A central New Jersey Christian church has upgraded its broadcast facilities with a Solid State Logic Live L100 console – the Wired! Ministry audiovisual technology department at the Calvary Chapel Old Bridge chose the desk based to partner an SSL Live L200 console at front-of-house.
‘We’ve been very happy with our L200, so when our previous broadcast console was reaching end of life it made sense to go with the L100,’ says Wired! Ministry’s Marshall Garcia, who oversees the ministry. ‘It’s nice to be able to swap files between the two consoles. They speak nicely to each other, and it’s great for training.’
With the first console installed during a PA system overhaul in 2017, the new L100 serves congregants using streamed services at home during the pandemic.
Wired! Ministry broadcasts four services per week, as well as special events, via livestream, YouTube and Facebook. ‘A lot of churches will have a compressor on a aux sending out to broadcast, but we wanted to go one step better and send out a mix that’s specifically for the broadcast audience,’ says main broadcast engineer, Nicholas Dunphy. ‘Broadcast became incredibly important in the last year or so with Covid-19 and we wanted to make sure we’re doing a great job for the folks at home.’
The L100 in a broadcast booth overlooking the stage in the church’s 1,000-seat sanctuary – where monitoring includes KRK V6 and JBL loudspeakers – and is connected to the L200 over Madi. ‘We’re using the preamps on the L200 at FOH and we’re sending those upstairs to the L100. The preamps sound amazing,’ Dunphy says.
Services feature a contemporary band incorporating drums, bass, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards and several vocalists, and are also recorded, enabling virtual soundchecks at both console positions via Dante.
‘The L200 was very church-friendly – it fit into our overall budget nicely and it sounds great,’ Garcia says. ‘Because of all the onboard processing, we didn’t have to worry about purchasing any outboard gear.
‘I love all the plug-ins that are on the console, especially the SSL Bus Compressor,’ Dunphy agrees. ‘It’s amazing for the broadcast feed. And on the SSL Channel Compressor, there’s a tube filter emulation that sounds amazing. We put a little bit of compression on the whole mix just to make it a little less dynamic for the end-user.’
Bring realism to the broadcast mix, Dunphy explains that there are two microphones on the ceiling and two on the stage in the main auditorium: ‘We put in just enough of those so that you feel like you’re in the room. We’re able to listen to what the end-user is getting and can adjust the mix so that it feels like you’re at the service in your home.’
The L100’s user interface makes it very easy to operate, Dunphy says. ‘The large touchscreen is probably one of the coolest parts. It’s very similar to a DAW – you’re able to go through all the pages and everything is only one button away. I went through one of SSL’s live training courses and it was nice to see the different features that the console has, how to route things and really get the most out of it. But it’s been very easy to learn.’
And having Live consoles offer the same workflow and experience makes training easy for church volunteers: ‘Once we put them on broadcast, they can learn how to do FOH, and vice versa,’ he says. ‘We have scenes set up for volunteers and set the parameters. They can play as much as they want with EQ and compression, but as far as the routing, the volunteers don’t even need to go there. And we’ll save their mix for them for next time so they can pick up where they left off.’
As things have turned out, the quality of the livestream has helped the church grow during the pandemic, Garcia reports. ‘In our area there were a lot of churches that weren’t livestreaming. Some churches closed down and people were looking for an outlet. They found our website and were enjoying viewing the live services and how it sounded. So, when things opened up, we had a flood of new people from other churches that we hadn’t met before. It’s been a blessing.’
Calvary Chapel, a fellowship association of churches, has its roots in the Jesus Movement that began in Southern California in the 1960s, and by 1984 had attracted a membership of 50, meeting in a school gymnasium. Calvary Chapel Old Bridge now ministers to more than 3,000 congregants its online audience through its Wired! Ministry.
More: www.solidstatelogic.com
