Bayside Church upgrades with DiGiCo SD9

AUSTRALIA: The Bayside Church in Victoria recently invested in a DiGiCo SD9 console in order to keep up with the sanctuary’s ever expanding needs. Supplied by the manufacturer’s local distributor Group Technologies, the new desk resides in the 500-seat main auditorium, which hosts a wide range of performances.

Production manager Tom Moore oversees the maintenance and purchase of equipment, training and team management at the church, and made it his goal to upgrade the A/V setup to accommodate the worship centre’s needs.

‘This was our first DiGiCo purchase, however I had seen these consoles in action when dealing with Dominica Sound on the Gold Coast,’ said Mr Moore. ‘I have always heard great things about the quality of DiGiCo.

‘We had pretty specific goals and requirements that I felt were important in choosing a console,’ he explained. ‘The console had to obviously sound good but it was also very important that it was user friendly as the entire sound production team is made up of volunteers with a mixture of little to no audio experience outside of the church. Size and footprint were also important considerations, as we wanted something that had a small footprint but didn't feel cramped when being used. The layout of the SD9 was also very similar to analogue consoles that many of the volunteers had used before, so much of their knowledge was easily transferable.’

The SD9 is used at FOH, where it is used for a youth service on Friday nights and two regular services on weekends. The church runs two D-Racks (one on stage and one at OPs) via Cat5e to control all inputs and outputs.

‘We didn't want to be stuck with a console that we would have to upgrade in a few years because of the advances in technology,’ he added. ‘The software updates allow us to simply upgrade when we need to which will increase the life of the console. I was really surprised by how easy it was for the volunteers to start using the console. After one training session I was able to let the other sound engineers mix by themselves without any problems at all! I honestly don't think this would have been possible with any other console that I have used previously.’

Mr Moore reports that feedback has been extremely positive since the purchase: ‘We have had many comments in the last few weeks about how much the sound has improved,’ he enthused. ‘Even congregation members that aren't tech savvy or musical have noticed the different as it has taken away the harshness. The SD9 has really enabled us to get 110 per cent out of our current setup.’

Mr Moore was keen to thank Steve McCallum and Russell Baker from Dominica for their service and advice, as well as Drew Menard from GT for providing local support, advice and training.

www.digico.biz
www.dominica.com.au
www.grouptechnologies.com.au