Steve Krogedal, Technical Director at Green Valley Community Church in Placerville, CA, routinely encountered a host of wireless microphone system problems each week when it was time for services, with the church recently deciding to provide Krogedal with the budget to rectify the most pressing issues by adding a new Digital Hybrid Wireless system from Lectrosonics.
The non-denominational church, with a congregation of roughly 2,500 members, conducts four services each weekend—one on Saturday and three on Sunday. Worship services are contemporary in nature and music plays an important role.
With a 6-8 piece praise band and an accompanying vocal group, there’s plenty of reason to expect clear, consistent performance from the system’s wireless mics.
“I can’t begin to tell you how many times I struggled with faulty switches,” Krogedal said. “I’d frequently have to switch the transmitters on, then off, and then on again before they’d work. This doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
“Between this and subpar sound quality, I’d about had it. I looked closely at a variety of wireless equipment and I’m more convinced than ever that our Lectrosonics purchase was the right decision. We are now the proud owners of a 6-channel Venue receiver system stocked with the company’s VRS receiver modules, six SMDa transmitters, six HM172 earset mics, and a pair of M152 lavalier mics.”
“The sound from this system is terrific,” he adds. “It’s extremely clear and natural and, since there’s no companding, we never encounter any of those unpleasant artifacts characteristic of lesser quality wireless mics. This system also has excellent gain before feedback, so there’s never an issue getting the volume levels we need out of the equipment.”
Krogedal reports that for regular services, he typically deploys just one or two wireless channels. “While the channel count certainly isn’t big news, the performance is,” he says. “If the congregation can’t hear everything the teaching pastor has to say, then the message is lost and that doesn’t benefit anyone.
“The Lectrosonics system makes it very easy to identify and lock down available frequencies and the hardware is first rate—so I never have to worry about faulty switches, dropouts, or any of the issues I used to regularly contend with. Our new equipment provides a high degree of confidence that everything will work as expected.”
