Public gathering restriction prompted by the coronavirus pandemic saw the Crossroads Christian Church – a Southern California megachurch with a congregation of more than 8,000 members – turn off its sound system and move its Solid State Logic Live L500 console from FOH to another room, where it was used to mix monitors for the praise band while creating a separate broadcast mix. The improvement in the live streaming was great enough to prompt the church to install a Live L200 in a new broadcast suite in preparation for the return of in-person services.

‘My production manager, Fred Manuel, mixed monitors and broadcast from the L500 for almost a year,’ says Technical Director and FOH engineer, Tyler DeYoung. ‘We really noticed a difference in the quality.’

But once the 3,000-capacity main worship centre is full and the PA back on, DeYoung says that creating a broadcast mix from FOH, as they did before the pandemic, would be a backward step. ‘We’re mixing for what’s going on in the room, not what’s going online. We can make it sound good, but it’s not a dedicated broadcast mix.’

So, at the beginning of 2021, the church purchased an SSL L200 from long-time AVL production equipment provider and systems integrator CCI Solutions to be ready for when worshippers return.

DeYoung and his staff integrated the new desk themselves, installing it adjacent to the video control room in a space last used to house equipment for a cellphone tower at the campus. The L500 at front-of-house, which was installed in 2017, receives 96 inputs from the stage and now feeds 64 Madi channels using SSL’s Blacklight II Concentrator to the broadcast room. ‘Our broadcast console gain-shares from the FOH console,’ DeYoung says.

An SSL SB 32.24 Dante stagebox provides local I/O for the L200 in the broadcast suite, for sources such as graphics computers and the hosts of the online broadcasts, who are in a studio next to the video room. ‘It’s also for future-proofing,’ he says. ‘If we’re going to be doing any recording, we can send it upstairs and use the L200 and the local I/O for that.’

While the FOH engineer relies solely on the L500’s onboard processing, DeYoung has installed some outboard in the broadcast room to enhance his mixes on the L200. ‘I use the in-console delay, bus compressor and things like that,’ he explains. ‘Then I have a Lexicon PCM70 that I use for snare verb and a TC Electronic M-One for an overall drum verb, although I really like the console’s reverbs as well; the Effects Rack cathedral ‘verb is probably one of my favourites.’

DeYoung is also using Waves plug-ins for vocal and instrument reverbs with the L200. ‘We jumped into Waves mostly for our vocal chain, so we can do auto-tuning live,’ he says. ‘There’s a reason why you use an SSL bus compressor, but I don’t need Waves to do that. This is an SSL console, and it gives me one sample of latency.’

Similarly, he says, when anyone asks him why he’s not using this or that plug-in… ‘I tell them, I don’t need any of that because I have SSL mic preamps.’

DeYoung mixes in a half-dozen microphones positioned around the main sanctuary. ‘We have four audience mics onstage, two large diaphragms and two shotgun mics. We have two more large diaphragm condenser mics out at front-of-house, for room ambience and natural reverb.’

The church streams two Sunday morning services and a Wednesday evening service. ‘We also have a volunteer, Tommy Wright, who mixes for our Thursday night College/Young Adults Ministry,’ says DeYoung.

The new broadcast room has turned out to be the perfect location. The in-house team installed acoustic treatment but haven’t had to add soundproofing. ‘Even when services are running, I barely hear anything from the main room.’

DeYoung himself monitors on a pair of Focal mid-field speakers, additionally referencing the livestream on a TV or via his cellphone or computer speakers.

At-home worshippers wanting an authentic experience might need to turn the volume up on the livestream, because the church likes the sizeable praise band to be at rock concert levels in the worship centre. ‘In the room we’re running around 98dB SPL,’ DeYoung says. ‘It might even hit 100dB. Speaking and talking head stuff is in the 76dB range. But you don’t feel fatigued. It’s more about energy and enjoyment.’