03/14/2022
So I asked Aaron for a brief description of what we are doing at Northside UMC and this is what he gave me. As always, Aaron goes above and beyond on pretty much everything!
Through the last 10 years working with Northside United Methodist Church, we have made extensive efforts to ensure that all of the spaces we have worked on are able to interact with each other. As a result, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we were able to rapidly and easily convert their current chapel space into a broadcast mixing space for live stream audio. Now that the pandemic is slowing, people are returning to in-person worship on a regular basis. The church is finding themselves in need of the chapel space on Sunday mornings and decided to peruse the construction of a broadcast studio. This space is also going to serve as a long desired recording studio space in the church. To accomplish this, we are converting two existing storage rooms below the traditional sanctuary into a control room and live tracking space. In the control room we are outfitting the space with an Allen & heath Avantis console. On Sunday mornings the console will receive audio feeds from the contemporary worship space via Dante and video signals using a new 16x16 router that will receive its inputs via direct fiber link to each of the main worship spaces. This audio will be mixed on the Avantis console, and uploaded to the stream through the existing Dante to SDI embedders in the systems.
The Live room will function as a Live stream mixing space for the traditional worship services on Sunday mornings by bringing Dante based audio from the sanctuary into a new Allen & heath SQ5 console that will be mounted to a mobile cart system in that space.
Now, this is where the real fun starts.
We have sealed all the gaps between the existing storage spaces, had the church add new, dedicated iso splits for the HVAC, added an acoustical isolated (and angled) window between the spaces and installed STC 56 rated sound isolating doors. When combined with the new interior acoustic treatments and above ceiling batting and isolation treatments, we are creating an absolutely stellar recording environment. The main control room will use the Avantis console as a DAW controller and secondary audio interface. To improve on this, we have added 16 of Allen & Heath’s premium preamps for high quality audio tracking. This will be connected (via Dante) to a ferrofish A32 Dante that will provide an additional 32 high grade A/D and D/A converters for use with analog outboard equipment. The primary interface, an RME UFX+, will be connected to the Ferrofish unit via MADI and will connected directly to Protocols, Logic, Ableton or any other DAW software through a thunderbolt connection. A Dangerous monitor controller, combined with both an Adam AX7 monitor pair, and Adam Subwoofer, and original pair of NS10 Studio monitors will round out the facility. Also included will be a small army of new mics, outboard analog equipment and plugins will live in the new DangerFox desk and rack.
