The recent Worship Facilities Conference and Expo (WFX) in Charlotte provided an excellent format for church sound and technical personnel to take advantage of well-conceived, targeted educational sessions as well as to have a look at some of the latest in audio gear and technology.

The expansive trade show floor played host to a range of leading manufacturers who utilized the show to introduce and demonstrate recent developments to an audience growing both in terms of size and technical savvy.

The Roland Systems Group (RSS) unveiled the latest addition to its successful V-Mixing System range, with the new M-380 representing the company’s most compact effort to date.

Measuring just 19 inches wide by less than 23 inches high, it still packs a complete 48-channel mixing console with 18 buses, 8 matrices, channel and bus DSP, 4 stereo FX processors, 4 graphic EQs, built-in stereo recording and playback, and built in multi-channel split port.

The layout of the M-380 is designed to be fast and intuitive for the beginner but with plenty of functionality and features expected by experienced professionals.

John Broadhead of Roland Systems Group with the new RSS M-380 V-Mixing System (click to enlarge)

Like other V-Mixing models, it also incorporates a digital snake making for simple, seamless Cat5e distribution as well as being configurable with remotely controlled mic preamps.

.

The M-380 is also available in a rack-mount format, which combined with its simple onboard connectivity, makes it a very attractive package for the worship audio market, portable church applications in particular.

XTA highlighted its new DC1048 audio processor featuring full matrix mixing and a palette of EQ functions that can be remotely controlled with the company’s new iCore software package.

Richard Fleming of XTA with the new iCore addressable products and tablet with Dante networking interface (click to enlarge)

Also on display were the NXBoB8 and NXBoB16 breakout boxes, which also can be addressed with iCore, with the crowning element is that these components are all enabled to work with Audinate Dante networking.

.

The breakout boxes easily connect to other Dante-enabled devices such as processors or mixing consoles over either 100Mb or 1 Gigabit Ethernet. 

This complement of technology has already been utilized successfully on higher end touring applications such as a recent tour by Oasis, but it’s such an elegant, user-friendly package that it will likely gain very strong traction in the worship audio market.

Right next door, DiGiCo was showing its latest digital console development, the new SD8-24, a compact powerhouse that checks in at less than 36 inches wide.

The SD8-24 takes advantage of all of the features currently available on the (larger but still compact) SD8, as well as including the newly developed OverDrive software.

The SD-24 offers 60 channels mono or stereo (equivalent to 120 channels of DSP), 24 buses mono or stereo + Master +12 Matrix and Dual Solo buses, LCR with Overdrive (equivalent to 67 buses of DSP), a 15-inch touchscreen for fast control, remote stage rack + local I/O, 16 x 12 Output Matrix (with Overdrive), snapshot control with relative update & offline facility, onboard effects and graphic EQs, script/laptop tray & second MADI I/O for open platform recording, and 25 touch-sensitive faders for instant control with full-size metering.

By far the largest and most dynamic display came via Yamaha Commercial Audio, based around the new “Rolling Showroom” - in other words, a 53-foot double-expanding trailer that offers an optimum environment to check out Yamaha PM5D, M7CL, and LS9 digital consoles, TXn amplifiers and NXAmps, DME processors, SB168-ES Stage Box units, AD8HRs, NAI-48ES units, the new MY16-AUD card by Audinate, and more.

The new Yamaha Rolling Showroom, fronted by a full display of NEXO line arrays and loudspeakers (click to enlarge)

But that wasn’t all - the expansive area in front of the trailer served as loudspeaker and line array central, where many of the models in the NEXO line were flown and on stands.

.

Select your favorite size, color, and the ones you wanted to hear - an impressive and effective demonstration, to say the least.

WFX continues to grow in size and scope, not a surprise given the increasing use of production to enhance worship services and affiliated events like Contemporary Christian music concerts.

Expect the next show, slated for Chicago’s Navy Pier next spring, to continue to reflect that fact.

Keith Clark is editor of ProSoundWeb and can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).