The expansive worship sanctuary on the main campus of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, FL, which has always fielded a large contingent of musicians, vocalists, and praise leaders both onstage and on the main floor in front of the stage, recently acquired and deployed a pair of KLANG:vokal immersive in-ear monitor mixing systems joined by 14 KLANG:kontrollers.
Post-Covid, the orchestra and vocalists were spread out even wider at the front of the 3,300-seat auditorium, now split left and right on the 250-seat choir risers, with the band’s guitars, drums, and keyboards remaining onstage. The church’s in-ear monitoring system, already strained, couldn’t manage the new configuration, leading to the acquisition of the KLANG platform to provide the multitude of musicians with added sonic IEM quality and control over their stage mixes.
“The previous IEM system was, well, let’s just say, ‘lo-fi,’” explains Olive Baptist Church director of dedia production Allen Hendrix. “Once the format onstage changed, it became completely inadequate. We needed better sound quality for monitoring, but we also wanted dimensionality, because the musicians and singers are more spread out now. The KLANG system offered a way to let everyone put the instruments and the voices into a perspective onstage that was better oriented for everyone.”
The 14 KLANG:kontrollers are divided among groups within the music array. For instance, vocalists are grouped as sopranos, altos, and male voices, with each group having its own mix through the :kontrollers. The orchestra is divided into woodwinds and strings on one mix and brass on another, and the electrified band members have individual :kontroller mixes.
While the church’s tech and praise teams did the installation and integration of the KLANG systems themselves, Ryan Shelton, national sales manager for Professional Audio Products at KLANG:technologies distributor Group One Ltd, was onsite for the initial configuration of the systems and for training. “The technical support we’ve received, from KLANG in Germany and here in the U.S., is fantastic,” says Hendrix.
Since installing the KLANG system, the change, in workflow and experience, has been noted, he adds. “Everyone in the band onstage now has a much better sense of presence in the IEMs, thanks to KLANG’s 3D aspect. Using KLANG:app on an iPad or iPhone, they can place all the instruments in a soundscape that reflects the reality on the stage. The same goes for the vocalists. It was exactly what we needed after reconfiguring the musicians and singers.”
“And one additional benefit has been that everyone can turn their volumes down,” he continues. “Previously, that had been a major problem, not just about performance but also about health and ear safety. Before KLANG had been installed, people had been leaving one side of their IEMs out and using the other mostly to hear the click and cues, and for pitch. But now they’re all getting the full monitoring experience, as much choir and orchestra as they want in their individual mixes, so it’s much more comfortable and safer to keep both IEMs in. Altogether, the addition of the KLANG system has been a game changer, definitely for the better, for everyone.”
