ATLANTA — Saint Philip A.M.E. Church in Atlanta, aided by design/installation firm, Communications & Entertainment Inc., has installed an Allen & Heath iLive-176 system at FOH of the 2,500 seat main Sanctuary and an iLive-80 system in the Broadcast room.
“When we were commissioned to refurbish the Sanctuary’s sound and video systems, their analog console was approaching 10 years old,” said systems consultant, Dave Miller, of CEI. “In a digital world, it’s my opinion that you have to be very careful when selecting a desk. When you’re working with a volunteer church staff, it can make or break the whole project.”
With a membership of over 6,000 worshippers, Saint Philip’s multi-purpose Family Life Centre is one of the world’s largest African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church facilities, hosting a blend of high-energy urban contemporary and traditional gospel music presentations, with multiple keyboards, full drum kit plus bass and guitars. Vocals are supplied by several praise team soloists, augmented by one of the Church’s 10 gospel choir groups of up to 70 voices.
An iLive-176 Control Surface is installed FOH in the balcony, connected by Cat5 cable to an iDR10 MixRack located beneath the choir risers and built into a custom drawer that allows easy access. In addition, an iLive-80 surface is installed in the media booth to handle the broadcast mix, which is also recorded together with switched video feeds of the services for use on local cable and as DVDs. The iLive-80 runs off an iDR0, which has a digital split from the iDR10 via Cat5. The two systems are totally independent operationally but share a single set of inputs with the addition of some audience mics for the broadcast mix.
“One of the challenges at St. Philip was the lack of conduit running from the stage area to the mix position upstairs,” said Miller. “Having all the inputs terminate at the iDR10 rack makes life so much simpler.”
The main iLive system handles the entire live presentation including the monitor mixes. The system currently uses 48 microphone inputs, with the potential to add many more. The iDR10 houses 16 primary outputs plus an Aviom module for the monitor system. The main outputs go to an audio processing system with dedicated signals going to the main centre cluster, four subwoofers and nine delay speakers spread above the balcony. The monitor system at Saint Philip is a hybrid, with traditional floor wedges augmenting Aviom personal monitors. iLive’s 1/3 Octave EQs are used for the monitor aux sends. Outputs from the iLive-80 are feeding the main broadcast mix, Panasonic DMR-EH50S DVD recorder, a DTT GX6480 Digital Video Recorder and a cassette tape recorder.
For more information, please visit www.ilive-digital.com.
