For churches, opportunities like new buildings come along only so often. A brand new space is a blank canvas; it's a chance to rethink everything from audio-visual technology to the ministry itself and the intersection of the two. As Southeast Christian Church of Louisville, Ky.,, planned its new youth center, known as The Block, the church decided that it would design the new space as a replacement for the traditional neighborhood youth hangout that no longer exists in many places. Beyond that, Southeast Christian's production team knew that The Block needed to incorporate video in a way that would engage even media-savvy middle- and high-school students many of whom have, of course, infinite programming possibilities at their busy fingertips at any time of the day.
Soon after the building had been designed in 2008, systems integration firm Mankin Media Systems, based in Franklin, Tenn., held a "dream session" with Southeast Christian's media team to assess their blue-sky wishes for the new space. "The dream of what they wanted was certainly double the final budget," says Stephen Roberts, system designer for Mankin Media.
You wouldn't know it from the final product. The Block opened with a launch party in 2009, with a long line of students in grades 6-12 waiting to try their hands at the rock-climbing wall, the foosball and pool tables, and the arcade-style video games that are permanent fixtures within the youth space. They packed the 75,000-square-foot facility and its 1,400-capacity auditorium to watch a praise band christen the intimate 22-inch-high stage after an explosion of 20 flashing ColorKinetics Colorblast lights. The auditorium's extensive lighting system is driven by a High End Systems Road Hog console.
AV Volunteers
Hanging behind the stage is a 26-foot x 15-foot Da-Lite projection screen, but its purpose is not image magnification. Though it holds well over 1,000 screaming adolescents and averages 95-100 dB SPL on the back wall, the auditorium is designed to be an intimate gathering spot, according to Dave Harris, creative media director with Southeast Christian. Mankin Media acknowledges that the space is certainly big enough to consider IMAG, but Harris emphasizes that the goal is to focus the attention on what's happening live on stage in order to foster intimacy. Plus, the space's 18,000-lumen Barco FLM HD18 DLP projector is typically beaming onto the screen song lyrics, graphics, and other supplementary video content. Projecting IMAG beneath large-font song lyrics causes both elements to suffer, in Harris' view.
The Block hosts two services every Sunday: a morning service for middle-school-aged kids, and a later session for high-school students. To capture the services, volunteers shoot with three JVC KA-HD250 cameras that Mankin Media specified. Usually two cameras sit on Manfrotto tripods, and the third camera, if it's put to use, will be handheld. These volunteers are the young worshippers at The Block, and they technically run the services every week. Junior-high and high-school students operate the cameras and the Echolab Ovation 2MD switcher; they drive the Mac Pro that has Renewed Vision's ProPresenter song lyrics software installed.
Technical training at The Block is not regimented; instead of undergoing formal training, says Harris, student volunteers learn by doing. "As a staff, we're not necessarily running the equipment during services," says Harris. "So we're able to go around and help them. It's much more hands-on." Often, he says, high-school students will train middle-school students. Student volunteers typically start out running the graphics or operating a camera.
Harris says The Block chose the Echolab switcher because it seemed to be simpler to operate than competing broadcast-quality brands. Student volunteers run the 2 M/E switcher without the aid of an "easy mode," though Harris says the media team has written macros to enable a one-button refresh of the system that resets everything.
Even the Digidesign Venue MixRack audio console at front of house is volunteer-run. Training students on the console is a little more complicated. First there's the matter of making them understand the physical inputs and outputs; then there's the operation of the console itself. "Then after that it's a matter of training them what to listen for," says Harris. "We're all self-taught so we have that attitude with them: During the week you can come here and mess with things. Explore and figure it out."
The budding audio-visual pros at The Block certainly have inspiring role models in the youth facility's media team. The three-man team has only a couple of years of film school among them, and yet they're able use pro-level programs like Adobe After Effects and Maxon Cinema 4D to produce sophisticated video programs that involve green screen and 3D graphical elements.
Facility-Wide Video
A key feature of the JVC HD250 camera is the camera's HD-SDI output. Sending HD-SDI signals around the building allows the highest quality live video to be displayed in the gathering space and in the building's four large classrooms on ten 42-inch Panasonic plasma screens, and recorded in the control room for later post-production. Southeast Christian posts video of sermons to its website every week, but because of rights issues eschews posting musical performances. A Harris Platinum MX video router directs the flow of The Block's video signals. "Having an HD-SDI digital router is huge," says Harris. "From a workflow standpoint, you can route anything anywhere, at any time."
The four classrooms, known as community suites, are laid out like restaurants and each hold about 220 people, to serve both small and large groups. These rooms each have a Sanyo projector for multimedia presentations
The Scala digital signage system that populates the plasma screens while services are not happening is the same one that serves the rest of the Southeast Christian campus. The larger church maintains a central library of content for the screens, and The Block has its own playlist of six or seven-second video clips.
Room to Grow
As mentioned, there was a significant chasm between what Southeast Christian ideally wanted for The Block and what Mankin Media could provide for the allotted budget. Developing an infrastructure that would harbor the audio-visual system's future growth, then, was a prime directive. "We try to phase our clients into a five-year plan," says Stephen Roberts of Mankin Media. "You've got to put your big rocks in the bucket first. Infrastructure is a big rock." Connectivity was a priority for Mankin Media: The integrators wanted Southeast Christian to be able to build out The Block's video display system over the next few years. For instance, the church could add plasma screens to locations where Mankin Media had pulled coax or Cat-5 cable and installed wall boxes.
The auditorium's sound-reinforcement system is another of The Block's works in progress, although the media team essentially got what it wanted in terms of speakers and amplifiers. d&b was the preferred brand, and with that in mind Mankin Media ran an EASE model to come up with a plan. The d&b audiotechnik speaker system comprises eight C7 top speakers, eight C sub speakers, three B2 subwoofers, and three each of E3 delay and E3 front-fill speakers. Five d&b D12 amplifiers supply power. As mentioned, a Digidesign MixRack is the front-of-house console, and an identical board mixes for monitor world, which employs 12 in-ear Sennhesier G2 wireless monitors. Two QSC PL 1.0 amplifiers power wedge monitors when needed. Four Shure UHF-R wireless microphone systems are used for praise band vocals and the various presenters. What remains incomplete is the acoustical treatment at The Block. It's the final piece to optimizing the sound within the auditorium; Harris says the media team is deciding how to proceed with acoustical panels.
Leaving technological room to grow wasn't the only way Mankin Media helped alleviate the project's bottom line. Harris says that because the firm implements its own designs, it's able to change the design as cheaper products become available during the design process. In one case, The Block ended up getting more power for the same dollar when Barco offered a stronger bulb for an existing projector chassis at the same price. "Ben Mankin is one of the few people in the business who understands really well the ministry side of things," says Harris. "First he asks you what you're trying to accomplish. Then he helps you find a solution."
Installation went as smoothly as such a complex project could go, according to Roberts. Mankin Media installed 14 miles of Gepco cable, which of course required intricate pre-planning. "We're very emphatic about making sure our designs and drawings are followed to a tee," says Roberts. "We try to eliminate those surprises and snafus that might catch people before we get on site." Even with such a complex installation, Roberts lists as a typical problem the electrical contractor installing an occasional wall box in the wrong place.
The result has been a successful space that engages hundreds of young worshippers every week, and not just on Sundays. The Block is open to students during a regular schedule of after-school hours every day except Friday, when it maintains special hours. Mankin Media won four Solomon Awards for its design and implementation of the systems at The Block
at WFX - Worship Facilities Conference and Expo in Charlotte, N.C., held this past November.
