The project completed in July this year, contracted house of worship specialists SFL Group as key partners to design, supply and install a full audio, video, and lighting solution; that also included a full audio and video, bi-directional link-up to the Church centre some 300m away.
A multi functional venue with a membership of around 800 adults and young people, St James can hold up to 11 worship events on a Sunday, with upwards of 750 people taking part in the services and activities. Music plays an important role in worshipping life at St James, as well as a big part in attracting membership particularly with the younger contemporary church goers.
The audio solution designed by Tim Horton at SFL Group, therefore needed to cope with a variety of set up configurations from spoken word, to a traditional choir and organ, to eight piece contemporary bands, to solo singer and songwriters performing in any one day.
The solution for the Church needed to be compact, simple to operate, and flexible to cater for the different uses whilst taking into consideration the 150 year old structure of the building. The Roland M-480 Digital Mixing Console provided the 48 channels required and combined with the Digital Snakes (S-4000S 32 in, 8 out Modular Stage Unit, S-0816 FOH Unit and S-4000D Distribution Unit) made for an impressive reduction in footprint, cabling and boxes.
The digital audio transmission via Cat 5e made possible by using the Digital Snakes with the M-480 and Roland S-OPT optical converters enabled the audio to be distributed to the main church and 300m away to the centre without any delay or loss in quality. M-Six M-48 Live Personal Mixers eliminated the need for on stage monitors allowing musicians the ability to control their own in-ear mixes.
Tim Horton, project manager for SFL Group commented, "This has been a long term project with a fair degree of technical challenges. We take great pride in handing over the finished product that meets the Church's technical requirements both on-time and on budget, whilst maintaining the highest possible standards in the overall delivery of the solution. The flexibility and ease of use of the Roland products certainly helped us to achieve such a high quality solution."
(Jim Evans)
