Looking to replace its main audio console with something more reliable, Cornerstone Church in Ohio called on to local installation company TechArts for recommendations. ‘They were already using dLive at monitors, so the decision was made to change out the front of house console for an Allen & Heath dLive S5000 since it was familiar to them,’ reports TechArts Operations Manager Christian Spurlock.

The churcj audio system now includes three dLive consoles with a compact DM0 Mixrack at monitors, which is operated entirely by the performers on stage using A&H’s OneMix iPad monitor control app. The front of house and broadcast systems each include their own dLive S5000 surface with DM0 128-channel mix engine.

All three dLive systems are fed from a pair of DX32 modular stageboxes that are equipped with several Prime input and output modules. The Prime input modules feature the best preamps Allen & Heath has to offer, with extremely low noise and high resolution 32-bit analogue-to-digital convertersion. The audio is shared between the three systems using Allen & Heath’s gigaAce networked audio protocol.

‘The Prime preamps have been phenomenal,’ notes the TechArts team. ‘It’s been a noticeable difference in quality, even for the majority of the congregation – many of whom are not necessarily “audio people”. The users have also noted big improvements in functionality and workflow.’

With an flat frequency response from 1Hz up to 40kHz, and a fast slew rate, Prime modules deliver detailed and articulate audio to the mix engine at the highest possible resolution. Each of the three consoles are also equipped with their own Dante cards, which are used for simplified playback from computers and for receiving audio from wireless mics. The church also plans to add a 128-channel Waves card in the future to make use of dLive’s Virtual Soundcheck function.

‘TechArts has put together an amazing system for the folks at Cornerstone,’ says Allen & Heath USA Director of Marketing, Jeff Hawley. ‘We’ve had a number of absolute top-tier placements of Prime out on world tours in some of the largest venues around. It is cool to get the feedback from Christian, and the team that the members in the congregation are noticing and really enjoying this sort of high end audio and enhancing their worship experience.’

Spurlock says that TechArts and the team have increasingly been choosing dLive for their installations. ‘It’s our go-to console. In terms of the functionality and the feature set, as well as the sonic quality… you can’t beat it at that price point.’