From the stage , there are 11 monitor mixes – four wedges , four in-ears , and three line-level mixes for active personal monitors . “ That ’ s crazy for a Presbyterian church in a little town !” Jukes laughs . “ We have a leftright stereo mix and centre , and then 11 monitor mixes , plus we have auxiliary going to a nursery and stuff like that , and then they have a video mix .”
Importantly , because the stage is one step lower than the church initially sought , a wheelchair ramp could be built instead of an accessibility lift . That alone saved $ 30,000 . “ This whole thing came in under budget . That doesn ’ t happen a lot in this day and age !” Jukes points out .
Lastly , for video , the church previously had projection screens , which have now been replaced by 82-in . TVs . For those , there is a Roland V8HD video switcher at FOH along with a custom-build video / presentation computer by Focus Computers of New Hamburg , ON .
The complement of stage lighting on the newly-built trussing includes a dozen Elation ZW19 moving heads . “ On the back wall , they have bars and there ’ s another dozen lights that zoom and wash and so
on . From a video point of view , you have the lighting , but you also have presentation material on the TVs . There ’ s a lot going on for a small church ,” Jukes adds .
“ It was crazy tight timeline ,” Jukes notes , having all the sound elements done in one month between early September and October 2020 , plus the stage completed and most of the lighting and video done too .
“ It ’ s been a great ride , actually . It ’ s been a lot of work , more for Jon than me ,” laughs Vermeyden . He attests that even the doubters have been won over in the end . For example , he says , there were some who thought they ’ d hate the aesthetics of the half-cylinder acoustic treatments added to the walls , and the look of the speaker cluster . And one of those doubters was the project architect .
“ I must admit , when we started with this , I was like , ‘ Oh shit , what are people going to think ?’ I mean , I knew it was going to look like that and it wasn ’ t news to me , but you either like it or you don ’ t ,” says Vermeyden . “ But even that architect , when he walked in , he was like , ‘ Wow , this actually looks good ! This is nice !’ But everybody recognizes that the sound has radically changed as a result of that treatment . So , between both the treatment and hanging that system in there and having quite a novel way of setting that system up , it really , really works .”
In the end , what ’ s most important is how the congregation and surrounding community feel about the finished product . By all accounts , that ’ s been a resounding success . “ Honestly , we ’ ve had people in tears ,” Vermeyden says . “ You sit there in the pews and it ’ s like you ’ re sitting on somebody ’ s lap almost . It ’ s that close and it ’ s that intimate , despite the fact that it ’ s over 500 people who can sit in there . So , honestly , it ’ s probably one of the nicest venues in the area .”
Plus , he says , as they intended , the town loves it . The mayor has checked it out and was in awe , and in between COVID lockdowns there was a theatre company using the new stage for a week , and a concert promoter already has plans for shows later in 2021 .
“ The end result is so good , so fantastic ” Vermeyden says in closing . “ I am tickled pink , and so are many people in the church .”
Michael Raine is the Editor-in-Chief of Professional Sound magazine .
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