Revival is something every church desires for its congregation. And in 1996, Smithton Community Church in Smithton, Mo., experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in its congregation, bringing more than 300,000 believers to visit the church and experience God's power at work through the ministry.
In 2000, the church relocated to Kansas City, Mo., and changed its name to World Revival Church. Ministering to a local congregation of 800 people, and leading a worldwide revival ministry prior through television broadcasts and now Internet streaming, the church continues its ministry of reaching out to hurting congregations and pastors, as well as ministering to its local congregation.
"The worship services at World Revival Church are high-power and progressive," describes Bill Gilpin, church manager. "The intensity of our worship is sometimes shocking to visitors, but the sincerity and heartfelt worship soon wins them over."
As the congregation and ministry needs changed and grew, a reconfiguration of the worship space exacerbated issues with the sound system that were already present.
"We found we had to run our system at an uncomfortable level to create fullness in our worship services," states Gilpin. "Some areas of the sanctuary were uncomfortably loud, and it was hard to discern what was being said in others." Church staff was also hard-pressed to get the sound system volume above the sound of the congregational worship.
Audio System Replacement
To address its sound issues, World Revival Church brought in Progressive Electronics of Raytown, Mo. "We've had a working relationship with Progressive Electronics since our Smithton days," says Gilpin. "[Systems Design and Salesperson] Steve Brown and his team have always been able to capture what we were trying to accomplish and provide us with solutions that didn't break our budget."
Progressive started with an on-site evaluation of the existing system during a worship service to experience the issues themselves. Group interviews were then conducted with the pastors, musicians and technical production team to assess the church's needs and desires.
"The system design was conceptualized from the point of view of the end user: the performers and congregation," states Nathan York, systems design engineer at Progressive Electronics. "The on-site evaluation revealed very uneven coverage, resulting in varying sound pressure level (SPL) and tonal quality. Performers were struggling to hear themselves due to the high levels of low frequency from the existing cluster.
"We also noticed [that] the audience is very active during the service," continues York. "They sing; they dance; they don't necessarily stay at their seats, let alone remain seated. This provided for the most challenging aspect: we had to evenly cover the entire floor at seated and standing height without overly exciting the walls or ceiling."
During the evaluation of the challenges facing the new system design, the team at Progressive realized the Bose RoomMatch loudspeaker system could be an ideal solution to the needs of the church. "We developed a set of solutions," states Brown, "provided a brief description and a promise to accomplish the system upgrade within a very tight and critical window of time. After a listening session at another house of worship where we had just installed a Bose RoomMatch and PowerMatch sound system, World Revival Church gave us the go-ahead."
Progressive developed a detailed design and brought in Bose engineering support to validate the design concept and finalize the specific components to be used in the line arrays. A creative approach to the loudspeaker system "cluster" arrangement worked out by York and Bose's Phil Nelson resulted in the desired coverage. The new system would achieve the SPL goals of 90-100 dB with solid vocal clarity and music fidelity.
Three arrays were installed to achieve the goals. "The middle array consists of four RMS215 subwoofers for steered bass," describes York. "Below that are two RM5505 boxes that are being used as long throws to the back of the room. The two outside arrays are identical, both consisting of six modules with a combined 70% vertical coverage. The horizontal coverage expands from 55% at the top to 120% at the bottom. Everything is powered by Bose PowerMatch amplifiers, utilizing the built-in RoomMatch settings. Overall system equalization and delay is achieved with a Bose Control Space Processor with ESPlink. A Digico SD9 was installed at front of house for mixing."
Stage monitoring was achieved by a unique solution. Bose L1 portable line arrays are used as monitor speakers for some band members, and K-array steerable stage monitor wedges for others complete the monitor package. Monitor mixing is handled by Aviom personal monitor mixers and aux sends from the SD9.
Lighting for Worship
While the recent renovation only affected the audio system, lighting and video are also important aspects of the technical support of the church's services.
"Our lighting is fairly dynamic," states Technical Director David Woodworth. "We use LED color washes and moving lights to create dramatic effect and add a more theatrical or concert feel during the songs. Lighting plays an important part in setting the mood for the congregation during worship. For each song we select colors, patterns and brightness levels to match and support the lyrics or what the band is playing."
Conventional fixtures are powered by Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) Unison dimming. "We use mostly ETC Source Four ellipsoidals as key lights," states Woodworth, "with some ETC Parnels for fill lighting. Altman Fresnels are used for house lighting."
For color and effects, Elation Professional Design LED 36 bricks, Opti Tri PAR LED fixtures, and High End System's Studio Spot 575 intelligent fixtures round out the lighting plot.
"I'm in love with the Elation Professional LED fixtures," Woodworth says, "particularly the Opti Tri PARs-they have bright and vibrant color output and a great dimming curve that is very smooth. And, of course, the ETC Source Four and Source Four Jr. are great, reliable ellipsoidal fixtures. I use them to provide a separate key light for each band member and singer, allowing us to easily spotlight them during solos to enhance the theatrical look."
Control of the lighting system is handled by a combination of PC-based LightFactory software from Dream Solutions, coupled with a Show Designer 3 lighting console from Elation Professional.
"In the future, I'd like to add more moving lights and LEDs, and additional truss positions upstage for more creative backlighting opportunities," Woodworth adds.
Bringing Church to the World
"World Revival Church has always been at the forefront in using video during church services," Woodworth continues. "More than 12 years ago, the church launched its video department, first providing IMAG and recording for the sake of archiving, but growing far beyond that to create an all-digital infrastructure for ingest, editing, delivery and online streaming of services."
Video from the services is repurposed for the website and segments on YouTube. World Revival Church services were broadcast on Daystar for three years, as well.
"Most recently, World Revival Church has been redefining online and streaming services with Pastor Steve Gray's vision of interactive church, known as ‘Revival Wired.' These services simulcast with churches all over the world, using video from World Revival Church, as well as from participating churches, to create a collective church service," Woodworth reports. "This Revival Wired service is unique because each church is able to lead a portion of the service, using the Internet to connect and interact with each other. We've narrowed the distance gap by using video and low-cost streaming solutions to unite churches around the globe."
World Revival Church uses five Ikegami HL-45AW cameras and one Sony PMW-EX3 operating wirelessly via an IDX CamWave wireless video transmitter. Two cameras are in centerline positions with long lenses. Two are on jibs-one in the front of the sanctuary and one at the back-and the remaining two are handheld. Switching is done on Echolab Nova 700 and Blackmagic Design Atem switchers.
"Our Ikegami cameras were chosen originally because of their color rendering, especially with skin tones," Woodworth says. "Although they are only standard definition, they have definitely stood the test of time and are very rugged and reliable."
Projection for IMAG is implemented via a custom projection screen hung upstage over the platform. It has a 3:1 aspect ratio and uses four Panasonic projectors edge-blended to cover the extra-wide screen. Additional 16:9 screens are placed halfway back in the sanctuary to provide better viewing for those in the back of the room.
"Our editing systems are currently based on Apple's Final Cut Studio 7 connected to Apple Xserve storage," Woodworth describes. "Each camera's iso (isolation) feed (a separate feed straight from the camera) and the program feed are recorded directly to disk using Mac Pro's and Softron's MovieRecorder software.
"We are looking forward to making the switch to HD," he continues, "and our first portion of that will be upgrading our switcher. We are looking at products by Ross for that. We are also considering HD camera solutions from Ikegami and Sony."
Of course, the success of any system change like that done with the audio system at World Revival Church is in how it impacts the ministry of the church. "We have been extremely pleased with the system," Gilpin says. "The clarity and coverage in the room has allowed us to decrease the volume when we want to, which makes for a more positive worship experience."
