Winter Park, Florida, is the latest location for the fast-growing Action Church, taking on management the church’s broadcast operation. A worship community in the Orlando area that also has churches in the suburbs of Oviedo, Sanford and South Orlando, the church has enjoyed startling growth between 2017 and 2018, less than four years after it was founded.
From the new Winter Park campus, Pastor Justin Dailey preaches the church’s Sunday message each week. As such, that location is church’s technology showcase, and its renovation from former Masonic Lodge in 2018 to Action Church’s flagship reflects that, with state-of-the-art audio, video and lighting technology throughout. This extends to the two Klang:fabrik immersive IEM mixing systems installed there by Parrish, Florida-based HOW integration specialist Crown Design Group as part of the first phase of the venue’s renovation.
‘We designed, installed and commissioned all of the technology at this location, their largest campus, and they wanted it to be the most high-tech of all of them,’ says Crown Design Group co-owner, Garrett Walker, a fact underscored by his company’s installation there of a touring rider-friendly L-Acoustics Kara loudspeaker system. ‘They often have a lot of musicians onstage at once, and the line-up can change frequently, so we recommended that they use the Klang systems, and they agreed. These are the most flexible, easiest-to-use in-ear monitoring solutions on the market today.’
Walker says that the church required an IEM solution that could scale as onstage needs change, and also interface with other systems and platforms in use, most notably Dante, which is the network backbone for the church’s audio.
‘The Klang systems’ compatibility with Dante was a key factor in their choice,’ he says, as was the systems’ ability to be operated via an iPhone or Android app. ‘That was very important, because while their front-of-house console can use an iPad app for remote control, not everyone has an iPad or tablet, but almost everyone has an iPhone or Android phone.’
Action Church Experience Director John Williams says that although the Klang system is certainly a hit with their worship team, the savings that it provides in terms of additional gear and operator manpower is another benefit: ‘Klang provides us with the flexibility and audio intelligibility that our musicians and vocalists absolutely love,’ he says. ‘But I personally think the biggest benefit is being able to offer quality, personal mixes on the platform without having a monitor console and an additional engineer to run it.’
The ubiquity of smartphones and the availability of the free Klang:app sealed the deal. ‘And that really adds to the Klang systems’ ease of use,’ Walker adds. ‘Once we programmed the system, musicians and vocalists can have separate groups for the monitors, which makes it much easier to manage all of the channels needed for a large group on stage. And the quality of the immersive sound is exceptional. So in terms of fidelity and operational ease, the Klang systems win on all counts for the church. And, as integrators, the fact that it interfaces with so many other key systems makes it a great solution for us. That’s why we now recommend it to all of our clients.’
See also:
Allen & Heath systems spring into Action Church
Florida church takes action on sound experience
