Springfield United Methodist Church
Introduction
Two years ago, Springfield United Methodist Church, located in Springfield, Virginia came to Audio-Video Group with a task to provide a design-build-maintain relationship for their chapel. The highly successful chapel installation led to AVG’s long-term relationship with the church and the subsequent four-month revamp of their sanctuary AV systems.
The Problem
Springfield United Methodist Church (SUMC) had two design challenges. First, the audience seated in the rear of the room and balcony had an extremely difficult time hearing. Second, the church was planning to eventually add a contemporary service. Now as we met with Springfield United Methodist Church, it was clear that the reason for both their concerns stemmed from their outdated, 20-year-old audio equipment that they were still using.
Their existing sound system was a single speaker at the front of the sanctuary that could only covered half of the sanctuary. On top of that, their current equipment was analog, which left them severely limited when it came to introducing a more contemporary worship service. The team here at Audio-Video Group took these concerns into account; listened to the vision their staff had regarding the contemporary services and designed a solution that exceeded all of their needs.
The Solution
The solution our team drafted up provided both new audio and video components. Our solution was designed to be a hybrid system that is both flexible and simple. Everything can be easily controlled with a Extron TLP 710 TV Touchlink Touchpanel, allowing them to easily switch between a simple hands-free operation for traditional services or a more complex manual mode for contemporary services.
From the audio standpoint, we replaced their single speaker with two RCF-TT-11A performance steerable column array speakers, giving them performance quality audio throughout the entire sanctuary. We also updated their bulky analog outboard equipment with a Roland M300 digital mixing console, which gives them access to a number of powerful features and opens up the door for future contemporary worship services.
To top off the sound system, our team installed Earthworks lectern and choir microphones. At the lectern we chose to use Earthworks FM360 as it was engineered to have a high level of speech intelligibility with no loss in sound quality and exceptional feedback resistance. For the choir microphones, SUMC wanted a flexible solution that could handle both large ensembles and smaller children choirs. With that in mind, we installed Earthworks FW730 which by design are extremely flexible, and provide exceptional sound quality.
The second portion of our build was incorporating video capabilities into their sanctuary to enhance their worship experience and handle their transition into adding a contemporary service. In doing so, we installed a Draper rear projection, motorized screen with a Digital Projection M-Vision 930; a 12,000 lumen projector enabling them to display sermon notes, announcements and lyrics from a laptop running Pro-Presenter. In addition, we were able to add a laptop input connection at the lectern and a 70 inch confidence monitor for the presenter to view.
When all was said and done, we worked with Springfield United Methodist Church to provide another quality audio and video system that not only met their needs, but met their budget. Now they are thoroughly equipped to provide a simple, yet high-quality traditional service, or run a more complex contemporary service, all at the press of a button. If you would like to hear more about this project or think you may have a similar challenge, please feel free to contact Audio-Video Group at 301-668-4448 or visit our website, www.audiovideogroup.com.