Established by pastor Kim Sam-Hwan in 1980, Myoungseong is one of the best known churches in South Korea. Services are broadcast in real time to a number of other church buildings throughout the country and are also broadcast on the internet, Christian radio and television stations in other territories. This means that, while around 100,000 attend the main church building annually, it is reputed to have a million followers globally.
Key to the process are the two DiGiCo SD7s, installed as part of the project to build the new sanctuary. One is located at the Front of House position, with the other in the building's broadcast studio. Complementing the consoles are four DiGiRacks, all connected via Optocore, with both consoles also equipped with Waves SoundGrid and connected to MediaMatrix DSP.
For daily morning worship, the broadcast SD7 is used, mixing the sound for both the congregation and broadcast. However, Sunday services see both consoles in use - the FoH console doing the mix for the main building, with the broadcast SD7 doing an alternate mix to send to the other church buildings and broadcast media.
"Reliability is the most important factor, especially with the audio being transmitted to other buildings in real time. The dual engines of the SD7 gives the church that peace of mind," says Dae Wook Jung of Soundus Corp, DiGiCo's Korean distributor, who supplied the consoles. "The other crucial features are the SD7's high input count and processing power, because the services feature a huge choir, orchestra and worship band."
The nearby World Gloria Centre is also part of the Myoungseong Church and has featured a DiGiCo D1 console for a number of years, which ensured the church's two full-time sound engineers and two assistant engineers did not have any difficulty in transitioning to the SD7.
"Having had long-term experience of the D1, the church trusts DiGiCo products - they really like the sonic quality, the reliability and the flexibility," says Dae Wook Jung. "Stepping up to the SD7 was a logical choice and they are very satisfied with the performance of the system."
(Jim Evans)
