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Allen & Heath Qu-32
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Yamaha CL5
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Mackie Axis
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Roland M-5000
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Soundcraft Si Impact
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Digico S21
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PreSonus StudioLive AVB
Decisions, decisions. When it comes to purchasing any production technology, there are a lot to be made. For audio consoles specifically, churches are often trying to strike a balance: can we take advantage of all the sophisticated functionality today's mixers deliver without overwhelming our audio team? The answer is yes—if your choice is a thoughtful one. Here are some things to consider . . .
Who Are Your Operators, Anyway?
Caleb Dick, system designer at Excel AV Group, a design and integration firm based in Maple Grove, Minn., relays that one of the things he tries to establish is the experience level of the people who will be operating the console. “Churches range anywhere from having a couple of guys that just got off a two-year tour, and their needs are going to be very different from somebody who is going to be moving three faders and nothing more,” he illustrates, “so experience level is a big part of it.” How experienced your operators are will determine what interface will work best: is it laid out in such a way that it’s easy to use, but allows for intuitive access to settings? “A good interface is one that allows you to tweak a large quantity of variables and parameters; it allows a person to see what they need to see without getting overloaded, and then interact quickly with all those parameters.”
But It's Not Necessarily Your Father's Interface
Chad Rose, worship and creative arts pastor at Gateway Fellowship in Poulsbo, Wash., encourages churches to avoid trying to duplicate old-school mixing workflows. “I see a lot of people going into digital mixing from analog that want something that has all the knobs and buttons that they had before, when really there’s a bigger world out there,” he says. “By beginning to rethink mixing, [to] have a new perspective on it, it just opens up more capabilities and possibilities. It’s a learning curve for sure, but once you get over that hurdle, it’s a lot more flexible for churches and for ministries to have digital mixing capabilities.” He adds that modern workflows are often easier for younger volunteers to pick up: “They’re used to iPads and video games and all that stuff. It’s natural for them to jump right into it—sometimes easier than it is with the analog consoles. So if you’re looking to the future, I think it’s important to go ahead and invest in that leap even if it doesn’t look or feel like your board used to in the past.”
How Many I/Os Do You/Will You Need?
While one of the first criteria most people look at is the number of inputs and outputs they currently need, Dick urges churches to consider the future: while you may need 32 channels right now, what happens if the music ministry decides to incorporate an orchestra into services and your required channel count goes up to 72? He also notes that you need to take into account any separate mixes you may want to do for recording, wireless in-ear monitors, or broadcast.
Will It Play Nice?
Speaking of recording and broadcast mixes, Dick points out that this requires the main sound board to communicate with ancillary consoles. “You need to look at: how well does this console interface with another very similar one? Do you have to spend $80,000 on the main console and $80,000 on another one just for broadcast? Or can you get one for the main sanctuary, and then a lower cost, but similar, console that can be used for broadcast, and that plays nice with the main one?” he illustrates. Again, this is something to consider before making a purchase.
Keeping it Together
For many church applications, it makes sense to invest in a console that combines the digital snake and personal monitoring systems. Dick cites Allen & Heath’s Qu-32 mixing board, which Excel AV recently integrated into Bayside Baptist Church in Superior, Wis., as an example: “It’s all made to play together—you just plug it in and it works,” he says. “You don’t have a bunch of weird configuration to do to make it work.”
Brand Loyalty Can Pay Off
Gateway Fellowship in Poulsbo, Wash., recently purchased a Yamaha CL5 digital console for its new facility. Chad Rose, the church’s worship and creative arts pastor, explains that it was a natural acquisition, since Gateway had been using Yamaha consoles for some time. He notes that while the CL5 gives the church access to new features, it functions similarly to the old sound board, “and so it was just a smooth, seamless transition for us.”
At Rose Heights Church in Tyler, Texas, sticking with the same brand made for seamless integration. As part of an extensive AV overhaul, the church acquired a Roland M-5000 OHRCA Live Mixing Console, which Shane Weber of media firm Web Feat Productions integrated with existing Roland M-48 Live Personal Mixers, as well as S-4000D Splitter and Power Distributor units. “With their Roland units already in place, the M-5000 was a natural progression from what they had,” he said in an announcement. “And its open architecture is truly future-proof, working well with whatever they are bound to throw at it—Dante, the REAC protocol, and the list goes on.”
Will it Network Nice?
Rose also points to the Yamaha CL5’s integration of the Dante audio networking protocol as another big reason Gateway purchased the console. “That’s really where everything is going as far as I can tell,” he says, “and I think that it’s really important to have that ability to be able to route things in different ways and put multiple consoles together.”
Take Time to Train
Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, recently integrated a Digico SD5 console at front-of-house (FOH) and an SD10 for monitors. The tech team faced less than a week’s turnaround between acquisition and actually running a service, so to get to know the new desks, they set them up side by side in the choir loft while the installers finished in the worship center. “This way we could do a lot of the preliminary work, like laying out and labeling the consoles, running the pre-recorded services top to bottom, and getting some ‘stick time’ so the first Sunday with the new equipment would be flawless,” Daniel Cale, FOH system engineer, explained in an announcement.
In working with churches, Dick has observed that many underestimate the amount of time required for their audio techs to learn not only how to use new consoles, but also how to improve their mixing skills on them. “Even if the board is considered easy to use, there is still a learning curve,” he says. Each operator needs a reasonable amount of time to push buttons, move faders, discover what the console is really capable of, and then get comfortable with how it works. “More and more, there is so much capability, so much flexibility built in—which is good, but it’s that many more variables, that many more parameters that you can use. Which goes back to: how good is the interface?”
[ The Line-Up ]
Allen & Heath Qu-32
The Allen & Heath Qu-32 is a self-contained digital mixer with 38 inputs, 28 outputs, and a seven-inch touchscreen. All of the I/O is on the back, but the dSNAKE port allows for connectivity to a family of remote AudioRacks over a Cat5 digital snake so that the I/O can be positioned onstage.
Cadac CDC Six
The Cadac CDC six features a 23.5-inch, 16:9 HD gesture-operation user interface. The faders follow the swipe of the screen or scrolling of the channels, enabling full control of displayed inputs, outputs, or VCAs.
Digico S21
At the heart of its entry-level S21 console is Digico’s Stealth Digital Processing. The company recently announced its intention to release an upgrade, Stealth Core2, which will be available as an option to all existing users.
Mackie Axis
Mackie introduces the Axis control surface for its DL32R 32-channel digital mixer. The combination of the mixer and control system is designed to deliver a scalable system featuring 32 remote-controllable Onyx mic preamps and 16 outputs paired with built-in DSP, with Dante audio networking between the DL32R and Axis.
PreSonus StudioLive AVB
PreSonus has announced its StudioLive AVB Mix Systems, which combine one or two StudioLive RM-series rack mixers, a StudioLive CS18AI Ethernet/AVB control surface, and integrated control, recording, and production software.
Roland M-5000
The Roland M-5000 Live Mixing Console is based on the OHRCA platform (Open, High Resolution, Configurable Architecture). The console supports multiple audio format protocols, and its internal mix architecture is not fixed and can be freely defined for mixing channels, AUXs, matrices, subgroup buses, and MIX-MINUS buses within a range of up to 128 audio paths.
Soundcraft Si Impact
Soundcraft’s Si Impact Digital Console is designed to be as simple as an analog mixer while offering the workflow enhancements and DSP power of a digital mixer. With 40 inputs, the Si Impact features ViSi iPad control and built-in Stagebox connectivity for I/O expansion, as well as a 32-in/32-out USB recording and playback interface.
Yamaha CL5
The Yamaha CL5 digital audio console features a mix capacity of 72 mono and eight stereo inputs (64 channels through Dante and eight local), with 34 faders. The console includes built-in output metering, and a built-in shelf for an iPad.
