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Matthews United Methodist Church of Matthews, N.C.
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"I was skeptical about how the room would sound," says David Walters, "but our first run through let us know just how good the system is in that room." Starting with acoustical treatment, the new sound system includes self-powered EAW NTL720 compact line arrays, BSS Blu-100 signal processor with Behringer X32 mixing console.
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Left to right: David Walters – Director of Worship and Media Technology, Pastor Stephen Knopp – Pastor, 801 South, Bobby Taylor – President All Pro Sound, over looking the 801 South worship venue, a transformed gymnasium at Matthews United Methodist Church in Matthews, N.C.
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"We love how easy the Jands Vista system is for our volunteers to train on and use." David Walters, Director of Worship Technologies, Matthews United Methodist Church, Matthews, NC.
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Each Sunday morning the church transforms a typical gymnasium into a powerful 450-seat worship environment.
A simple survey suggested to the leadership at Matthews United Methodist Church of Matthews, N.C., that a contemporary service would help the church grow and reach more of the community's families. What followed next would lead the church to develop a plan that each Sunday dramatically transforms a typical gymnasium into a powerful 450-seat dynamic performance space. The venue is up and running and drawing a new generation of followers to the church.
“In addition to three services in our main sanctuary on Sunday, we now have a venue for a serious, hard-hitting contemporary service, called ‘801South,' with guitars and drums [that] we mix with a contemporary service called ‘The Deep' for children and their families,” says Matthews UMC Director of Worship Technologies David Walters. “People are amazed with the transformation of our gym on Sunday morning. And when the lights come up you really don't know you are in a gym at all.”
Walters came to Matthews UMC only a year and a half ago as the new venue and service were being planned. In addition to years of production experience in churches, his degree in visual communication and journalism makes him well acquainted with all communication technologies, including photography and video. Walters even operated a recording studio out of his home for six years and freelanced in as many as five ministries each week before reaching out to find a full-time position. “People might say that I'm overly confident,” he says, “but I think that's because I do my homework—I like to know how things work.”
Strength in Volunteerism
At Matthews UMC, Walters enjoys working with more than 40 volunteers at various technical levels, ranging in age from 12 to 80 years old. “We are always training,” he says. “At our services, you’ll usually see two volunteers together—one doing and one watching.” In the months before the launch of the new contemporary service, Walters had his volunteers running mocked-up services. In some cases, where equipment was on order, volunteers sat before a PDF rendition of an iMac with ProPresenter or a video switcher with lines drawn to camera locations in order to practice their parts.
While the volunteers prepared for the launch of the new contemporary service, the church called on Tim Songster, president of Cosco & Associates Inc. of Crestview, Fla., to redesign the church gymnasium into a space for contemporary worship. Since 1969, Songster’s business has been to design and build churches.
“At Matthews, we saw a typical church gym with a small fellowship hall and converted that into a flexible contemporary space for worship with a commons area that would be a focal point for the community,” recalls Songster. In addition to updates like energy-efficient lighting, carefully placed acoustic panels were added to improve sound in the gym, and the old fellowship hall was transformed into a modern commons area with a new entry way. “The new commons area creates an identity and provides a space with both contemporary and classic features that all demographics respond well to,” says Songster. In addition to functioning as a welcome center, the versatile space was acoustically designed with carpet tiles, levels of acoustic ceiling tiles and angled walls to be effective for youth worship, a coffee bar, and senior programs.
Professional Reinforcement
“One thing I’ve learned from this experience … having the technology to do what we do is critical, but it’s people behind it [that] make the service better.”
David Walters
Director of Worship Technologies, Matthews United Methodist Church, Matthews, NC.
Songster’s work set the stage for Bobby Taylor, president of All Pro Sound in Pensacola, Fla., who was contracted to lead the design of audio, video and lighting systems that would transform a typical church gymnasium into a dramatic contemporary sanctuary. “We accepted the challenge, but this was unique,” says Taylor. “It was as typical a church gym as you will see and our challenge was to transform it into a space that would take Matthews to the next level.” With 34 years of experience in sound, lighting and church construction, Taylor’s design and installation team swung into action.
The most difficult criterion for the new worship space was that it had to remain functional as a gym during the week, then transform quickly into a progressive worship space. In addition, the technology needed to be carefully designed so that all the equipment could be moved to a new facility at some point in the future. Taylor and Songster began by blacking out the gym’s 45-foot ceiling, being careful to retain its acoustical properties. Next, they designed a 64-foot motorized backdrop large enough to dramatically change the look of the space. At the press of a button, the backdrop descends 25 feet to the floor creating the back of the stage. To withstand the rigors of installation in a gym, the backdrop is housed during the week in a sturdy wood enclosure. For lighting fixtures, Taylor’s team designed an oversized, 40- by 30-foot, 16-inch truss system to be suspended 25 feet in the air. The 25-foot mark cleared the 22-foot height requirement for basketball competition while keeping the light fixtures and speakers out of harm’s way. In addition to providing protection, the truss was designed to be movable to a new building and helped the team avoid costly structural changes to the gym.
For main speakers, Taylor’s plan called for 11 three-way EAW NTL720 compact line array modules to be mounted on the protective truss. NTL720s are self-powered and supplied by three individual 500-watt Class D amplifiers matched to their own digital signal processors. Each DSP provides response correction, as well as EQ, delay, and level for precise tailoring and alignment control. Four NTS250 EAW-powered subwoofers handle the lower frequencies. For stage monitors, two QSC K10 10-inch powered speakers are driven by a QSC RMX850 power amplifier.
A Behringer X32 32-channel digital mixing console equipped with two S16 Behringer digital snake and I/O boxes offers portability and high-quality audio. Signal processing is done with a BSS Blu-100 networked 12-in/8-out signal processor. A 1A Trendnet TEW-638APB 300Mb/s wireless access point provides connectivity and a Gator G-Tour16UCA-24D 16-Space 24-inch deep road case with casters is used to house the stage rig. Up to 16 channels of personal monitoring is provided by a Behringer P16-D Powerplay, an Ultranet distribution hub along with eight P16-M Powerplay digital mixers and Shure SE315-CL earpieces. Vocal microphones include eight Shure SLX24/SM58-G4 wireless systems with UA844SWB antenna splitters and UA874US active directional antennas. Behringer DI100 active direct boxes are used onstage.
Walters recalls, “I was skeptical about how the room would sound, but our first run through let us know just how good the system is in that room.” He was relieved that there were no hotspots or dead areas in the room. “We found the system simple to use and were up and running in 20 minutes with icons and tracking 32 channels to Pro Tools,” he relays. “The Behringer X32 really works well for us.” Cost savings by choosing the X32 over other options allowed the team to buy the additional backline equipment they needed.
“Matthews wanted to set the mood and tone of [its] contemporary service with graphics, images and video,” reports Taylor, who found a protected area just below the indoor track to be an optimal location for three Panasonic PT-DW740U 7,000 ANSI lumens projectors. “We find Panasonic projectors and cameras are great quality and they last,” he adds.
The projectors light up three 16- by 9-foot custom Da-Lite screens, each with a 22- by 22-foot custom black backdrop. A two-foot overlap of the screens allows entrance points on the stage. An Extron 60-882-01 8x8 HDMI matrix is at the heart of the video system, receiving signal from two 27-inch iMac’s running ProPresenter presentation software and two Panasonic PTZ cameras mounted on tripods along with a static video feed from the commons area. The switcher services the triple-wide screen configuration, broadcast recording, the commons area monitors, a streaming feed, and two 50-inch flat panel confidence monitors located in carts at the front of the stage. For easy setup at FOH, switching control is done with [a] Extron MLC 104 IP Plus MediaLink controller equipped with a CM-9blb, nine-button module. Extron DTP HDMI transmitters and receivers are used with Cat6 cable to carry signal.
“In our new venue, we got everything we asked for.."
David Walters
Director of Worship Technologies, Matthews United Methodist Church, Matthews, NC.
The commons area has an audio system with 10 Community D-Series eight-inch full-range ceiling speakers powered by a QSC amplifier with a London Blu DSP Processor. Eight mic inputs are located throughout the commons area adding to the flexibility of this versatile space. A small mixer cart and stage snake is available for larger bands and events in the common area, and the system supports adding speakers on stands when needed. Video in the common area goes to an 80-inch flat panel display, while four 42-inch flat panels receive feeds from a Mac Mini for digital signage.
For the gym’s stage lighting, Taylor’s plan called for 10 ETC ellipsoidal fixtures along with four Elation Platinum Spot 5R moving lights and eight white Elation LED lights to be installed where they would be best protected within the truss system. An Elektralite TurboHazer creates atmosphere on stage, while 16 Elation static RGB wash LED lights are located around the room. Lighting control is done with six four-channel truss dimmer packs and a Jands Vista S1 lighting console. “We love how easy the Jands Vista system is for our volunteers to train on and use,” says Walters. Taylor has also made use of the computer-based lighting system to do remote training sessions.
Flexible Backbone
On Sunday morning, the transformation from gym to worship space (including setting up 450 stackable chairs) happens in less than two hours—providing enough time to set up the stage and for musicians and tech crews to rehearse. Ten volunteers begin at 6 a.m. rolling lighting and sound desks into place and making connections, while the scoreboard is covered and basketball hoops are stowed away. By the 8 a.m. musician’s call, the team has set the stage and is ready for a quick break before starting rehearsal at 8:30 a.m. Walters creates graphics ahead of time and his wife, Rebecca, who designs the lighting, runs through the ProPresenter and lighting cues with volunteers until 10:15 a.m.
According to Walters, it is planned organization that makes all this possible. “We have peg board walls for mics and cables with everything carefully labeled and color coded so everyone knows what it is and where to find it,” he says. The entire worship space can be torn down and stored away in about 40 minutes.
Walters feels that engaging the right contractors and careful preparation were key to making the team’s vision for a contemporary space at Matthews UMC a reality. Songster, the reconstruction expert, calls it “a total team effort” of his construction crew, Taylor’s audio, video and lighting design, and Walters’ careful preparation and training of devoted volunteers. “In our new venue,” says Walters, “we got everything we asked for—a dramatic space for our service with professional lighting, great sound and powerful video to spread the gospel.”
