COTM is well known for its high-energy events, with music playing a leading role in worship for the thousands of people that attend. Every service is a powerful, professional live production with technical and performance values that equal the best in commercial tour-sound and theatre. To compliment this approach, the church has recently purchased two SSL L500s and a Live Remote Expander for its Main and Oneighty auditoriums from system integrator and SSL Partner, CCI Solutions.
Andrew Stone has been the production manager at COTM for nearly 11 years and has been a professional FOH Engineer for 25 years. He has a reputation for an uncompromising approach to preparation, quality, and ambition. "We like to do things big and with tons of quality," he notes. "Most church services are a three-camera shoot - we use 11 cameras... My 'A' crew are mostly professional touring people that I have been fortunate enough to recruit... The PA systems are full-blown line arrays, and now we have the SSLs for front of house... That is what sets us apart.
"Musically, we love organic, real, precision, clarity... It's all about quality... In rehearsals for the weekend we've taken five hours to work on four songs - and we'd done those songs before! We're very committed to getting it right."
Stone has been well known as a devoted analogue fan for as long as he has been working, and in COTM's main auditorium he had been using two large-format analogue live consoles for some time. However, after considering how to better serve the needs of the ever more complex productions, he decided to audition a variety of digital live consoles - including the SSL L500.
"The SSL sounded the best - plain and simple," he states. "And it wasn't just a little better - it was night and day better... It was the only console that I thought could exceed the beautiful analogue sound that I had been used to.... Not just match it, but exceed it. There's a clarity and a transparency that comes from the SSL platform that I have never experienced before.
"I now get fantastic, positive comments from people that normally don't pay attention to the sound... All they know is that they are sitting in the seat, listening, and it's giving them a different kind of experience. That's a huge win... It really is the only digital console I would replace an analogue console with."
Duke DeJong of CCI Solutions, which supplied the consoles to COTM, comments, "Church on the Move has amazing musicians and top notch audio engineers; they demand the best. The L500 has not only met the needs of their team, but has far exceeded all of their expectations. Every little adjustment pays huge dividends in the mix."
SSL's George Horton adds, "Solid State Logic is very happy to have the opportunity to work with Church on the Move. Their commitment to quality and technology leadership in the House of Worship Market is truly second to none."
(Jim Evans)
