In an effort to remake the sound system at Calvary Spokane into something that could be easily managed by volunteers while maintaining outstanding quality, Darrell Smith of Kungpow Production replaced a analog console with a Harman Soundcraft Vi1 digital console and Compact Stagebox.
The Vi1 provides an intuitive mix surface, routing and the ability to easily reconfigure custom fader banks for the operators and their associated worship team.
The campus of Calvary Spokane is located in northern Spokane, Washington. In a re-purposed mall, the 2,500-seat sanctuary is flanked by a family center with a full kitchen and coffee bar, as well as youth and children’s ministry rooms fully equipped to engage today’s families.
Calvary’s aging 56-channel analog console presented a formidable challenge for training volunteers. For many years the church resorted to hiring professional engineers to operate the console on Sunday mornings.
Recently, a new generation of tech-savvy musicians have entered Calvary Spokane’s ministry internship program and are eager to engage the media ministry at Calvary. Kungpow Production was called in to design a system that would empower the musicians, who were taking turns leading the worship service, to mix for each other.
Kungpow Production integrated a Digigram Ethersound card into the Soundcraft Compact Stagebox networked to the central processing hub via an Avitran AVY-ES100.
From there, Digigram ES network nodes provide multichannel audio feeds to and from the video production room and nearby family center.
The Avitran AVY-ES100 also connects to a PC running Pro Tools at front of house via an ASIO over Ethernet connection as an affordable way to track and play back rehearsals and services via the Vi1’s second input on every input channel.
“After carefully considering a number of approaches, we decided on the Soundcraft Vi1 for two main reasons: number one, it sounds phenomenal and two, it’s so easy to train volunteers on this desk,” Smith said. “We had them up and running after a couple hours of training. That’s pretty remarkable considering how new they were to mixing sound.”
Equipment was supplied by Bill Sage of Delicate Sales of Camarillo, California.
