Counting more than 20,000 people attending its 14 Sunday services, Jiguchon (지구촌교회 – Global Mission) is one of South Korea’s evangelical megachurches.
With four buildings to serve – the main Bundang church and the GMN Chapel in Bundang-gu, the Suji church in nearby Suji-gu and the Gyeonggi University Chapel in Suwon-si – the church manages its audio with a newly installed DiGiCo SD7 console with EX-007 expander.
The SD7 and EX-007 provide two discrete mixes. The first –from the SD7’s surface – is for the congregation, while the other is a ‘broadcast mix’ which is routed to different rooms and the church’s other buildings from the EX-007.
‘The acoustics in the main hall are quite difficult, so if they transmit the front of house mix to the other rooms and buildings it can be quite a harsh sound,’ says Chanwoo Kang of DiGiCo’s South Korea distributor, Soundus Corporation. ‘Because the SD7 has such a high channel count and, by using it with an EX-007 they could produce two completely separate live mixes, mixed by two different engineers, from a single set of rack inputs.’
A key feature of the system’s flexibility is that the SD7 and EX-007 are installed in different locations – the SD7 is in the main body of the church, while the EX-007 is in a separate broadcast room. An additional DiGiRack in the broadcast room provides extra audio inputs and outputs, which are handily placed for the EX-007 mix engineer.
‘The church is using around 70 channels for the FOH mix and another 70 for the transmitting mix,’ says Chanwoo. ‘The channels are split into different layers, which allows them to perform the independent mixes at the two positions. The SD7’s dual redundant engines are mirrored for the utmost stability and the brilliant sonic quality means that both the FOH and the broadcast mixes deliver superb results.’
In addition to the Sunday services – which include gatherings for children, youth, university groups, young adults, foreign language services in English, Chinese, Japanese and a specific service for foreign workers – the Bundang church holds prayer meetings every day except Sunday and additional Wednesday services.
‘Initially, rack sharing and redundant mirroring were unfamiliar concepts to the church’s sound engineers, but they learned mixing on the system very quickly and they are very happy with what is a uniquely flexible set-up,’ Chanwoo reports.
More: www.jiguchon.org
More: www.soundus.co.kr
More: www.digico.org
