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“I never saw myself in church production, but when God opens enough doors for you and your family, you find yourself where you really belong.”
CPM: How did you become interested in technology and then church tech?
Davis: When I was in high school, I got asked to help build sets for a community theater show that my younger brother was in. The technical director at the theater was looking to hire an assistant over the summer, so I spent a summer working in regional theater, which quickly changed my college and career direction. I went to college for theatrical design and stage management and quickly found myself in IASTE and did the touring Broadway world for a while. That opened doors to working and touring different live events, concerts, etc. Once meeting my now wife, I realized that I needed something where I could be home every night and simultaneously, my wife and I were looking to find a church home. I never would have thought that those two needs in our life would be met with one answer. I never saw myself in church production, but when God opens enough doors for you and your family, you find yourself where you really belong.
CPM: How did your position with 12Stone Church evolve?
Davis: I was hired at 12Stone in 2017 as the service producer at our broadcast location. I oversaw programming and volunteers and really learned about how awesome the church production community is, and [I] fell in love with how devoted our volunteers were across all of our locations. My background quickly led me to transition to a role that was over more of the logistical and project management side of our department, overseeing set changes, maintenance, special events, etc. I now get the opportunity to lead our entire production staff, which has really been a lot of fun and allows me to bounce around all disciplines like design, engineering, service producing, campus expansion, etc.
CPM: What are some of the biggest changes you see coming in the use of church technology?
Davis: First of all, COVID has obviously had a drastic effect on how churches operate every Sunday. The ratio of churches who were broadcasting services vs. not broadcasting has flipped. The technology is also changing here, as well. Streaming and video engineering gear is so much more accessible than it was, say, five years ago. It used to be that churches who broadcasted typically had control rooms that rivaled the local news station. Now, with a computer and a couple of iPhones, anyone can cut together a compelling service with surprising quality. The online streaming world of YouTube, Twitch, etc. has opened the door to a whole new era of technology and workflows that a lot of people in the church are jumping into. Now, will large I/O routers, video switchers, ENG, and film cameras still have a place? Obviously, yes, for certain markets. However, there is an interesting trend to watch over the next couple years as technology develops and becomes obtainable for more and more smaller churches to get their content to the world.
“There is so much untapped potential if we allow ourselves to open our minds of how we typically think of a live production workflow and adopt some of the processes our next gen have built.”
CPM: What is your philosophy about attracting and training the next generation of church techs?
Davis: This goes very hand-in-hand with the question on technology changes. The next generation knows so much more about new edge technology than I would have ever hoped to know. We have middle school volunteers building computers to mine Bitcoin and livestream on Twitch showing them operating a lighting console for a service. They may not have the traditional broadcast engineering skills and knowledge that we would think of when we were hiring five years ago, but they have a knowledge and a thirst for creating that is so new and different. There is so much untapped potential if we allow ourselves to open our minds of how we typically think of a live production workflow and adopt some of the processes our next gen have built.
Join hundreds of church content creators and filmmakers July 25-27 for Capture Summit 2022, hosted at The John C. Maxwell Leadership Center at 12Stone Church, 2050 Sugarloaf Circle, Duluth GA 30097(Metro Atlanta).
CPM: How is 12Stone’s Sugarloaf campus an especially good fit for the Capture Summit and its Church Filmcraft Festival this summer?
Davis: We retrofitted the worship center at our Sugarloaf campus during COVID with the goal of making as flexible of a space as possible. This has allowed us to capture Sundays in new and inventive ways, but has also allowed us to be an ideal location for conferences. We’re able to flex to differing needs for staging, scenic, lighting, audio, audience seating, etc. That isn’t usually found in a church setting.
“A large stage with a wide LED wall provides a great backdrop or canvas for any presentation, and can be combined with an array of engineering and film-style cameras with a broadcast audio desk to fulfill any broadcast requests for any event.The main worship center houses state-of-the-art audio from Digico and Meyer, lighting from GrandMA and Martin, and video gear from Ross and Grass Valley.”
The main room combined with the multiple classrooms, board rooms, breakout spaces, and our blackbox/sound stage space on site makes it very attractive to host a wide variety of events, including the Capture conference. You could have a large number of breakouts in either a classroom or very practical setting all under one roof. The Sugarloaf campus has the technology it takes to help Capture Summit reach its goals in 2022.
Tickets are available now for Capture Summit 2022 - July 25-2th at capturesummit.com.
