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AVL gear helps a Michigan church support four different worship styles—and a diverse group of attendees.
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An assortment of new moving and static lighting fixtures from Elation Professional are controlled by a new Elation EWDMX Wireless DMX system.
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AVL Engineer Bryan Guelzo says having fewer DMX cables to manage saves time on the changeover between back-to-back contemporary and traditional services on Sunday morning.
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With four distinctively different services each Sunday, "It’s a bit like overseeing three live concerts at the same time." —Austin Germain , Director of Production, Ward Church, Northville, MI.
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Bryan Guelzo (left) mixes on the church's new Yamaha CL5 console. Monitor feeds are provided to 10 Aviom 360 mix stations.
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Ward Church of Northville, Mich.,
When Ward Church of Northville, Mich., committed to upgrading technology to support contemporary worship, they did so in a big way. Upgrades to the systems in the church's 2,000-seat sanctuary not only support high-energy services that appeal to younger worshippers, but have paved the way for a worship culture that seeks to provide something for everyone. Director of Production Austin Germain is up to the challenge of facilitating Ward Church's four distinctly different services on Sunday mornings, but admits: “It's like overseeing three live concerts at the same time.”
Sunday morning worship opportunities at Ward Church start with an 8 a.m. quiet liturgical service in the chapel, with traditional hymns and instrumental music, followed by a 9:30 a.m. contemporary service described as “eclectic mainstream” in the renovated sanctuary. At 11 a.m., the sanctuary is transformed for a more traditional service featuring hymns with choir and orchestra. At the same time, a post-contemporary service featuring a mix of rock, folk, “indie” and other styles of Christian music takes place in Ward Church's multi-purpose room, Knox Hall. The church's campus is busy on mornings with an average of 125 in attendance at the chapel service. Six hundred worshippers regularly attend the contemporary service, and 700 attend the traditional service (both services are also offered in an interactive live-streaming format online). Some 400 worshippers regularly attend the post-contemporary service.
Production-minded
All that production work on Sunday morning would be a challenge for any technical director, but Germain is uniquely qualified for the job. Germain, whose title recently changed from technical director to director of production, saw many stages and production styles as he toured for eight years as a bassist right after high school. His contemporary Christian band's varied style (Germain terms it “aggressive indie”) contributed greatly to its success. “It allowed us the opportunity to open for many different acts,” he says. “That's where I fell in love with production technology and FOH sound.”
Off the road and back in his hometown of Flint, Mich., Germain used both his musical and organizational skills to establish a Christian music venue that supported local bands. “We combined popular and Christian bands with very few rules,” he explains. “One rule we did have was to treat every band like the biggest band in the world—to treat everyone with so much respect.”
It wasn't long before he was doing all the booking, upgrading sound and lighting for the room, and the venue's popular weekend shows were attracting 200+ people. “I saw these events as opportunities to minister to the kids in attendance, as well as those that volunteered at the shows,” Germain recalls. “That became a solid calling for me.” He then began looking for opportunities to follow his calling—and landed the technical director position at Ward Church.
Germain's arrival at Ward Church in 2013 coincided with the first phase of the church's comprehensive technology upgrade for its sanctuary. “Upgrading sound was our first step,” recalls Germain, who jumped in as project manager. “While the existing sound system in the sanctuary was serviceable for traditional services, it didn't have enough low midrange and lows to support contemporary music,” he says. For a solid audio design to support contemporary worship the church looked to Nathan Cole of Sound Planning Communications Inc. of Redford, Mich. Cole's design would reuse some of the components of the original installation and provide a new, more powerful full-range audio system with digital mixing capabilities along with more even coverage throughout the sanctuary. Sound Planning's installer for the project, 30-year veteran of church AV, Bryan Guelzo, worked closely with Germain and Cole to implement the new design.
Like Germain, Guelzo claims that much of his expertise is self-taught. “While the other kids were working on cars,” he recalls, “I turned to audio technology.” Guelzo claims to have watched every video and read every book he could find on the subject. “At the time, you couldn't find college courses.” As his expertise grew, he became an asset for churches looking for affordable and appropriate upgrades. He recalls, “I was shocked at how many churches were being quoted on systems that they not only couldn't afford, but didn't need and couldn't operate. Many of them were going into debt because of it.”
Guelzo's experience allows him to see both the need for technology and the human aspect. “We are a very visual society,” he says. “We didn't use to be, but in this digital age an average person has come to expect HD video and high-end sound. It's what people are looking for and it's our product. That's why we want to provide a great worship experience. We don't want anyone to say they couldn't hear the spoken word, or read the displays.”
"One rule we did have was to treat every band like the biggest band in the world—to treat everyone with so much respect."
Austin Germain
Director of Production, Ward Church, Northville, Mich.
AVL Rebirth
The existing sound system in the Ward Church sanctuary included a pair of Renkus-Heinz STX8 loudspeakers clustered in the center above the stage. The STX8s had served the church well for traditional services, but more was needed to support the bass-driven musical style of a contemporary service. Audio designer Nathan Cole's approach was to re-install the STX8s and add supplemental boxes to fill out the system.
After modeling the fan-shaped room that includes a 40-foot peak, Cole split up the two existing center STX8s to front right and left positions and kept an existing STX8 in the rear for back fill. In addition, an Iconyx IC Live ICL-FR-Dual Digitally Steerable Line Array loudspeaker system was added on each side of the stage to cover the side-fill requirements created by a drop to an 18-foot ceiling on each side of the stage. Four Renkus-Heinz PN81/9 were also added as rear fill. Guelzo describes the Renkus-Heinz speakers as ideal for the room, with crisp, clear sound that's “right in your face.”
To deliver more low end, one Danley DBH218 subwoofer was flown above the stage and four Danley TH-118 subwoofers were added on the floor. A Symetrix Radius DSP with xOut expansion box provides signal processing functions, and amplification is provided with three Lab.gruppen C series 48:4 amplifiers. The C series was chosen for its high power rating and small package. “Plus,” Guelzo adds, “they are 'bullet-proof.'”
In order to easily reroute the production systems without repatching, Cole specified a Yamaha CL5 on a Dante network for mixing sound in the sanctuary. This allows the audio engineer at the production console to easily pick channels from any of the venues via simple scene recall and without any manual patching. “The CL5 on the Dante network works well with the Yamaha LS9-32 console in our production suite and the LS9-32 in Knox Hall. It gives us 72 inputs so we can grab whatever we need,” says Guelzo. In addition, two Yamaha Rio3224-D input boxes allow the use of a simple pair of Cat6 cables to transport input signals. Monitor feeds are provided to 10 Aviom 360 Mix stations. To augment the church's microphone selection, 10 Shure UHF-R Series Wireless Mic Systems were added.
As work on the audio upgrade was completed, Guelzo stayed on to help with training the volunteers. He enjoyed the experience and services so much that he and his wife began attending Ward Church and volunteering. After a few weeks he was offered a position on staff and designed the church's second upgrade phase for better lighting. “We weren't surprised when Bryan turned in his resignation,” recalls Cole. “He 'clicked' immediately with the church and loved their ministry. Without a doubt, the church and Bryan are a great match for each other.”
Lighting, Hands-on
For a more contemporary lighting plan, Guelzo looked to Fantasee Lighting of Belleville, Mich. Working with Colin Brandt and Nate Mulvihill of Fantasee, Guelzo developed a lighting design that specified 12 Elation Platinum Spot Pro LED II moving spots and 11 Elation SixPar 100 stationary washes. An EWDMX Elation Wireless DMX system with one transmitter and two receivers was also added. According to Guelzo, having fewer DMX cables to manage saves time on the changeover between back-to-back contemporary and traditional services on Sunday morning.
The lighting upgrade included 12 Elation Q12 Rayzor moving washes that were originally added for convenience, but are now commonly used for creating dynamic lighting effects. “Moving lights were part of the plan because they save the time we'd spend setting and adjusting lighting, but we are also finding more use for them in our lighting design. We started slowly, but our productions now include more dynamic lighting,” says Guelzo.
For lighting control, he likes the simplicity and flexibility of the new Jands I3 lighting console. Some volunteers, he says, were able to learn enough in a matter of minutes to be effective operating lighting.
In addition to the LED fixtures added by the upgrade, Guelzo revived 40 existing Altman incandescent fixtures. An assortment of PARs, ellipsodials and Fresnels, about half of the old lighting required repair after years of little or no maintenance. Guelzo sees the work to renew the old fixtures as time well spent and likes the look of incandescent lighting for the traditional service. “It's special,” he says, “and creates a very warm light that fits the service—something LED doesn't do as well.”
Video Moves
Video for projection and streaming is captured by three Hitachi Z-HD5000 Full Body HD cameras and a Sony XDCAM HD422 camcorder. Video signals are handled by a Panasonic AV-HS400A master switcher, two Panasonic AW-HS50 local switchers and a Sony XDS-1000 Media Station that features a one TB hard disk for 30 hours of recording with 50 Mbps clips and supports a 50 GB optical disc for backup.
Projection in Ward Church's sanctuary is delivered by two Sanyo PLC-XF47 15,000-lumen projectors, a Sanyo PLC-HF15000 15,000 HD center projector, and a Sanyo XF1000 12,000 lumen projector trained at the rear wall. Da-Lite 16 x 9-foot screens located center, left and right of the stage are joined by an additional 16 x 9 screen mounted on the back wall. “Side screens are typically used for IMAG with lyrics in the lower third, but we don't have a set format or 'look' for screens,” says Guelzo. “Our goal is to be flexible so we can do anything that is required to facilitate worship. We never want to have to say we can't do something.”
Looking Ahead
Guelzo is currently working on a new design to update the post contemporary venue, Knox Hall. The existing LS9 console will be upgraded so all consoles can be networked via Dante on the church's dual redundant network. A BSS London Blu-100 DSP with Bob expander now handles signal processing for the existing Electro-Voice speakers in Knox Hall (soon to be upgraded to Nexo arrays) and two new Danley TH-115 subwoofers. The existing microphone selection for the venue was augmented with four Shure UHF-R wireless mic systems. In addition, two Eiki PC-XT projectors were added to update the productions.
Germain and Guelzo make a formidable team and both view their work as being as much about people as technology. In particular, Germain's welcoming and open style of technical directing has made him a great fit for Ward Church's push to provide diverse worship styles. The church, in turn, is helping Germain as he plans to continue ministering to his crew and to begin his studies to be a full-time pastor with a Master of Divinity degree. “This environment is really great training for a pastor,” he says, “with four different types of people in four rooms and traditional volunteers serving in contemporary spaces.”
Germain says that the achievements at Ward Church should remind us that church is not about the style of worship, but about worshiping, serving and working with people of different preferences. “For now, I just want to inspire my volunteers to grow,” he says, “and [to] give them an outlet—a place to serve. That's my calling.”
