Dual GLD consoles take charge of Church of Christ’s worship productions
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: To facilitate the broadcast of worship services via a local television station, and their subsequent translation into Spanish and Chinese, North Boulevard Church of Christ in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, has installed a pair of Allen & Heath GLD-80 digital mixers as part of a wider A/V upgrade. M3 Technology Group carried out the installation with equipment supplied by American Music & Sound.
‘Our previous system was 17 to 18 years old, and it was designed for our needs at that time,’ explained 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.’
With these goals in mind the church hired a consultant to survey the area and produce a basic system design, before awarding the installation contract to Nashville’s M3 Technology Group. The group supplied the church’s live audio and video systems as well as its broadcast and recording systems. M3’s CTO and project liaison, Chris Montini, explained that 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, whilst the second, located in the studio, is responsible for producing broadcast and recording mixes. Both consoles have been setup to mirror each other. 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 the manfacturer’s AR2412 AudioRack located behind the stage, which in turn connects to the auditorium mixer via the GLD’s built-in digital snake and also feeds the Dante network.
Although the church had previously used an Allen & Heath analogue mixer, Mr Montini was surprised at how quickly staff familiarised themselves with the desk.
‘GLD is intuitive and easy to learn,’ concluded Mr Jones. ‘Once you understand the basics, it’s fairly simple to operate.’
‘I was blown away by how clean and professional the system is,’ added Paul Skidmore, who manages the church’s broadcast services. GLD is a monster board. The bottom line is we have total control.’