With the theme of ‘Turning the City Upside Down’, the Perth 4 Jesus gathering took place in late October near Perth in Western Australia. Inside the Joondalup Arena, 2,500 people gathered for a three-day healing crusade and to hear invited guest speaker Ps Robert Kayanja from Uganda, who is gifted with the power of healing. Essential to the event were the sound and lighting.
The organising committee appointed audio specialist Michael Tjandra as the Production Team Leader, allowing him to apply the experience of the pro audio and light industry he had gained in Indonesia. Taking care of the audio, lighting and visual production, the largest challenge he faced was limited loading time, being allowed to bump in at 10am and ready for a rehearsal at 5pm making good time allocation essential. To ease the pressure, Tjandra ended up contracting some suppliers for the event to specialise in allocated tasks.
Sound
Local production company Audio Technik was recruited to supply the sound system for the event, and installed 16 d&b audiotechnik Q1 series as the FOH system supplemented by six d&b B2 subs for the low end. The PA was configured as two main left and right hangs suspended from VMB tower lifts, together with ground-stacked subs. In order to get an even coverage, d&b Q7 series speakers were also used for infill, with two Q7 stacks on top of Q subs for outfill. For monitoring, 14 d&b Max 15 wedges on stage were accompanied by Shure PSM 400 wired in-ear systems for the players. The whole system was driven by d&b D12 amps and processing.
Tjandra mixed the sound on a Digidesign Profile console at FOH for the duration of the event. This was supplemented by a Yamaha M7CL digital console for monitors. On stage, Audio Technik supplied Shure UR radio microphones and a DPA 4088 for Ps Robert Kayanja. The company also provided a mixed selection of Shure, AKG and Sennheiser microphones, as well as Radial DI boxes for instruments. The result was a warm sound with plenty of headroom, and the system was more than capable of serving the venue.
Lighting and recording
Tjandra appointed Matrix Productions to handle the lighting, rigging and staging. Since the venue does not allow any supplier to hang rigging directly from the ceiling structure, Matrix had to use tower lifts for support. The main focus of this event was the sermon and healing crusade, so Matrix supplied the necessary equipment in the form of Selecon 1.2kW fresnells to cover the stage evenly, with a mix of par cans, Clay Paky Golden Colour 1200 and Mac 301 wash LEDs to wash evenly over the stage. Mac 250 Entours were used as spot effect moving heads across the stage. A grandMa Ultra Light Desk was used to control the universe DMX that also connected to LSC e24 dimming system.
Kurioz recorded the event using Sony HDV camera that also displayed on a 12-ftx9-ft screen as IMAG live feed. The event committee also arranged live video streaming of the event via the internet, and the recording will be available on DVD by early next year.
Perth 4 Jesus was organised by Jesus Heals Us Ministry and supported by more than 30 local churches, and included a dance competition to attract the city’s to youth participate. The gathering is also planned to become a regular annual event, involving the cooperation of more churches – extending its mission of turning the city upside down.
