STAFFORD, VA — This year’s holiday services at Ebenezer United Methodist Church here were enhanced with a new Yamaha CL5 digital console purchased from Irving, TX-based Sound Productions. The church, which offers traditional and contemporary services within its 500-seat sanctuary, also purchased two Yamaha RIO input/output racks in time for its annual holiday productions.
More details from Yamaha (www.yamahaca.com):
“Our decision to replace our existing analog console, was based on three major factors,” states James Mills, Director of Technology. “It had to be a digital console since we have a tight turn-around of 15 minutes between services, and attempting to use an analog board to get accurate sound levels at each service would be very difficult. The console had to physically fit in a tight space. And, as a church, we wanted to spend our money as wisely as possible, so looking at the long-term picture, it made sense to go with the CL5 knowing there would be plenty of room for growth.”
Mills said church staff and volunteers actually had to completely remove their old sound/video booth and rebuild it to fit the new console. Then he and Dave Bryant, the Director of Contemporary Music re-installed the booth’s contents including the new CL5. “I love the ease of setup and punch and clarity the CL5 brings to our sanctuary,” notes Bryant. “Since the band changes almost every week, it’s nice having such a fast, easy way to make changes to the setup, EQ and DCAs. This certainly has set us up for the future, and I’m really excited about that.”
“The console has a lot of nice features that make it friendlier to our volunteer-operator environment, including channel labeling and plenty of room for custom banks,” adds Mills. While he never had direct experience with Dante before the CL5, Mills was familiar with what it could provide in terms of audio networking and features like being able to tap into the network for multi-track recording. “Dante gave us the assurance that this was the console that would take us well into the future.”
Ebenezer UMC’s sanctuary has an average attendance on a weekend of about 1,200 across five services. There are two traditional services, one with a four to six person vocal group and the other with a 30-voice choir. The other three services are contemporary in style with multiple musicians and vocalists.
“The Yamaha CL5 sounds great!” Mills said. “With no other audio changes to our system, the difference in sound from our old analog console to the CL5 is huge. From the pastors to the choir and band, the new console has brought to us a new standard of clarity and natural sound we had not heard in our sanctuary before. The choice of the CL5 has given us the confidence that no matter what happens next, we have a console that will be able to handle it.”
For more information on Ebenezer United Methodist Church, visit www.ebenezerumc.org.
For more information on Sound Productions, Inc. visit www.soundpro.com.
