Building a Church......Don't take it from me

I was taking a class at the 2010 WFX expo called "Master planning for technical systems". They recommended bringing your Pastor but hardly any of them attended. The room was packed with technical directors and volunteers running the Sunday morning production. I've found in my own personal walk that its not always the easiest task to get your Pastor involved in technical training or future development of systems. However, they do tend to trust your judgment so soak up everything you can and make sure your making equipment decisions on what you need and not what the next church has or what you can afford today. There is a difference between a $800 & $15k mixing console. Will the congregation notice a difference? YES THEY WILL. Your not going to reproduce the same result with cheap gear.

I wanted to give you some highlights of the class. There were some key speakers from all over the Country giving testimony to how they did it....and what key points they would give. This is good information that we've all heard but now its coming from facility managers who have 10,000 members.

Jeff Vandergiessen: Technical Director of Mars Hill Church. Over10,000 members

1. Plan where your Church in going to be when selecting your AVL. The cost of changing later down the road cost way more. In the same token, overkill for bragging rights is just a waist of money.

Greg Bacus: Lifechurch, 13 Campus 130 Network churches.

1. Design your systems for the volunteer to run. We started with staff engineers and changed to volunteers. There was a huge learning curve after switching.

Daryl Cripe: Grace Community Church 13 separate auditoriums in one location

1. Technical AVL needs to be a part of the design process from day one. Not after the arch & engineers are done.....day one!

2. Your AVL company should be at every planning meeting

Those are a few key points they wanted to make.

Now, I would agree with all of them. Yes, design your church budget for AVL around who is going to be running the systems. Yes, you get what you pay for. Yes, the design team needs to be in place way in advance and be at every meeting.

If you have any questions about new facility design or how to get started visit www.creativesoundsolution.com or call 239-458-3408

Cutting Setup Time

The fundraising is complete, your building lease is secure, everything is falling into place…and why not? When God is in it who can be against it? Right? All the preparation for the big launch has been carefully planned out. You’ve consoled with everyone under the sun about what to do and what not to do. Its Time….

But when it comes down to it…not one launch is the same as the other. People are different, buildings are different and they bring different challenges. A big proponent is how budgets are different, and with that “making it work” comes into play and when you’re making it work stress can become part of the equation.

In this article I wanted to share some insight on what I’ve seen working with different new plants. I would like to shed some light on some simple organic ideas that may prevent some volunteer burn out. Keeping your volunteers happy and not overworked is the key to healthy media teams.

It pre Launch day! Volunteers pour into the building like sugar ants and begin the setup process. For some reason during pre launch there is this need to see how fast we can get setup. This is great to see but the more important thing to gain from the pre launch setup is the “Sysem”. The system is the written plan of attack.

I visited a Church in New Jersey that was spending about 60+ minutes setting up. This required the volunteer to arrive earlier then most churches and stay later. By breaking down the setup and getting creative you can easily get in and out in 20 Minutes. First we took the acoustic drums and mounted them on a drum riser that was on wheels. As seen in the pictures, The mics were mounted to the drums and wired to the snake head that was permanently mounted to the drum riser base. The drums were mounted to the riser with “U” clamps and strap. The riser could fit through a single door opening and could roll right onto the trailer. This eliminated the setup of the drums (10 min) and Micing the drums (5 Min). Next we recommend a multi-pin snake and all-in-one console rack combo that holds all the wireless, DSP, and drawers for mics and DIs. This will allow keeping all the gear wired so when it’s time to setup you connect one snake cable.

Snaking out your stage cabling will also cut down setup time. This is where you run all your stage mic and monitor sends where you want then zip tie them together making a snake. At tear down these can be rolled up and left plugged into the snake mounted to the drum riser. Color coding your snakes and cables also help.

Carting your speakers or adding casters to your subs will also cut setup time. Imagine rolling your speakers off the trailer and setting them in place, running a power cord and your done. It also keeps your volunteers from lifting heavy equipment.

There are so many creative ways to make setup easy and like I said, no plants are 100% alike. If you would like more ideas or have a situation you want looked at give us a call.

Living Waters

Living waters needed a solution that would leave them with a clean look and conserve space. We tossed some ideas around and came up with this solutions. Cut openings in the rooms on both sides of the stage. Placed the QSC HPR speakers inside the closets and covered the openings with sound scrim. We were able to match the scrim with the seats and backdrop.

If you have a Audio / Video / or Lighting questions give us a call or Email your question to info@creativesoundsolution.com

Family Life Church

Family Life Church needed a hand with getting their current system to sound good along with getting their setup time lowered to about 30min. We recommended mounting the drums on a cart that can act as a riser/cart/snake box.

Coastal Community

Pastor TJ McCormick had a special situation with planting his new Church in Fort Lauderdale. He had a school auditorium that was wider then it was deep, and in the back of the auditorium were stadium seating. This posed a issue with coverage and the amount of speakers that would be needed to cover the room.

The solution was a QSC ILA line array system with an 140 degree throw pattern.

Church At the Crossing

The Church at The Crossing

Sunday Services are held at Northside Cinema # 2 located at the corner of Hwy. 231 N. and Ross Clark Circle. Each week their hospitality team will prepare coffee, juice and a snack for you to enjoy as you fellowship before the service. During the service you will hear anointed music, and a life-changing message in our Sunday morning services. Friendly volunteers will meet you as you enter our doors. These greeters are ready to give directions or answer any questions you may have.

When you visit the Crossing you'll find people hungry for God and ready to engage in worship. Whether you have followed Christ for years or just curious as to what church is all about, you are welcome at The Crossing! Your mode of dress is not important. We are more interested in learning about the you on the inside! At the Crossing, you will find a group of people who strive to find life, live life, and give life through Jesus Christ.

The system was a bit of a challenge due to the fact they have about 30min to setup and 30min to tear down after the service. We went with the QSC HPR series self powered speakers, Sonic Station 40ch input mixing console, Aviom system, and DPA wireless mic. After a few trial runs they were able to beat the time to setup and tear down. We alo had a custom rack/mixing console case made that turns into a table and holds the mixing console, all the rack equipment, projector, and all the cables.

The Crossing West is where the offices are located and where meetings, small groups, and practices are held during the week. 3000 Hartford Hwy. Suite 3 Dothan, Al 36305 Phone: 334-803-0341