"Our previous system was 17 to 18 years old, and it was designed for our needs at that time," says Mike Jones, who oversees worship production for the church. "We wanted a system that sounded better and had better coverage. Also, we wanted a system that had the capability to handle everything we've been working into the worship service."
Based on these goals, North Boulevard Church retained a consultant to do a survey and provide a basic system design. After a competitive bidding process, the church selected M3 Technology Group of Nashville, TN to provide additional design services, and to install its new systems. M3 provided the church's live audio and video systems as well as its broadcast and recording systems.
M3's CTO and project liaison, Chris Montini says the system uses a high-speed Dante digital audio network to feed all of the church's microphones from the stage to the studio for broadcast and recording.
"We installed Dante cards in the Allen & Heath GLD-80 mixers," he said, "and chose a wireless microphone system and a DSP that are also equipped with Dante."
One of the GLD-80s mixes live sound in the church's auditorium. The second GLD-80, located in the studio, mixes audio for broadcast and recording. To simplify system operation, the two GLD-80s have the same setups for things like channel assignments, scenes and layers. This allows any of the church's tech staff to mix the live auditorium sound or the broadcast and recording sound with no additional training on the hardware. Wired microphones and other sources are connected to an Allen & Heath AR2412 AudioRack located behind the stage. The AR2412 connects to the GLD-80 mixer in the auditorium via the GLD's built-in digital snake and also feeds the Dante network.
(Jim Evans)
