PASADENA, TX — The First United Methodist Church sustained major structural damage during Hurricane Ike, losing much of its roof and its audio system, but Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro) helped the church restore its systems in a matter of weeks. "One of the main challenges was having to schedule our activity in between the work being done by contractors repairing the roof, remediating the water damage and mold, and everything else that had to be done," said Les Williams, owner of Worship Media Productions, Inc., a Houston-based systems design and integration company that worked with GC Pro. The church reopened for services in mid-December, about 12 weeks after Ike battered the area with 145 m.p.h. winds.
The church's architectural design called for a short-stack line array consisting of four stacks of two JBL VRX932 enclosures each. QSC PLX3602 amplifiers power the enclosures and the JBL VRX928 backfill monitors. A newly installed Aviom system provides monitoring.
The console is an Allen & Heath GL3800, and system processing is accomplished via dbx DriveRacks. Worship Media Productions also installed new acoustical treatments that had not been part of the previous sound system design. "This combination of equipment lets the church have any configuration of praise band, choir, piano and other singers and instruments," Williams said.
The video system is equally robust. The stage is flanked by two 9 x 12 projection screens, illuminated by Sanyo 100 Series 6,500-lumens XGA projectors and fed by either prerecorded program material or live signal from two Sony BRC300 PTZ cameras operated remotely by a Vaddio "Production-View" switching system. A Toshiba 57-inch LCD screen is hung on the stage's rear wall. Extron and Kramer systems are used for video interfaces, conversions, switching and other operations.
The vast majority of this diverse equipment complement was sourced and supplied by the local GC Pro store, and Williams says he would be hard pressed to accomplish as much on this or any other project without the support he gets from GC Pro. "As long as we've been in business here, GC Pro has been our main supplier," Williams said, crediting GC Pro account manager Troy Hanchett and others for their ability to “always get things done right and on time, under any circumstances. Design changes happen all the time in the field and if we need a certain piece of gear delivered overnight GC Pro makes it happen. I pick up the phone and what we need is there."
For systems integrators like Williams, GC Pro is more than a technology resource — it's also a partner in designing and specifying systems. He recalls a sound project in one of the music education and performance spaces at the University of Miami for which Hanchett made some key recommendations. "As it turns out, we had been under-sizing the amplification of the system and Troy noticed it when he reviewed the specs," Williams said. "Sure enough, he was right. I regularly bounce ideas off of the people I work with at GC Pro. I like to think of them as part of our design team. I don't know where we'd be without them."
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