US churches see the light

INNOVASON digital mixing consoles are finding growing applications in the rapidly expanding US church market. The latest house of worship to be installed with INNOVASON is the Applegate Christian Fellowship Church in Oregon, which has found salvation in an Sy40-8 digital live console.

The Sy40-8, specified and installed by Oregon-based AV integrator the Anderson Group International (AGI), has considerably lightened the church's sound equipment load, improved sound quality and greatly enhanced the sound system's setup, flexibility and operation. With features that include extensive built-in processing functions, open architecture and extensive library capabilities, the Sy40-8 has transformed the church's ability to stage the types, times and locations of the services it desires.

"One of the great things about the INNOVASON is that we can quickly recall Saturday night's settings for the Sunday morning service," says church sound manager Joe Fritts. "Its recall capabilities allow us to programme a mix before we turn anything on. We can move outside, power up and line check before we even touch the amps. Then when the band shows up, we power up, the monitors are mixed off the console, the front-of-house is mixed and we're good until the 10am service."

Before the Sy40-8 arrived, racks of sound equipment and an analogue console had to be repositioned from inside the church to the outside venue every week, with setup and soundchecks taking considerably longer. This was a problem given the need to limit early Sunday morning noise.

"The amount of time and effort it took to load in and load out the system from the sanctuary to the amphitheatre and back again was challenging," says AGI’s general manager Jeff Weinkauf. "The Sy40-8 has replaced numerous racks of outboard gear with those functions now residing in the console itself. If something changes, its library capabilities allow quick recall of settings at the touch of a button. Adding an instrumentalist or vocalist at the last minute is a breeze. In seconds the church can recall a player's full channel strip including gain, EQ, comp/limiting, gating, and monitor levels. Additionally, the ability to recall settings saved by the church's key operators gives those on the sound team with less experience a good baseline from which to start. There's a lot less soundcheck time involved, which makes everybody happy. The Sy40-8 has given Applegate a quick, easy and seamless way to manage their system."

Configured initially with 48 inputs and 16 outputs plus an INNOVASON Stage Box, an audio rack and transmission system that enables remote-control from the console using coaxial cable, the Sy40-8 has changed Fritts' approach to his work. "I've had to learn how to mix in a different way," he says. "With the old system, I used to approach mixing by trying to separate musical instruments; now it's a matter of the instruments automatically having their place in the mix. With the Sy40-8 I can focus on uniting all the instruments and blending the vocals. It's a new way to approach it, but the quality of the sound has improved dramatically. The way we look at it, anything we present to our congregation represents God so we want it to be the best."