Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, Maryland, had come to rely heavily on wireless audio from everything from worship services to theatrical and music performances.
When the new regulations governing the RF spectrum came into affect, the church turned to their long-time A/V collaborator Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), to assist them in upgrading and complying with the new regulations.
Bridgeway Community Church is a nondenominational, multicultural house of worship that puts an emphasis on dramatic presentations and music concerts and uses up to 24 channels of wireless for them. Working with Mitchell Shaivitz, Account Manager at the GC Pro Baltimore area office, the church’s Technical Director Derwent “D” Williamson was able to source all of the wireless systems and products he needed to keep the church’s productions at the cutting edge of technology and regulation.
The church’s location in a suburb of Baltimore means that it has to be acutely aware of changes to frequency allocation rules that particularly affect large urban areas that have a log of sports, broadcast and entertainment venues using a substantial amount of RF.
“We do a very wide range of performances here,” says Williamson. “We’ve often had as many as twelve wireless channels going at once on stage, between actors and musicians. We need our wireless to be as reliable as possible.”
In the past, says Williamson, the church has had problems with dropouts, and the arrival of new regulations regarding wireless spectrum allocation meant it was time for an upgrade across the board.
Working through GC Pro, the church purchased 14 channels of new Shure ULX-D wireless, including handheld transmitter and bodypacks, plus Shure PSM900 in-ear system and a Shure PA821A 8-channel antenna combiner.
The system was delivered in time for Williamson and his staff of technically astute volunteers to install it for the church’s annual Easter stage event.
“We took a bit of a risk in putting such a new system to work on such a high-profile event on short notice,” Williamson says. “But on the other hand, we’ve been customers of GC Pro for seventeen years now, and we know that there’s a level of reliability and trust that would let us feel good about something like that. They helped us decide on what we needed, provided extremely competitive pricing and made sure they were delivered on time,.”
They also provided a TOA line array system and a Behringer X32 digital mixer for a multi-purpose room. “It’s a great feeling to know you have that kind of support behind you.”
