River of Life Church in Elk River, Minn.
Each Sunday, 500-600 people come with their families to worship at River of Life Church in Elk River, Minn., in two Sunday morning services. As worship administrator, Tiffany Scherer schedules worship and weekday events in the multi-purpose room that becomes the church's sanctuary on Sunday mornings. Until recently, she was also fielding regular complaints about the sound. “Our sanctuary is essentially a big box,” she says. “Some people complained that they couldn't hear the sermon while others were saying it was too loud.” The church's technical director, Tim Fisher, and the church volunteers were doing battle weekly with a poorly designed sound system that just didn't cover the 550-seat sanctuary. “The light fixtures were trouble too,” Fisher reports. “A poor installation had lights overheating and in locations that caused services to look ‘flat' and uninteresting.”
A technology overhaul was in order, but simplicity was a must since much of the services and events are run by volunteers. As with many growing, mid-sized churches, budget was also a consideration. None of this came as a surprise to Kevin Crow, owner of Excel AV Group of Maple Grove, Minn., who accepted the challenge to deliver affordable, dynamic designs for new lighting and audio to River of Life Church.
The lighting and sound systems that Crow's company designed would have to support the room's various uses. Like many churches its size, River of Life has two Sunday services: an early traditional service and a second, more progressive, as well as a choir two Sundays a month. In addition to the services held in the 6,000-square-foot multi-purpose room, the space is also home for various mid-week events; from Wednesday night family ministry to ladies' brunches. That's all very familiar to Crow and his team who are used to working with the widely varying needs and budget constraints of growing churches.
Experience Joins Expertise
Crow has 22 years in the AV business and more that 80% of Excel AV Group's clients are churches. “It's a passion,” he says, “and not at all like corporate America.” He believes that his success in bringing technology to worship communities is having the necessary spiritual mindset. “When you complete a project, the job well done is like a hug vs. simply a handshake,” he says. With first-hand experience volunteering in churches as well as being a music leader, Crow felt he could identify with worship leaders and their technology needs. In January of 2014, he assembled the Excel AV Group with the intent of putting together an extremely talented team of audio, video and lighting specialists each averaging 15+ years of experience. To find his technology ‘dream team,' Crow didn't have to look far. “We're a small community of AV professionals here in the Twin Cities area,” he says. “Most of us know each other's work and many of us have worked together at one time or another.”
In addition to the relationship between the former worship pastor and the system designer at Excel AV Group, Caleb Dick, there was also a relationship with another Twin Cities audio professional, Tim Fisher, who made the connection to River of Life Church. Fisher, who acted as technical director for the church's recent audio and lighting upgrades, has had a love for sound since high school. He had worked for sound companies and studied audio engineering at Ridgewater College in Hutchinson, Minn.
“It's not a huge community and lot of us know each other,” Fisher says. “It's a close-knit group and makes for a very professional environment.” He agrees that their area provides great opportunities for audio and lighting experts. Fisher also helped the church handle the installation of acoustical treatments and lighting fixtures to meet the specifications of Dick, the system designer.
The new lighting for River of Life Church's sanctuary was designed to provide even illumination and create a look with more energy, but it was also designed for value. “The system they needed had to be affordable,” says Dick, “but that doesn't mean cheap.” He cautions against the use of low-quality components with shortened life spans, pointing out that real value is largely in equipment longevity.
"The system they needed had to be affordable, but that doesn’t mean cheap."
Caleb Dick
Systems Designer, Excel AV Group
Smart Tech Choices
To meet the church's budget, Excel's lighting design specified four Chauvet Pro Rogue R2 spots. Each provides a 240-watt LED moving head spot fixture, prism, dual gobo, and color wheels, along with a 16.5-degree beam rated at 5,500 lux at five meters. While more typically used as fixed-position spotlights, the location of the four R2 spots at River of Life Church was key to making them more versatile. The R2s were installed on a repositioned lighting bar at the center of the 90- by 60-foot room. The new location provided better vertical and horizontal angles to the stage (important given the low, 23-foot ceiling), as well as the ability to cover all four walls and congregation.
The flexible R2 lighting setup can work as a series of fixed-position spots or as traditional movers with gobos to put color and patterns on any surface in the room or on stage. In addition, 10 ColorDash Par-Quad 18 fixtures were installed to add depth and color to the stage. These fixtures, rated at 113-watts and 1210 lux at five meters, have an 18-degree beam angle and are powered by 18 seven-watt Quad-Color LEDs, including a warming amber LED. Crow sums up their choice of Chauvet Lighting products saying, “It's not surprising that the Chauvet Pro line has taken such a market share. It offers lots of options and that translates into a lot of value for our client.”
Jands Vista was chosen for the lighting control. “Jands Vista was an easy call to make,” says Crow, “for its ease of programming and storing cues.” Excel AV Group provided training on the Jands Vista console, but for more continuous and on-going training and programming the company recommended the tech director of a nearby church, Eric Sandstrom, from the Crossing Church in Elk River, Minn.
In addition to the all-LED light fixtures, an Ultratec Radiance hazer was part of the system to enhance productions and to make lighting effects more dramatic.
To improve audio at River of Life Church, Crow and his team advised the church on acoustical treatments for the room to improve its audio characteristics. What's more, they worked out a plan that allowed for the church volunteers to participate with the installation. Fisher and the church volunteers, including Tiffany Scherer, the worship administrator, pitched in to add sound treatments and acoustic fabric to the walls. “It was challenging work for volunteers,” recalls Scherer, “but overall it was fun, and now we really feel like we have a stake in the installation.” Twelve volunteers participated in the installation of panels on a Saturday that were prepped during the week by the church maintenance staff.
"Our volunteers are less stressed and regularly provide positive feedback about learning and using the new A/V systems."
Matt Anderson
Worship Director, River of Life Church, Elk River, MN.
The new audio design detailed a fully horn-loaded, true point-source system that was engineered to provide exceptional sound quality with longevity and value using Fulcrum Acoustic loudspeakers. Two Fulcrum AH96 Dual 10-inch Coax Horn loudspeakers were specified as mains to be flown left and right of the stage, creating an exploded mono system for greater intelligibility. AH models incorporate proprietary compression head horn architecture that enhances low frequency loading of the 10-inch driver, as well as a pair of proprietary Oculus phase plugs that extend the high-frequency response to complement a four-inch-diaphragm compression driver. The AH96 offers 90- by 60-degree dispersion with control to below 300 Hz and low-frequency extension to 94 Hz. A Fulcrum Acoustic US221-2 Dual 21-inch direct-radiating subwoofer was flown, centered, part way over the congregation, and existing speakers were repurposed and flown for side-fill speakers. “The AH96 is a great sounding speaker,” Crow observes. “While many engineers get excited about putting together a ‘stadium rig,' these loudspeakers have a warm sound with great midrange and vocal presence, all at a remarkable price point.”
Two Lab.gruppen E 12:2 Two Channel Amplifier (600W x 2 at 8 Ohm/70V) along with a Lab.gruppen E 8:2 Two Channel Power Amplifier (400W x 2 at 8 Ohm/70V) provide power to the bi-amped mains and fills, while a dedicated Powersoft K10 8,000 watt amplifier handles the low end. “The Lab.gruppen “E” series amps are a really impressive entry price level offering that gets you lots of power,” says Crow, “and the Powersoft amp for subs at 8,000 watts is a great value.”
A Symetrix Radius 12x8 digital signal processor was specified to control the audio system and specialized Fulcrum Finite Impulse Response (FIR) TQ processing with a Furman Sound CN-20MP duplex unit to provide voltage protection and sequencing for all the amps and DSP in the rack. Two Behringer S16 16-channel digital snakes and Belden Cat5e cable were used to augment the system and to connect to the church's existing Behringer X32 console. As part of the upgrade, the church added an Audio-Technica AEW-4250A wireless microphone system with the company's AE5400 cardioid condenser capsule for use in worship.
Excel AV Group Technical Operations Manager Grant Kluempke tuned the audio system, but before room tuning, FIR filters for the Fulcrum Acoustic loudspeakers were downloaded and imported into the Symetrix DSP. “FIR filters specific to the AH series are provided by Fulcrum for a variety of popular DSPs and are an important feature of the system,” Crow points out. By loading FIR filters, precise adjustments are made to help guarantee proper frequency response and phasing of the speakers—even before room tuning begins.
True Teamwork
The lighting and audio installation at River of Life Church was very much a team effort. That's not new for Crow. He is used to involving the church staff and volunteers in installations where the church has the requisite expertise. “We respect talented people,” he says. “Just because we know how to do things, doesn't mean we have to or should do it all.” While open to the church crew's involvement to save money and gain experience, Crow is quick to remind clients of his overriding concern for other important factors, including safety, insurance, and accountability. To maintain a safe environment, Crow includes a clear and carefully written scope of work as part of his contract. “We like to find a happy medium,” he says, “but we don't take risks where expertise is involved.” Installing speakers and rigging, for example, is an area where Crow and his team draw a hard line.
The new sound and lighting systems are making a difference at River of Life Church. According to Dave Johnson, senior pastor, the new audio system has helped to reach his more mature congregants at the early service because “it can be quiet and clear” and it reaches younger congregation members at the later service because “it can be loud and clear.”
Scherer reports that the “hot spots” for audio in the sanctuary are gone—along with the complaints about sound—and that the lighting in the room has created new ambiance for both worship and events that are not just light or dark. The church's intermediate worship director, Matt Anderson, has observed that the new systems are making everyone's jobs easier. “Our volunteers are less stressed and regularly provide positive feedback about learning and using the systems,” he says. “These new systems address the problems that we've been trying to solve for years. Now, we're in a great place to move forward.”
