Case Studies

Seacoast Grace Expands to Multi-Zone Monitor Mixing

Personal Mixers Clean Up the Live Sound

A dual-feed Aviom Pro16 personal mixing system at California’s Seacoast Grace Church has given the church the ability to do more complex productions featuring video and enhanced music elements during worship services.

The multi-zone Aviom system installed in the main auditorium provides the church with two different sets of monitor channels that can be sent to groups of performers, giving tailored control to individual musicians. Using Aviom’s Personal Mixers along with an in-ear monitoring system, the church’s band, vocalists, and program directors also can now hear a click track, enabling the live performers to accurately play to timed, pre-recorded elements while also offering critical communications between the director and performers.

“We have been using a single Aviom Pro16 system for a while with great success,” says Chuck Mitchell, consulting audio director for Seacoast Grace Church. “We moved the performers to an in-ear system with Aviom Personal Mixers and eliminated most of the wedge monitors, which really cleans up the live sound. We decided to install a second Aviom AN-16/i module to expand the channel capability to two 16-channel systems as this year’s Christmas productions warranted greater use of pre-recorded video and audio.”

Personalized Monitor Content For Each Section

Seacoast Grace currently uses a 48-channel Soundcraft K2 console with eight sub mix buses, eight stereo channels, and eight aux buses to handle the audio production for the 1,100 seat auditorium where the main worship services are produced. With the addition of the second Aviom AN-16/i Input Module, Mitchell now has the capability to offer a different set of channels to the instrumentalists and to the vocalists, while maintaining communication with the music director at the piano.

“We have essentially looped some channels from the primary instrumentalist’s Aviom AN-16/i module, and added others (such as individual vocals) to the second AN-16/i module, allowing us to offer different sets of channels for the band and the singers,” Mitchell explains. “One key element is the ability of our music director to communicate with the band and the front of house mixer while he plays piano during the services. We have an aux channel dedicated to talkback and dialog. This setup has totally changed our ability to function on the fly and work well with a music director who needs to constantly communicate with the performers.”

Another key element facilitated by the Aviom system is the transition from an all-live performance to a combination of live and pre-recorded, multi-tracked elements, enhancing the production value of the services.

“With the two Aviom input modules, we can now reliably provide a click track to everybody on stage,” Mitchell states. “Because of that capability, we’ve implemented show control software for feeding lighting cues, video segments and a boatload of audio support tracks, all triggered by the musical director on stage. With everyone in sync, we now fortify a live string section, for example, with a dozen pre-recorded string tracks. Our keyboard parts are often embellished with different sounds and effects. Even our drum tracks are usually enhanced with extra custom drum loops, making the entire production pop with power and excitement. The Aviom system has given us a larger variety of production choices.”