Case Studies

Shelter Cove Church Improves Worship Experience

Up To The Challenge

In the new sanctuary, the congregants are situated around the stage area. A key challenge for West Coast Sound and Light, who handled the audio, video and lighting for the sanctuary, was to ensure that the stage audio was loud enough for those in the audience to hear without drowning out the people singing or speaking on the stage during worship services. Compounding the issue was the short distance between the stage and the audience, making it difficult to keep the stage sound from overwhelming the audience, especially if those performing used speaker monitors.

“In a space like Shelter Cove’s, on-stage monitors can be troublesome because when several or all the musicians on stage adjust their instruments’ audio levels at the same time, the noise coming from the stage can get loud and drown out the house sound. This forces the sound engineer to run the house sound even louder in an effort to mask the stage sound,” says Andy Cross, general manager and director of engineering at West Coast Sound and Light. “It becomes this constant back-and-forth battle between the house and stage sound.”

To help manage individual monitor levels, the new sanctuary was outfitted with 10 Aviom A-16II Personal Mixers. An Aviom16/o-Y1 A-Net Card for Yamaha provides a digital interface between the Yamaha PM5D console at front of house and the Aviom system.

Improving the Worship Environment

Isaac Gibbs, the technical team leader for Shelter Cove, is pleased at how easily he was able to adapt the Aviom system to his facility’s unique needs. In order to cut down on stage clutter, Gibbs mounted the A-16IIs for the singers on a platform he built that can be wheeled backstage during services. During the rehearsal period, the singers can select the audio settings they need on each mixer. Then the platform is rolled backstage when the actual performance begins. On stage, they monitor the audio levels using wireless PSM 700 in-ear personal monitor systems from Shure, further cutting down on stage clutter.

The Aviom system’s greatest benefit, however, may be what it provides to Shelter Cove’s congregants: a worship environment where music and scripture complement one another and heighten the spiritual message, without the distraction of clashing house and stage sounds. “I think the people sitting out in the congregation feel closer to those on the stage because we’re not sonically separated,” says Joel Dorman, the church’s pastor of worship and creative arts. “We’re better equipped to convey the sense of love and compassion that is central to our mission. The beauty of this technology is that audience members don’t see it at all. They can revel completely in the worship experience alone.”