Houses of worship are expanding their offerings beyond Sunday services. Some are hosting other performances and productions, and even offering their spaces for outside rentals. The requirements of these performances have impacted their overall audio needs, causing churches to consider new investments in technologies and solutions. SCN spoke with Christ Wesleyan Church (CWC) in Milton, PA, and Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, TN, to take a closer look at their recent audio upgrades and share their advice to other churches considering similar investments.
All That I/O
An 1,100-seat auditorium at CWC is used for Sunday services and Broadway-style productions, including school productions, dinner theater, and other live events. The level of these productions contributed to its need to transition to wireless over-the-ear microphones instead of relying on microphones placed on the stage. This change allowed them to control better each performer’s microphone and that of their choir, which is often highlighted in many productions.
CWC purchased nearly 50 wireless microphones, which take up a large amount of I/O, especially when conducting Sunday morning worship services and other events on top of these large-scale productions. For some time, the church rented consoles to address the issue, but around the time of the pandemic, a generous donor offered to support an upgrade to the sound system.
As a result, CWC invested in the DiGiCo Quantum 338 digital mixing console, supplied by Divine Sound and Technologies. The platform serves as the church’s front-of-house console, helping to field all of its I/O needs, and is on an Optocore network with a DiGiCo SD-Rack used as a stage box.
Brent Mestach, communication and broadcast director at CWC, said the church's production schedule drove the decision to invest in the top-level solution, which goes beyond the typical house of worship needs because of its musical productions. "If we were just a church and needed to handle the I/O, we wouldn't need that," he added.
Instead, the DiGiCo system allows CWC to streamline all the production and Sunday services needs through one processor. This transition also supported something many houses of worship were addressing during the pandemic: the need to connect with their congregation more effectively online and through live streaming. “We could do it all in one with the processing power of the Quantum,” he explained.
CWC recently expanded its network further by adding a DiGiCo 4REA4 processor and the A168 Stage expander unit purchased through Clair Global. The two units are in an upstairs space formerly used as a cry room, which was renovated into a broadcast audio control room during the pandemic to mix the church's remote Sunday services. The room also interfaces with a DiGiCo DMI-WAVES SoundGrid card over Cat-6 and a Gigabit switch.
"It's just a very powerful system that can be flexible and handle all the I/O that we need, the complexities of having a Christian school, and our theater productions," said Mestach.
In the future, the plan is to connect the 4REA4 with the Quantum 338 on the Optocore network, allowing mix positions to access all inputs from the stage. Potential speaker upgrades, such as line arrays within the auditorium space, are also something CWC is considering to better take advantage of the full capabilities of the DiGiCo platform.
Diverse Programs, In-Ear Solutions
Brentwood Baptist Church recently updated its audio infrastructure to the new KLANG:konductor in-ear mixing processor. Tim Corder, VP of faith and performance with Diversified, felt it was the ideal solution to address their needs, including balancing live events featuring a full orchestra and choir one week to a rock-style band the next.
"It can be a challenge to adapt a sound system for that kind of diversity—one that also has a very high input-channel count—as well as a challenge to find console combinations that support a large number of stereo mix busses," said Corder. They also rely on support from volunteers to run their audio, making the platform's easy-to-use interface and high-level capabilities a match made in heaven.
Brentwood's large campus hosts anywhere between 600-1,000 events a year among all its spaces, with the main campus church holding events probably every other week or weekend. The KLANG in-ear system allows them to be flexible and accommodate things they were unable to in the past.
With a mixed traditional and contemporary service style that tends to oppose the in-ear approach, its vocal team was the one that pushed for more clarity. The vocal team, which often shares the stage with a 60-person orchestra and complete rhythm section, wanted the ability to hear click guides and lower the stage volume. “It lowered our stage volume significantly, which is a huge deal when you’ve got an orchestra that you’re trying to push in the room anywhere from 88 to 100 decibels, depending on the song,” said Darby Gilmore, tech services director–central support, Brentwood Baptist Church.
The platform allows everyone on stage to collaborate better and perform more confidently—and even if the congregation doesn’t know why, Gilmore thinks it makes a noticeable difference. “I think everyone on stage would agree that it’s so much cleaner and fuller for them than it would have been trying to do any other solution,” he said.
The platform also helps with music intelligibility, highlighting a musical part that often could get lost underneath everything else. “Now we can elevate that a bit and make sure that every part stands out, and we can interpret that better for the audience,” Gilmore noted.
Finding What Works
Currently, one of the hardest things is how houses of worship compare themselves to others—especially with so many broadcasting through YouTube and other social media channels—without considering what is best for their congregation. For example, when Mestach works with other regional churches, he often brings them to CWC to experience their network, which often causes them to want what CWC has, even if it is not the right solution for their needs.
[The Integration Guide to House of Worship]
The most important thing is to match your technology with your current operations team, whether staff or volunteers, investing in solutions that address your current needs and can be operated properly. "You need to ensure you have the personnel because your systems won't be as great as they are if you don't have someone who knows how to run them," Mestach advised.
At the end of the day, it's about finding the right audio solutions—and budget—that enable your team to convey your messaging. "I think the only way to be objective about something so subjective is to say what works for the people we're trying to reach and just try to dive in on that, which, when you talk about standardization, almost seems counterintuitive," added Gilmore. "We're doing it because we're trying to get a message out to people, and I think we're kind of failing in our jobs if we're not making sure that that message is clear."
