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| A Primedia Property | |
| June 5, 2004 | |
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Table of Contents Houses of Worship Top Story Looking to the future, Alaska church jumps to HD video Installation News Meyer Sound surround system supports "virtual worship" Maranatha Chapel installs TC Electronic EQ Stations Product News Shure introduces SLX Wireless Systems Lake Convolution enhances Allen Organ sound Digital Projection launches new projectors ADVERTISEMENT Since 1980, FSR has been providing ultra high quality audio and video control and switching solutions to the a/v industry. Located in West Paterson, New Jersey, all FSR products are "Made in the USA" and carry the warranty and support that you require. At FSR, "We have what you need". www.fsrinc.com Houses of Worship Top Story Looking to the future, Alaska church jumps to HD video Houses of worship, with their perennial budget crunches and technical staffs composed largely of volunteers, might not be the market segment one would expect to lead the industry-wide migration to widescreen high-definition video. But one Baptist church in Alaska has taken a leap into the future by equipping itself for HD production well before it is actually able to execute video in high definition. Anchorage Baptist Temple, the largest Baptist ministry in the state, recently upgraded its in-house video system with six new Sony HD cameras and six new HD studio lenses from Fujinon. The new lenses include five XA72x9.3 ESM telephotos and one HA22x7.8BERM ENG-style zoom lens. ADVERTISEMENT  TV One produces over fifty products for the professional video market worldwide, including Seamless Switchers, Scan Converters, Video Scalers, HDTV Converters, Standards Converters, SDI Converters, Matrix Routing Switchers, Digital Video Recorders, Video Servers, LCD Monitors, Frame Synchronizers, Distribution Systems and other Video Terminal Equipment. www.tvone.com But the church isn't doing actual HD video yet, either for broadcast or for in-house projection. Why invest in leading-edge equipment they're not ready to use? According to the systems integrator who handled the install, the church wanted both to plan now for an eventual move to HD, and to get the most out of an upgrade that was already overdue. "The investment they had made previously was 10 or 15 years ago," notes Jeff Dowd, senior editor at Anchorage-based Syntax Productions. "They were starting to have some problems, and it was clearly time to do an upgrade." The choice, Dowd adds, came down to upgrading now and doing it again in a few years when HD became more mainstream, or making the bigger jump right away. "It's tough to go back to a nonprofit organization for more money to upgrade again," Dowd says. Anchorage Baptist occupies a large sanctuary/school complex built around a 2,100-seat main auditorium. Video is projected on large screens flanking the altar, and also routed to a production room. It is edited into a one-hour TV program that appears, delayed, on ABC affiliate KIMO as well as on a number of other stations around the state. Churches may actually develop into a hot market for high-definition video sooner than many people expect, says Dowd. "If I were a salesman, I would push HD," he goes on, "perhaps in a smaller and less expensive way at first." Although the church currently doesn't broadcast, record, or project in high definition or the 16:9 aspect ratio, it has nonetheless realized benefits from its upgrade. Even downconverted to standard definition, "The video we're getting is so much sharper and cleaner, and it shoots in so much lower light," Dowd says. What's more, armed with the new telephoto and zoom lenses, church video operators can get shots that were impossible before. "The cameras are at the back of the church and we couldn't get the shots we needed," Dowd says. Now, almost any angle or composition a director might want is easy to acquire. Digital video brought additional advantages in ease of use and reliability (particularly important in a relatively remote location like Alaska), Dowd says. Churches frequently face decisions about upgrading and updating obsolescent video systems, and HD will be an increasingly common option they'll consider, Dowd believes. Even though standard-definition systems are less costly and can deliver excellent quality, he comments, "Since HD is the way it's going to go, you might as well dive in." ADVERTISEMENT  Project the word in a new light! Capture your congregation's attention and inspire your audience by engaging them in an audio visual experience they will not soon forget. IAVI can help by providing state of the art LCD Projectors at an affordable cost. For more information call us toll free at (888) 999-6564 or visit our website at www.iavi.com Installation News Meyer Sound surround system supports "virtual worship" Atlanta's Buckhead Church, a new satellite campus of the fast-growing North Point Community Church, is pioneering a bold approach to multi-site worship. The new setup enables churchgoers here to feel that they're sharing a common experience with those attending services at the main campus a dozen miles away. Using high-definition video and a six-channel surround sound system based on Meyer Sound loudspeakers, the roughly 1,000 worshippers at each Buckhead service are "digitally transplanted" into a worship recorded one week earlier at the larger North Point main auditorium. The creation of Buckhead Church's "virtual worship" approach was prompted by the rapid growth of the parent congregation, located in suburban Alpharetta. The original 3,000-seat main auditorium was built in 1998, and a 2,500-seat addition was constructed only three years later. But as both rooms started to overflow -- despite multiple services each Sunday -- North Point sought new ways to accommodate the throngs of churchgoers coming from throughout the metro area. Finally, in 2002 the church decided to open a satellite campus in a more centralized location: Atlanta's stylish Buckhead district. The chosen site for the temporary church was a 40,000-square-foot, recently vacated grocery store. (Construction starts soon on a permanent structure nearby.) A primary goal behind launching Buckhead Church was to emulate both the substance and the feel of the main campus services. Buckhead would develop its own dedicated on-site music team, but because founding pastor Andy Stanley's weekly message is at the core of the church's worship, the new satellite campus would have to integrate his role as seamlessly as possible into the local service -- without him actually being there. "Our goal was to create, as much as possible, a believable impression of sitting in the main auditorium," explains Aaron Hawthorne, media director for North Point. "We hadn't heard of this being attempted at this level before in other churches, so we ended up looking to the cinema for a working model." Buckhead's novel approach to AV systems was fashioned in a collaborative effort involving a church team, headed by Hawthorne and George Clark, founder and chief engineer of Atlanta-based Clark ProMedia. To create the visual illusion of being at the main campus, the design team decided to use a high-definition video image on a center 18-foot x 22-foot screen using a Christie Roadster projector. This screen normally shows a life-size static image taken from a single camera, coupled with close-ups and supplemental images on the two side screens. As the chief audio system designer, George Clark's challenge at Buckhead was multidimensional. The system would have to carry the full impact of the energetic live music program, provide excellent intelligibility and lifelike voice quality for the pastor's recorded message, and also support with ambient sounds the illusion of embedding the Buckhead Church into the larger home campus space. Clark designed the core of his system around Meyer Sound's self-powered CQ-1 wide coverage and CQ-2 narrow coverage main loudspeakers, employing them for both the main front LCR arrays and the rear surrounds. "The Meyer Sound loudspeakers were preferred for this project from the beginning, for several reasons," notes Clark. "The North Point campus has CQs in the children's auditorium, so all the audio people on staff were familiar with the quality of the sound. But another key reason for going with Meyer was the fact that Buckhead is really a temporary installation. In about two years, all of this equipment will be pulled out and most of it will likely go into the new church building. The way we have it designed and installed, we can take it out after church one Sunday, and have it up in the new location before the first service the following week." The main front left and right arrays comprise two CQ-2 loudspeakers, with four CQ-2 cabinets in the center array. A single UPM-1P ultra-compact wide coverage loudspeaker serves as downfill under each array. Two UPA-2P compact narrow coverage loudspeakers serve as rear delays for the front clusters, with three more UPA-2P cabinets on each side covering the side alcove seating areas. The matched, high-power rear surrounds are four CQ-1 loudspeakers, supplemented by ten small, conventionally powered side surround cabinets. The "virtual worship" surround effect is created from six-channel uncompressed source material (from D5 digital video tape) using the matrices in the system's Soundweb DSP controller. The tape played back at Buckhead is usually recorded during the previous week's service at the main campus, with audio and video postproduction done during the week in the church's own studio. Though the "virtual worship" component of the service was the driving force behind installation of a multichannel surround system, Aaron Hawthorne notes that the technology also has been employed to enhance the live music program. "When we have the choir singing, we will blend some of that into the rear surrounds, to make it seem like the people out there are singing louder. That gets everyone singing even louder still, and bolsters the whole worship experience." Hawthorne adds that the church FOH engineers also may blend some reverb into the surround speakers "to put an artificial tail on the sound decay and make it feel like you are in a larger room. It adds some depth to the singers, and we also put some on the speaking voices in the live part of worship, so there's not a stark contrast to the bigger room sound you hear in the pastor's message." In essence, the goal at Buckhead was to provide a complete worship experience that didn't make those attending the satellite campus feel like "second-class citizens." It seems to be working as hoped. Within a year, Buckhead Church had grown to fill all three worship services, upping the schedule to five services each Sunday in May of 2004. That step required recruitment of a second music team and additional production personnel. However, for Pastor Stanley's "virtual worship" segment, adding two -- or even 20 -- more services poses no problem whatsoever. For more info, visit www.meyersound.com. Maranatha Chapel installs TC Electronic EQ Stations As soon as the first TC Electronic EQ Stations arrived in the U.S., Dave Shadoan's production company Sound Image took delivery of two units for Maranatha Chapel in Rancho Bernado, Calif., near San Diego. Sound Image configured the two eight-channel EQ Stations to handle both the front of house and monitor EQ for the sanctuary. According to Scott Fannon, senior sound engineer at Marantha Chapel, TC processing was the major factor in the decision to go with EQ Station. "After turning them on it was as if we had installed a new sound system in the sanctuary. The dynamics were better and the overall fidelity was much more open-sounding," said Fannon. "I heard things in the system I wasn't able to hear before, from the chest-pounding punch of the bottom end to the sizzle of the cymbal along with the cymbal's bell sound. "The first Sunday the EQ Stations were operational, I had people coming to the sound booth wondering what I had done to make the system sound so good," he enthused. Another important feature Fannon was looking for in a live EQ was the ease of use. "I think I had the sanctuary, front of house, and monitors dialed in within the first 30 minutes," commented Fannon. For more than eight years Sound Image has been involved with the design, development, and continual upgrade of the AV and control system at Maranatha Chapel. As the facility has grown, so has the system become more elaborate. In 2002 Sound Image completely upgraded the sanctuary's monitor system and installed some custom rear-projection screens. EQ Station is a professional digital EQ system designed for use in demanding live-sound and fixed-installation applications. Available now from dealers across the US in two-, four- and eight-channel configurations, the 2 RU system features TC-quality A/D and D/A conversion, digital signal processing and full color display. Each channel simultaneously provides six-band parametric EQ, 29-band graphic EQ, three-band dynamic EQ, brickwall limiter, and delay. The optional lightweight 4U MotoFader-64 remote has 29 high-quality motorized faders that can be used to directly control up to 64 channels of graphic EQ in realtime. For more info, visit www.tcelectronic.com. Product News Shure introduces SLX Wireless Systems Ideally suited for installed sound applications and working bands, Shure's new SLX Wireless Systems deliver superior audio quality in an easy-to-use and quickly configurable package. The systems offer Shure's patented Audio Reference Companding technology, along with an innovative setup complete with automatic synchronization. SLX supports up to 20 compatible systems (area-dependent). The new system, which sits in between Shure's Performance Gear Wireless and ULX Wireless lines, is a logical choice for houses of worship, corporate boardrooms, lecture halls, and portable road cases. The system's stellar sound is founded on Shure's patented Audio Reference Companding, a technology that brings more transmission clarity and dynamic range to wireless systems than ever imagined with traditional technologies. Unlike wireless companding schemes that are restricted by a fixed compression ratio, SLX technology utilizes a variable compression ratio. The result is the elimination of wireless artifacts during quiet passages and superior dynamic range. On an operational level, the system employs features that make setup almost effortless. Using Auto Frequency Selection and Auto Transmitter Setup, the system scans the wireless landscape and identifies a clear channel instantly. Then, guided by an infrared link, at the touch of a button the transmitter automatically syncs with the receiver. With over 960 operating frequencies across 24MHz of UHF bandwidth, users should be able to quickly and easily set up as many as 20 systems in a given location (area-dependent). Each rugged metal SLX Wireless receiver employs diversity technology to improve reception and minimize dropouts. The receiver is outfitted with rack-mount hardware, detachable 1/4-wave antennas, a backlit LCD display, 1/4-inch and XLR-output connectors, frequency and power lockouts, an in-line power supply, and a rear-panel volume control. Finally, the multi-function LCD displays group, channel, frequency, transmitter battery strength, and locked/unlocked status. SLX's handheld and bodypack transmitters both present users with a choice of Shure's legendary microphones, a timed backlit LCD, frequency and power lockouts, and 300 ft. (100m) of operating range. Two AA batteries provide eight hours of continuous use. The bodypack transmitter works with headworn, lavalier, and instrument microphones and cables. Handheld transmitters are offered with SM58, SM86, Beta 58A, Beta 87A, and Beta 87C capsules. Now shipping, SLX Wireless is available exclusively from authorized Shure dealers. Suggested retail prices for a turnkey SLX system with a handheld SM58 begin at $850 USD. For more info, visit www.shure.com. Lake Convolution enhances Allen Organ sound Lake Technology has exclusively licensed its patented low-latency convolution technique to the Allen Organ Company, the largest producer of church and theater organs in the world and the co-developer of the digital organ. The manufacturer, based in Macungie, Pennsylvania, has just introduced Quantum technology, incorporating the Lake Convolution technique for its Renaissance Organs. There are two basic methods for producing reverberation via DSP. The traditional method relies on DSP structures of delays, feedback paths, and gain blocks to attempt to recreate the impulse response of a sound source in a virtual space. But the way that the building blocks are arranged and the DSP code used lend each reverberation device a characteristic that is not necessarily desired. A more accurate and euphonious approach is convolution reverberation, which analyzes the impulse response of a sound source in a space down to sample level and applies the result to any input source, sample by sample. This approach allows the simulation of the exact characteristics of that specific space. Although convolution is a memory- and processor-intensive technique that typically required a lengthy computation before the result could be heard, the proprietary convolution algorithm developed by Lake is capable of creating the most realistic acoustical simulations ever developed in real time and with very low latency. Lake Technology's Convolution algorithm is the core technology in numerous products in the company's intellectual property license portfolio. Those licensed convolution-based products include the Lake-developed Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Speaker processes, which are also available in Lake's VZ chip design for consumer product applications, as well as Lake's own Huron Acoustic Research Workstation and other, third-party convolution reverberation products. Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Speaker are DSP solutions that allow listeners to experience cinema-quality surround sound through any pair of stereo headphones or loudspeakers. "We are very excited to see that a leading company like Allen Organ understands the leap forward in quality and audio impact the use of Lake Convolution will provide to their customers," said Patrick Flanagan, director of operations - licensing, Lake Technology. "The Allen Organ license and product rollout demonstrates that Lake continues to provide leading and innovative audio technologies to its global brand customers, enhancing their product offerings." Allen Organ Company has been committed to advancing the art of organ building through advanced technology for over 60 years. Allen was granted the pioneering electronic organ patent for the stable audio oscillator in 1938. In 1971, Allen introduced the first musical instrument to use digital sampling. "We see the implementation of real-time convolution as a milestone in digital organ development," said Dwight Beacham, vice president of R & D, Allen Organ Company. "This technology not only improves the organ's sound, but, just as importantly, how the instrument reacts to the musician, greatly increasing artistic results." For more information about Lake Technology and its patented digital audio technologies, please visit the Lake Web site at www.lake.com. Digital Projection launches new projectors Digital Projection International (DPI), an Emmy Award-winning manufacturer of high-performance projection systems, has continued the dramatic evolution of its product lineup by announcing the launch of the new HIGHlite 12000Dsx+ and MERCURY 5000HD, as well as the new iVision long-throw series projectors. DPI also commenced first shipments of its 2Kx1K resolution LIGHTNING 35HD in April. DPI's new products join its extensive lineup of single and 3-chip DLP and DLP Cinema projection systems. Within the last 12 months, the company has introduced 16 new models, the most it has ever introduced in that period of time. To further extend the applications reach of its product line, additional models will be launched later this year. "Our new projectors reflect a dramatic advance in imaging performance and capability, but that is just scratching the surface," said Mike Levi, president of Digital Projection, Inc. "Led by our new 'Professional Series' displays, our products are the most user-friendly, efficient and easy-to-handle projectors available today." Amid the introduction of its new projectors, DPI announced the first of many planned shipments of the LIGHTNING 35HD. Fleets of LIGHTNING 35HD projectors have already been used coast-to-coast for a number of high-profile customers and events. With the exception of the new HIGHlite 12000Dsx+, all of DPI's recently announced products are currently available. The company has held numerous 12000Dsx+ demonstrations for interested dealers and staging customers to great acclaim. The new HIGHlite will begin shipping in Q3 2004. DPI manufactures and distributes an extensive line of ultra high-performance three-chip and single-chip DLP* projection systems. These projectors are the reference standard for demanding applications such as large-venue, live-event staging, Fortune 500, homeland security, education, medical, and scientific research, command and control, digital cinema, commercial entertainment, religious venues and elite home cinema. A UK-based company, DPI's worldwide headquarters is located in Manchester, England, and its North American headquarters is located in Kennesaw, Georgia. For more information: www.digitalprojection.com or www.digitalprojection.co.uk. |
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