The Seventh Day Adventist church in Rotterdam, Netherlands, is a triangular-shaped, typical mid-to-late 20th century HoW building. As well as holding three services a week, it also has a very social function, working in close co-operation with the Salvation Army and the city's food bank.
The church has five voluntary sound engineers who, between them, cover the services. All have day jobs, with sound regarded as a serious hobby.
"I love doing sound for the church," says Raymond Nojodikromo, whose full-time job is in removals and furniture building. "We are all amateurs and still learning the craft of sound engineering, so we need equipment that is easy and intuitive to operate."
For the past 15 years the church used an analogue audio mixer. This autumn the decision was taken to upgrade to a digital console, which would allow settings for different services and engineers to be stored and instantly recalled.
"Yamaha equipment is seen as robust, reliable and our finances are limited, so we contacted Elburg-based De Grooth Audio Service for a demo of the TF series," says Raymond. "Everyone understood the basic functionality very quickly, so it was an easy decision for us to invest in a TF3."
Installing the TF3 was simply a case of replacing the existing analogue mixer, plugging the analogue i/o into the Yamaha console's rear panel. "The worship band usually comprises piano, percussion, bass guitar and two vocal microphones. We also use a lectern microphone and play background music before and after services," says Raymond. "The PA is a straightforward L-R system with subs, plus there are two wedge monitors. The TF3 easily satisfies our needs, but it has the capacity to accommodate bigger services and any future expansion.
"Using the new system has been extremely positive, everyone at the church is very happy with it. It sounds great, while the ease of use has been very satisfying for us engineers."
(Jim Evans)
