Moderator: Welcome to tonight's live chat session with Brian Blackmore of Church Production Magazine. Brian, can you kick things off by giving us an overview of your professional background?

Brian Blackmore: Like many of us, I was a musician from an early age. I played in various bands and became familiar with sound systems. I wound up getting a degree in Music Business from Belmont University in Nashville and then got a job at a jingle company. That was fun for a few years.

Brian (continued) I then got a job at an advertising agency, and after that moved into marketing with a large sound contractor in Florida (All Pro Sound of Pensacola). The position with the contractor really opened my eyes to the struggle that many churches have with technology. I had attended a "technically challenged" church since an early age, and had played in Christian rock bands.

Brian (continued): But the insight I gained at All Pro Sound really drove home the point that churches need education, information, etc. I left there after a few years and became director of PR with Electro-Voice. EV had just hired a director of educational programs (obviously they recognized the need for education too) and church was one of the markets they were reaching out to.

Brian (continued): I was with EV for about four years, but two of those years I spent building the business plan for what became Church Production. So it's an outreach, and a labor of Love (I'm a Christian).

Kerry S: Hi Brian - Can you tell us the primary mission of Church Production?

Brian: The primary goal is to help educate churches about audio, video and lighting technologies. I've seen churches get ripped off because they were uninformed consumers. It's a shame but many churches are ripe for the picking by a really good (bad) salesman.
I've met consultants who tell me that much of the church work that they do is fixing poorly designed (although not necessarily old) systems.

Drew: From an education perspective, what areas of audio do you find of most interest to your readers?

Brian: That's a good question, Drew. We get a lot of feedback (no pun intended) from churches about stage volumes and the quality of monitor mixes. It's a difficult thing to do in any environment (quality monitor mix) let alone in a church where the spill into the audience almost always must be restricted. There is also a lot of buzz going on right now about recording and duplication, specifically, on CD duplication and eventually DVD.

Jeff: There's been an interesting question on churchsoundcheck.com recently, regarding doing business with Christian vs. non-Christian companies. Any views on this?