BISMARCK, ND — Historical roots run deep in along North Dakota’s Interstate Route 94, yet on the northern edge of Bismarck, ND rises something quite modern, yet steeped in history nearly as old as the city itself. It began 108 years ago, when a group of doctors founded the First Evangelical United Brethren, later changed to the First United Methodist Church. Recently, the congregation took occupancy of its new building and with that, took a name befitting the long history of the congregation: Legacy United Methodist.
When the church budgets were completed and set, Jay Griffin and his team from Dakota Sound found themselves with a new choice to add to the original job spec, the Allen & Heath GLD-80 console. “We changed mid-stream and put the GLD-80 in our bid, its capabilities and price point gave us the winning advantage over the other bidders.”
The new audio system also includes the Bose Room Match speaker system, eight Shure ULX-D wireless mics and ten Shure SM-81 ambient microphones — all powered by Bose PM 8500, 8-channel amplifiers.
In addition to the Allen & Heath GLD-80 console, there is an AR 2412 mix rack and two AR-84 expander racks. You might think the AR 2412 and two AR-84 expander racks would be enough for any House of Worship audio demands — not with Pastor Dan Weigel running the service, no way. Legacy Methodist also employs Allen & Heath’s ME-1 personal mixer, eight of them.
“At first I was leery and a bit scared by what I was trying to do,” says Weigel, adding, “The Allen & Heath console allows me to keep the services fresh, I like to switch the music arrangements and the musicians around every week — the A & H strip assignments’ are so easy, all I do is slide my strip assignment on the big touch screen and I’m done. Of course, I can do this with an analog board, but it’ll take forever. Plus I can save EQ’s and all my settings to a library and recall or flip my audio platform in a minute.”
Griffin was also happy and relieved st
ating: “Once the ME-1 system was set up and programmed the client was thrilled — especially since he initially had a preference for another personal mixer. I would not go with any other personal monitor — it integrates seamlessly with the GLD-80.”
The one challenge facing every house of worship that installs a new audio system is teaching the team of volunteers. “The touch screen EQ-ing visualizes to the operator how they are affecting sound, making sense to the layperson immediately.” Griffin adds. Weigel puts it quite simply. “My biggest worry was the learning curve of the board. User-friendliness is a top priority for us. What my team of volunteers and I discovered is you don’t need to be a technically trained person to operate the GLD-80.”
But the extensive feature set is a definite plus. “The breadth of capabilities is amazing,” Weigel enthuses. “Next we want to record, mix and produce DVD’s and CD’s of our services and other events. Plus we’ll be streaming our services live online in the near future.” So stay tuned for the next chapter of the Legacy United Methodist Church; the sequel is about to happen.
