Glory days
Published: WORSHIP
Glory days: The recently opened Glory Christian Centre is the largest church in Kota Kinabalu, and has made no compromise on its sound reinforcement system. Richard Lawn reports
Located in Kota Kinabalu in the East Malaysian state of Sabah, the Glory Christian Centre opened its doors on the eve of the Christmas 2009 festivities, when the newly gathered congregation was welcomed by Pastor William Vun. Seating 2,500 people, the house of worship is the largest in Kota Kinabalu, and took two years to build from the ground up. This includes a new state-of-the-art sound system installed by Kota Kinabalu-based systems integrator, Sound n Lites Professional.
Andrew Chow is the head of A/V and he explains the multitude of events that the church conducts: ‘We’re required to host varying international gatherings and conferences ranging from simple speech to fully-fledged concert level productions,’ he says. ‘Productions range from normal Sunday services, with around 50 musicians and choir members on stage performing modern-rock and contemporary music, to conferences, dramas, plays and children’s musicals. We also need to anticipate different musical groups wishing to use the auditorium in future. Therefore, we required a versatile and dependable sound system for our wide range of performances.’
The technicians are volunteers from the congregation, and all undergo an intensive course and must pass an examination in order to be graded. Only those achieving a high enough grade are allowed to become a senior operator or assistant who can then operate the house console, which is an Allen & Heath iLive 176.
Mr Chow and his team, including sound support engineer Robert Hamilton, researched all of the digital consoles that were available on the market before making the decision to acquire the iLive format: ‘We needed a console that can be easily operated by our present and future sound crews without adding stress by switching from analogue to digital,’ he says. ‘We live in a digital age, and today’s generation are more computer-literate than before, so we knew we had to select a digital format console. The workflow on the iLive is simple and flexible for different configurations, and so for our multifaceted productions and our volunteer crew, the iLive scene and show saves are a blessing. Of all the digital consoles we studied, this feature makes life easier for our operators. Not only do we like the sound of Allen & Heath consoles [the church also owns an analogue 48-channel GL2000 console], it also fitted within our budget.’ The iLive-176 is also used as an in-house live audio-video recording system, allowing the Christian Glory Centre to produce DVDs and CDs of its own productions. A Samplitude 64-channel software recording/editing system has been connected to the Madi port of console to enable this feature.
Located in the Production Room, the iLive-176 is connected to the stage microphone inputs via an iDR10 Mix Rack and routed to all the training rooms, lobby and external areas. The console was supplied by the Allen & Heath Singapore-based distributor, Sindo Exports, which also fitted RAB-2 and Madi cards into the iLive-176 console. The Madi card was specified in order to enhance the console’s functionality, in that it performs multichannel recording and playback functionality.
Since acquiring the iLive-176, Mr Chow has continued to discover more features that have helped him in his duties. ‘Our main auditorium is large, and the FOH area is situated quite a distance away from the stage, so the Remote iLive Editor has come in very useful. We connected a wireless router to the iDR-10 Mix Rack and this has allowed us to operate the stage monitors via a laptop during rehearsals. This is very convenient for the musicians to operate. The controls and information displayed on the iLive are easily found and where they should be – even for a novice sound operator. The iLive digital system really is an all-in-one concept and is a bonus to what we already know.’
The congregation is served by a self-powered LCR Meyer Sound speaker system, consisting of 10 Mica cabinets and two 600HP subwoofers in each LR array balanced by a central cluster consisting of six M’elodie cabinets. In addition, two 700HP subwoofers and two M1D curvilinear arrays serve as front fills at either side of the stage, with speaker processing handled by a Galileo 616 loudspeaker management system. A Denon DN-D4500 CD player system is used as a source for playback, while the musicians, singers, choir and speakers can choose from a selection of AKG, Sennheiser and Shure condenser wired and wireless microphones, together with Sennheiser wireless in-ear monitors.
Sindo Exports, Singapore: +65 6268 2360
Published in Worship AVL Asia Spring 2010