New Testament Church of God in Leeds, UK, which hosts a congregation of 270 worshippers with up to 50 people on-stage including a band and the choir for Sunday services, has been outfitted with a new Midas PRO1 digital console courtesy of Mark Payne, technical director of Sound Foundation Ltd. (SFL) of Reading, a UK sound, light and audio hire company specializing in house of worship applications.
The new console came at the direction of Pastor “Prince” Chambers and volunteer A/V supervisor Brother Neville Higgins to replace the previous FOH console, on-stage sub-mixers, effects and graphic EQs with an affordable yet high-quality digital audio mixing system.
“I’m a big fan of the sound of the Midas PRO Series consoles and the entry model PRO1,” explains Payne. “While being very compact and affordable, it has exactly the same sound as the rest of the range. Same mic pres, converters, processing and EQ.”
In addition to the great sound, Higgins loves the simplicity and security of the PRO1: “The effects and all other settings are saved internally, so set up is instant and my ‘secret weapon’ is the Scene Lock function. Sometimes, in my absence, the musicians will make changes to the console and forget what they did or forget to tell me. So I have a special locked scene which I recall before I start, so I am always starting from the same set-up.”
The New Testament Church of God also owns a TriCaster Video system and creates DVDs of the services, edited live, for immediate distribution. “The sound for the DVDs is a dedicated feed from Aux 15 and 16 on the PRO1,” says Higgins. “The whole system now sounds so much better – but the biggest difference was in the record feed. I was shocked at how much we were able to improve the audio quality of the DVDs.”
As part of the commissioning, SFL included an on-site training session, and now Higgins trains others. “The PRO1 can be used in a very simple way, which is great when you first get started,” he notes. “Now, as I’m getting more into it, I keep finding more and more features. I particularly like the choice of five compressors on every channel which can be compared instantly – without the need to patch and interrupt the sound.”
