Located in Myung-il-dong, Seoul, Myungsung Presbyterian Church is the largest Presbyterian church in the world, with more than 30 church plants, new churches branches and ten ‘screen’ video churches. The church recently moved from the DiGiCo SD7 it has used for more than 14 years to a Quantum 852, supplied by Soundus.
‘I was very comfortable with the SD7, but after more than a decade of continuous use, the control surface was showing some signs of wear and tear,’ explains Technical Director, Kim Dong Jun. ‘A digital console is just like a big computer, so it is possible for the screens to gradually start to degrade. We mix audio each day and the SD7 had never let us down, but we didn’t want to risk any future failure.’
The Quantum 852 is situated in the 6,500-seat Hallelujah Sanctuary, a church which is home to a 1,000-person choir and a 50-piece orchestra. It holds five services on Sundays, each drawing thousands of worshipers in the Sanctuary, and many more online. Networked audio from the other chapels and smaller rooms is routed via fibre to the main control room, where a second Quantum 852 is situated. The choir is served by 20 DPA stereo paired microphones, suspended from the ceiling, with further mics required by musicians, and IEMs for soloists and worship leaders – requiring the console to accommodate 852 channels.
Over a three-year period from 2022, Kim convinced the church elders to provide a budget for the console upgrade. This was not an easy task because the SD7 had operated perfectly and the committee was not entirely convinced of the need to replace it. However, the time taken to consider their options fully worked in their favour because the Quantum 852 console became available in the interim. Hands-on experience of the Quantum 852 at the Koba Show 2024 convinced Jun that he found the ideal SD7 replacement.
‘DiGiCo seems to know exactly what engineers need,’ he says. ‘Like the SD7, the Quantum 852 incorporates dual engine redundancy over the Optocore fibre ring, but with much newer hardware. The preamps sound amazing and the noise floor is excellent; I feel like I don’t need to make as many adjustments as I did before because everything sounds really clean. The overall audio quality of the Quantum 852 is incredible, and congregants can now identify even the slightest musical nuance.’
The Quantum 852 was delivered and installed in late spring 2025, together with SD-Racks fitted with 32-bit cards. Capable of managing up to 384 inputs, the Quantum 852 provides sufficient channels for present needs and expansion in the future.
The team also benefitted from training provided by DiGiCo distributor Soundus, and Kim Dong Jun is now enjoying many of the Quantum 852’s onboard features.
‘Both the professional and volunteer sound teams enjoy the functionality and ease of use of DiGiCo features,’ Kim says. ‘By turning on the virtual soundcheck and playing a past mix through the main PA, the engineers have easily familiarised themselves with the functions, controls, settings and parameters.’
Between services, Kim Dong Jun enjoys experimenting, especially with the addition of the Fourier transform.engine. The wide variety of plug-ins now available to him with the v20 upgrade has been very beneficial to his work. An age of mixing discovery has commenced for the self-confirmed pioneer. As he concludes, with the 852’s features and transform.engine’s plug-ins, Kim Dong Jun is continuing to inspire and lead those around him with his experience and enthusiasm.
‘With the processing available in the transform.engine, I now have access to an even more powerful DiGiCo ecosystem,’ he says. ‘I can feel the difference in the tube processing as the tube amp modelling on the Mustard gives me the freedom to shape the sound as I want it. The Soothe plug-in is a resonance suppressor that cleans up the audio signal and to date is one of the most demanded plug-ins. The additional compressors added to the Mustard processing are excellent, using Mustard and Chilli makes the 852 feel like a completely unparalleled console.’
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