Clark Files
A "Hands-Off" System Solution At
Sandy Springs Church

(Editor's Note: A full detailing of this system is featured in the Jan/Feb issue of Church Production magazine.)

The worship sanctuary at Sandy Springs Christian Church, a thriving parish located in Atlanta, is enjoying a new sound reinforcement system featuring a handy "set and forget" control and processing backbone. The new system was devised and installed by Blue Water Audio of San Diego, headed by Paul Svenson and Steve Manno.

The 1,000-seat sanctuary, served by a new central loudspeaker cluster flown above the platform, hosts traditional services, mostly spoken word from pastors and lay contributors, with an acoustic piano on the front platform and a large organ at the rear of the room. The choir is positioned on risers, set about a foot above the main floor, also residing centrally at this rear location. Infrequently, other live music contributions are featured, usually acoustic-based performances held at the front platform.


Exterior of Sandy Springs Christian Church

"The two main objectives at Sandy Springs were intelligibility of the spoken word and hands-off operation. They went hand in hand in importance. One of the problems we frequently see, which was the case here, is too much access to the system by inexperienced operators," Manno says.

"Certainly there's always the best of intentions, but when knobs are available to be twiddled, you can bet that they will be, often to much detriment not only to sound quality but to the system's reliability. The equipment can only take so much abuse. The idea is to provide full functionality but take control out of everyone's hands."

This path led to one of the first projects utilizing multiple Mackie Industrial DX8 digital audio mixers as the system's comprehensive control and signal processing package. An eight-channel, two-bus mixer with 32-bit digital signal processing and housed in a compact 2U rack-mountable package, the DX8 also includes a two-band sweepable shelving equalizer on each input and output, two third-octave graphic EQ’s plus five-band parametric equalizers on the output channels, which also offer compression. The inclusion of 24V DC backup power in each unit is also a plus in the reliability category.


Dr. Glen Miles and Rev. Russell Peterman of Sandy Springs, with their new Mackie DX8's

All operating parameters are established in the unit's dedicated software package, which also provides the ability to create and store a number of presets. These can be accessed via one-switch setup, either on the unit's front panel or via optional wired remote controls.

"We don't just automatically jump on the latest, greatest thing, but the DX8 was of immediate interest when it was introduced, because its feature set has been carefully considered with real-world applications like this one in mind," Svenson says.

"The software is easy and intuitive to work with, and then you've got all of this capability and flexibility in a unit this is truly set and forget."

BlueWater Audio deployed a total of three DX8's, all linked together to handle all system input, output, routing and processing duties. One unit handles several Audio Technica 7000 Series wireless microphone systems meeting a variety of purposes on the platform, and it also accepts input from a CD player, which can provide a feed to the system. Another unit is applied for all other microphone jacks at the platform, while the third is fed six microphone jacks for the choir and a surround channel that will be used in conjunction with a planned video system. Outputs are dedicated to the main system, platform monitors, a distributed system to other areas of the church and the surround loudspeaker.

All operating parameters are established in the unit's dedicated software package, which also provides the ability to create and store a number of presets. These can be accessed via one-switch setup, either on the unit’s front panel or via optional wired remote controls.

"We don't just automatically jump on the latest, greatest thing, but the DX8 was of immediate interest when it was introduced, because its feature set has been carefully considered with real-world applications like this one in mind," Svenson says. "The software is easy and intuitive to work with, and then you've got all of this capability and flexibility in a unit this is truly set and forget." BlueWater Audio deployed a total of three DX8's, all linked together to handle all system input, output, routing and processing duties. One unit handles several Audio Technica 7000 Series wireless microphone systems meeting a variety of purposes on the platform, and it also accepts input from a CD player, which can provide a feed to the system.


A look inside the church

Another unit is applied for all other microphone jacks at the platform, while the third is fed six microphone jacks for the choir and a surround channel that will be used in conjunction with a planned video system. Outputs are dedicated to the main system, platform monitors, a distributed system to other areas of the church and the surround loudspeaker.