Five years ago, the 1000-strong congregation of the contemporary house of worship Woodlands Church began a programme of investment into new sound reinforcement equipment, starting with the purchase of a Nexo PS15 loudspeaker system, initially paired with an analogue front-of-house mixer.
With music playing a significant role in services, Woodlands soon began to consider the possibilities of a move to digital sound control, appreciating that it would help to build a more consistent approach to sound across the pool of volunteer engineers.
"A digital console would allow us to recall settings, so that different engineers could achieve the same sound from one service to another," explains Ben Silvey, who has specified the system. "Another advantage in going digital was that we could save space. Our old desk was 1.5 m wide, and needed racks of outboard gear; our new M-400 has everything on board, so it occupies a much smaller footprint."
Reading-based pro-audio specialists SFL supplied an RSS M-400 digital console, and two S-1608 compact digital snake systems. A typical Sunday service features a full band with up to 10 musicians, although recent Christmas services pushed that to 16 musicians and a 40-piece choir. The system will usually carry 32 sends from stage, provide foldback to the stage, as well as feeds to overflow congregation rooms, so the extra outputs of the M-400 are put to good use.
"The real advantage of this system is the Digital Snake," says Ben Silvey. "It represents a big cost benefit for the M-400, because to get that connectivity with another console would cost us much more money. But most importantly, it gives us flexibility. We are currently developing our building, and having the CAT5 multicore means that we can move the console position really easily."
Silvey declares himself surprised at the sound quality of the console. "It does sound incredibly clear, and we've really noticed the difference over our analogue desk. The vocals sound really crisp and clear. I also had some concerns about how our volunteers might get on with the new technology, but SFL organised a training evening for us, and people picked it up really quickly. The useability factor of this system is fantastic!"
(Claire Beeson)
