Work was proceeding normally in the design and construction of the new 550-seat sanctuary for the Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota, when something unexpected occurred.
Dan Redman, president of Spinnaker Multimedia Solutions (Malvern, PA), audio-video-lighting (AVL) integrator for the project, explains: “Everything had been moving forward nicely when the builder hit bedrock in the foundation causing a delay in the project. About that time, our rep called to say Allen & Heath had announced the iLive-T at the NAMM show. We looked at the specs, looked at the numbers and realized the digital console we’d been waiting for had finally arrived, and we would be able to have it installed by the Easter launch of the new facility.”
The Vineyard Church does a contemporary rock presentation, with two guitars, keyboards, bass and drums, usually with three vocalists. With a left-center-right house PA system and eight floor wedges for stage monitoring, Redman specified the iLive-T112 mixing system with iDR32 MixRack. That provides 32 inputs and 16 outputs from the stage, plus the additional I/O available at the control surface.
With the installation nearing the final days before Good Friday inaugural services, Spinnaker’s Dan Redman handled the initial setup of the iLive. “The church’s technical team took to it right away,” notes Redman. “They’re already getting involved in saving scenes and using DCAs to create mute groups and submixes. That’s what we love about the iLive design – the learning process is really fast and intuitive.”
Asa Harting, Worship Ministries Coordinator for the Vineyard Church, agrees. “With just a couple hours of initial training, we were able to pick things up pretty fast. We’re starting to see how we can use different saved scenes, both within a service and in creating settings for each of our four worship teams. We’re really excited to have that ability.”
“Choosing the right console is a big decision, but we had developed a lot of trust in Spinnaker from working with Dan Redman,” notes Harting. “We’d all heard about the quality of the new Allen & Heath boards, so it wasn’t a hard decision, and the board arrived in plenty of time for opening on Good Friday.”
Spinnaker set up the system with four outputs going to the main PA system – one each for the left, center and right speakers, plus the subwoofer. Eight more mono Aux Sends feed the floor wedges for the band, with one stereo Aux Send being used for the drummer’s monitor mix. Additional outputs include stereo mixes for the overflow audience and recording.
Vineyard sound technician Scott Johnson got to experience the transition first-hand. “It was a little intimidating, coming from an analog system,” Johnson relates. “But it has been easy to pick up, and I especially love creating monitor mixes using the main faders. The sound quality is excellent, and the onboard effects are great. But the best part of that first weekend was being able to get the iLive-T working so well for me so quickly. It was a great feeling.”
