Alongside a sanctuary that seats more than 5,200, the World Harvest Church campus in Columbus, Ohio, accommodates an auditorium, television studio, children’s ministry that includes Sunday school for children newborn to sixth grade, the Harvest Preparatory School, and administrative offices. The church also incorporates Valor Christian College, a co-educational institution located on the property.
A recent audio system infrastructure update involved moving all of the church’s DiGiCo mixing platforms onto an Optocore fibre-optic network – a migration that was handled by Orlando-based Owens Audio Video Design, who had provided the DiGiCo systems and a Nexo PA, when they were installed earlier this year.
A new DiGiCo Quantum338 console now serves as monitor mixer – and is an addition to the venue’s existing DiGiCo infrastructure, which includes an SD8 FOH console and SD-Rack that has now been upgraded to include 32-bit Ultimate Stadius microphone preamps.
‘World Harvest Church tends to hang onto their systems and get the most ROI from them as possible – which isn’t unusual,’ says Owens Audio Video Design owner, Bob Owens. ‘The church is a long-time customer and a long-time DiGiCo user – we sold and installed the DiGiCo D5 console in the sanctuary for monitors before we sold and installed the SD8 there in 2010. The Q338 is a great choice – it takes them light years beyond where the D5 was, with more faders and layers and inputs, but at a very cost-effective price for all that additional capability, plus the Quantum processing, which is a super plus for them.’
The church’s audio system now has 56 32-bit mic preamps to work with, as well as 64 AES and analogue outputs at monitors. In addition to the new preamps, the SD-Rack had new interface cards added, including five analogue cards, two AES cards, a Dante card, and an Aviom interface card for IEMs.
‘World Harvest Church’s pastor is pretty outspoken,’ Owens says. ‘When he doesn’t like something, he’ll let you know. But when he does, he’s happy to tell you that, too, and he’s noticed how much better and how much the cleaner the sound in the church has been this year. In fact, everyone’s noticed.’
World Harvest Church Audio Director Joe Cooper is effusive in his praise of the Q338 as well: ‘It made a huge difference for us from the very start,’ he reports. ‘For starters, the 32-bit mic preamps mean we can operate at 96kHz, which makes a big difference in the quality of the sound and gives us so much more headroom. And now that all of the consoles are on an optical loop, we can use the Q338’s control sends to move audio around the network easily if, for instance, we want to send audio back to the front-of-house console for playback for training, virtual soundchecks, or to troubleshoot issues. The flexibility is incredible.’
Cooper, who is the church’s main audio mixer but who also oversees a small crew of contract mixers, says training was not an issue since he and his staff have been progressively moving from previous iterations of DiGiCo operating systems. ‘It was a logical progression from the SDs to the Quantum,’ he says.
Now that the Q338 is in place, Cooper says the Quantum processing power has been a wonder to explore. ‘I’ve been using the Spice Rack a lot, particularly the six-band, dynamic, multiband compressor/expander, Chilli 6. I’ve been a big user of Waves in the past, especially the C6, and with Chilli 6, that kind of processing is now better integrated into the console itself.’
The addition of the Q338 and the fibre loop is changing the church’s workflow. In addition to the improvements it’s made for monitoring, Cooper says he plans to extend the network fibre to the church’s Pro Tools recording studio – again something the Q338’s control sends will facilitate. And the future holds further expansion, as Cooper says he’s recommended the church invest in a Klang in-ear monitor mixing system for the stage. ‘Right now we’re mixing Pro Tools in-the-box, but another Q338 would make a huge difference there, too,’ he says. ‘You never know.’
