Lake High School and Performing Arts Center, where Capezzuti was the facility director. In this role, he was the facilities representative to organizations using the facility, which meant that he ended up working Sundays to support the church renting the arts center. As a Christian, this also meant that by default he attended whatever church was using the facility for services.
“I really respected Pastor Randy’s vision for creating something for the community,” Capezzuti reports. “So, when the opportunity came to join the staff as they built their new facility, and to have the opportunity to build something much greater than me, I felt strongly drawn to be a part of this. I also really appreciate the opportunity to work with the kids in the church.”
In addition to Capezzuti, two other key church staff who manage the “behind the scenes” aspects of making the Sunday services happen are Joe Diaz, who handles the video production needs for the church, and Evan Payne, the church’s technical director.
“I got involved on the tech team after starting to attend LifeAustin a [of] couple years ago,” Diaz reports. “I was running my own company doing audio recording and radio spots. Eventually I was hired on at LifeAustin as videographer to do video announcements and testimonies, as well as [to] support the Crestron automation and control systems.”
Payne has a similar story: “I moved to Austin from New Orleans while working for a company called PSAV as an operations/production manager. The move was supposed to give me more time with my family, but I ended up working 12-18 hours per day. We started attending and serving at LifeAustin after we moved here. The hours I was working at PSAV were not good for a family, so when the opportunity to work at LifeAustin came up, I took it.” Payne started his full-time position at the church in January of 2014, just a week after being interviewed for this article.
Stream of consciousness
Phillips has a vision to grow the church through the arts, and the church’s weekly services reflect this desire through a range of musical styles and creative media use. “We have an intro video before every service, followed by three or four worship songs,” Capezzuti describes, “After the music portion of the program, we transition into announcements through one of Joe’s videos, or it may be done live. We transition out of that through either another video, a special song, or some other use of the arts. Then, Pastor Randy delivers his message. First and second service might not be exactly the same—Randy is not a scripted pastor. He’s very Spirit-led, so we are more free-flowing. It can cause the tech team some headaches, but it’s a wonderful experience for the congregation.”
“Each Sunday the format is the same, but the content can be very different,” Diaz says. “This past week, we had an African children’s choir. Another week, we may bring in steel guitar and do a classic country style; other times it’s all-out rock ‘n roll.”
LifeAustin draws a lot from the local music community. “We have some very talented people who donate their time and perform at a professional level,” adds Capezzuti. “It’s not like your average church experience.”
Outfitting the auditorium
Several local AV companies were invited to make proposals for the AV systems to go into the 1,000-seat auditorium in the new facility. Austin’s Big House Sound was one of those companies, due to both its reputation in the community as well as having supported the performing arts venue where LifeAustin was holding its
services. Big House was ultimately awarded the contract.
“Big House’s quality and what they bring to the table is some of the best I’ve seen,” reports Payne. “They are a top-notch company, and get most of the big live events in the area.”
“The bid they gave us was competitive,” adds Capezzuti, “but not necessarily the lowest. We balanced reputation with the price, and they were the best option.”
Big House was responsible for the audio system design; lighting and video design was handled by another company that went into bankruptcy and then out of business at the tail end of the project.
At the time the design was taking place, LifeAustin didn’t have a staff technical ministries person, so the church relied heavily on Big House’s audio designer, Roy Kircher, for equipment recommendations. Zach Richards handled project management and installation for Big House.
“Prior to LifeAustin opening the new building they were in West Lake High School’s performing arts center,” says Richards. “There is a great sound system in that space, and as a result of holding services there, they were accustomed to having excellent sound quality. For their new space, they wanted something outstanding, as well. And they were very committed to doing it right the first time.”
There were two main challenges in designing the sound system for the room. The first was the large glass wall on one side of the auditorium looking out on the hill country, and providing a huge reflective surface for sound. A line array was chosen for the design, but to keep the sound from hitting the glass wall, Kircher opted for a delay ring of speakers further back in the room, enabling the line arrays to have a tighter focus and avoid the bounce off the glass.
D&b audiotechnik loudspeaker cabinets were chosen for their audio quality, as well as having cabinets that provided the needed pattern control. A left and right line array configuration provides the bulk of the audio horsepower, utilizing the 10AL cabinet with six per side. 10ALs also are utilized for the delay ring. A 10S is flown for center fill, and E5 cabinets are placed on the apron of the stage to provide some front fill.
The other challenge was how to implement the subwoofer system. “Because of the stage design, there wasn’t the option of putting them on the floor or under the stage,” Richard says. Therefore, we implemented a cardioid sub array using d&b’s 27A-SUB cabinets. There are eight 27As flown in an arc across the front of the stage that enable us to steer that low frequency into the room and cut the stage volume. This is really the flagship element of the design.”
D&b D12 amplifiers, designed specifically to match the d&b loudspeakers and have built-in DSP processing, provide the power for the speakers.
One of the features of d&b audiotechnik’s technology is its ArrayCalc software, which provides all the modelling necessary to configure a d&b system for a specific room, and also creates control and processing configuration data for each amplifier in the system. Between the ArrayCalc software and the processing built in to each amplifier, no other signal processing system is needed.
A Soundcraft Vi1 digital audio console, with its distinctive raked back providing easier access to the control surface, was chosen for the facility.
“I love it,” exclaims Payne. “The learning curve on the Vi1 was easy, and the sound quality is really good. Just about anyone who’s run a digital console can figure it out in minutes.”
“One of the things I like is the small footprint,” adds Capezzuti. “Having a digital console that does what we need but doesn’t take up a lot of space is terrific.”
An Aviom monitoring system rounds out the sound system, providing monitoring for the band, while Adamson M15 bi-amp wedges provide monitoring for those musicians not on the in-ear system. “The Adamson monitor sounds great and has a very low profile,” comments Richards.
Shure provides most of the wireless microphone and in-ear monitoring.
Lighting and video
Due to the bulk of the budget being invested in audio, a minimal lighting package was originally installed. The initial lighting system included LED PARs for lighting the stage and a Leprecon lighting console. However, the PARs were also washing out the video screens, and since then LifeAustin has added Chauvet LED profile fixtures to get more pattern control.
“I was skeptical at first on Chauvet—they have a reputation for being a DJ-quality brand,” Payne. “But the Chauvet Professional line is nice, and the LED profile fixtures are a really good color match.”
They also upgraded to a Whole Hog Full Boar 3 console. “We chose the Full Boar 3 because of the cost, and that it’s an industry standard,” states Payne. “Most of the guys that I run with in Austin know the Hog, so it makes it easier for local pros to run it, if needed. I can build cues during the week and have a volunteer run it for the services. Hog is a very familiar name for most lighting people.” Capezzuti adds, “High End is a local company—I can get fast support from them.”
For video, the church has a 16-foot by nine-foot projection screen with an 8,000-lumen Digital Projection E-Vision 8000 projector. A Crestron control system provides routing any video source to and video screen in the facility. Sony PMW300 and PMW200 video cameras with studio kits are used for video capture and to provide live video to the room used for overflow.
“Eventually, we’d like to add side screens and a retractable center screen,” Capezzuti closes. “We’ve been very blessed by the new facility, and we can’t wait to see how God will use it going forward.”
