When Glow Church launched its newest campus in the western suburbs of Sydney, they once again turned to the expertise of Forefront’s team to install a complete audio, video and lighting system in a 200-seat auditorium.
Founded by Pastors Joel and Ellen Cave, Glow Church has experienced rapid growth over the last decade, expanding its original location in the Gold Coast, Queensland, and launching campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, the UK and beyond. With this growth, the team at Glow Church has prioritised seeing its vision for contemporary and engaging worship services reflected in every new location.
So when it came time to launch a new location in the western suburbs of Sydney, Glow Church again brought in the team at Forefront to design an extensive audio, video and lighting system. As in the past when launching and upgrading Glow Church’s other campuses, Forefront was up to the challenge of replicating the same experience and level of excellence found in the church’s larger locations, within a smaller 200-seat room.
A Seamless Audio Experience Across Campuses
With Adamson Systems installed across all its locations, the choice of PA to be deployed was a no-brainer. For this project, Forefront installed an IS Line Array system, with 6 IS7 Line Array Elements, 2 IS7p point source speakers and IS119 sub-elements, providing impeccable coverage and audio quality in the current room, whilst also allowing the church to easily expand with more line array elements should the need arise.
At Front-of-house, Forefront installed the tried-and-true DiGiCo SD9 Digital Mixing Console. With its 96 Input channels and 48 AUX / Sub Group busses, the SD9 has plenty of power and flexibility for the current worship team requirements and input list, which includes Sennheiser EW-D wireless microphones and G4 Wireless IEM systems.
With this console, Sennheiser wireless gear and Adamson System found across many of the church’s other locations, including its Sydney City campus, the church can benefit from a standardised and consistent approach to mixing service for its volunteers – making training new team members, ensuring consistency across the board and troubleshooting issues significantly easier.
Creating a Stunning Visual Experience
Perhaps the most eye-catching element of the space is the 5.5x3m LED wall that sits centre stage. Designed to be permanently installed with minimal changes, PixaPanel’s instaLED was the perfect choice of LED product, which offers visually stunning video quality at an affordable price point for churches of all sizes. Available in multiple pixel pitches, the choice was made to use a 2.9mm panel, resulting in an unbelievably high-fidelity video experience, even for those on the front row located only a few meters from the screen.
For lighting, Forefront installed a compact but capable rig featuring ShowPRO LED 150 Fresnel, PixaPanel FlatPar Quad 18 wash and CHAUVET R2x Spots. This, paired with a grandMA3 Node running grandMA2 onPC, gives Glow Church plenty of power to design dynamic and engaging lighting for their services, without overwhelming the congregation gathering in a compact space.
Kramer Control: Audio, Video and Lighting Simplified
With multiple events happening the week in the venue, Glow Church West needed a way for untrained volunteers or church members to easily set up basic audio mixes, as well as control basic control of speakers in the foyer space. The answer: Kramer Control. Using just an iPad, volunteers of any department can easily control a microphone and other audio feeds, without needing extensive training. This significantly lightens the load on rostering requirements for mid-week events, such as prayer meetings and small groups. Forefront has installed Kramer Control in churches across Australia for similar use cases, including multiple Glow Church locations, yielding positive results by radically simplifying production.
