Sitting, literally, under the stage of the Auditorium at the Community of Christ's international headquarters in Independence, Mo., event media systems coordinator Bob Haworth is thinking about the changes he's seen at the place where he's worked for the past 40 years.
Yes, 40 years. Imagine all the changes that have taken place in pro audio in just the past 10 years, and you get an idea of why Haworth is taking his time to answer the question about the PAs in the church's two main venues – the Temple and the Auditorium.
Under the Stage
By the way, Haworth isn't cramped under the stage. "In the original design of the room, this was going to be a hydraulic platform stage that would drop eight feet to a loading and unloading area," he reports. "Below that was a place where all that mechanism was to reside. They didn't put it in, thank goodness. That would have been a mess."
These days, the space is used for support facilities, video and audio reinforcement equipment and some the electrical infrastructure. "We have a pass-through on that stage floor, so we just drop cables down. All of the microphone splitting and fiber optics systems are down here."
In fact, an Otari Lightwinder system connects the Yamaha M7 consoles that are in the Temple and Auditorium to the on-campus TV station. "We get into some pretty technical programs when we're using both spaces," Haworth reports.
Both venues at the Community of Christ headquarters are architecturally striking – the 1,600-seat Temple for its stainless steel spire that rises 300 feet into the sky, and the 6,000-seat Auditorium for it's round structure. Construction on the Auditorium was started in 1926 and competed in 1958. The church, formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, "never went into debt," Haworth notes.
Currently Haworth and his team is busy completing two projects – pulling wire for a new Clear-Com Digital Matrix Intercom system and a Sennheiser Conference system that will enable translation of any spoken word into eight different languages in the Temple and 14 in the Auditorium. They have also recently finished the installation of a Sennheiser 2000 Series wireless system for both venues that includes 18 dual-channel EM 2050 receivers, 16 SK 2000 belt packs with HSP 2 head worn microphones, MKE Series lav mics and eight SKM 2000 handheld mics.
FCC Compliance
The Sennheiser 2000 system was installed, Haworth says, to comply with the recently updated FCC regulations. "I think a lot of churches just shrugged and are continuing to use their existing equipment. I know a lot of our congregations are continuing to use what they had on hand until they can't use it anymore," he says. "The approach we took was that, legally, we shouldn't be on those channels."
They auditioned gear from Sony and Shure before landing on Sennheiser. "We chose the Sennheisers because of the frequency agility and the computer interconnect capability that lets us set and manage the entire system from a PC," he says. "We installed the receivers as fixed items in each room and then we move the transmitter belt packs and handhelds around as needed. We don't have a one-to-one transmitter to receiver. We've got about 38 channels of receivers spread around."
As far as other upgrades, Haworth reports that in the past couple of years they replaced the DDA Series D consoles that had been in both rooms with Yamaha M7s.
FOH Position Behind Glass
Because the Auditorium is a building that was built back in 1926, the FOH position is located behind glass in between the main floor and the balcony. "We're not actually listening to the room when we mix," he explains. To solve that, a set of PZMs have been set up in the back of the room, set up like a Sennheiser head. "I've got a set of monitors in the booth that we turn on to hear the ambiance of the room. It's tricky."
When a performance is booked where a system will be rented and flown from local company Harvest Productions, they'll move the M7 out into the room and run a digital snake to the console.
The Auditorium features eight Bose 802 boxes, hung from an acoustic cloud. "This is the third install of the 802s that we've had in that room. They handle the room very well for what they are," he says. "We put them in for the first time 20 years ago."
That said, Haworth explains they are auditioning boxes from Renkus-Heinz and EAW to bring more of a concert system into the space.
A couple of years ago the boxes in the Temple were upgraded to a Renkus-Heinz Iconyx system. "Up until then, it was an under-pew system that sort of worked," he says with a laugh.
While they removed most of the old system, a number of Community RS 660 and RS 220 boxes were kept. In fact, the 660s are used in the Temple when certain musical performances take place and the 220s are there for whenever stage or front fill are needed.
Daily Services
In addition to intelligibility, Haworth points out that one of the prime requirements to picking a system for the Temple is ease of use. "We have a daily service in the temple sanctuary, and the system has to auto-operate," he says. "They power it up with a button on the AMX system and then when they're done they hit a button and power it back down. The M7 makes it so much easier, because of the gating capability on the mics. I don't worry about it going into feedback."
Along with the Temple and the Auditorium, Haworth is turning his attention to a couple of the other rooms on campus. "We've got two visitors theaters, multiple classrooms and a lecture hall, all of which do multiple types of tasking and have fairly decent systems in them," he says. "I have one of those rooms that we haven't done renovations in, but that's looking like a total renovation, because the space doesn't work like the original design and we want to do something with it."
