John Williams, Music Director, Action Church, Winter Springs, Fla.
Central Florida’s Action Church is on the move, with three locations already established and another set to launch later this year, all of which rely on Allen & Heath dLive systems. First opening its doors not much more than four years ago in Winter Springs, the fast-growing upstart christened its second location two years later in nearby Oviedo, spanned out further in 2017 to another in Sanford, and is set to lay out the welcome mat at a new location in Winter Park later this fall.
John Williams, the church’s music director, also steers the development of the audio systems in use at all locations. Working in conjunction with volunteers and the Bradenton, Fla.-based, Crown Design Group, Williams says he installed Allen & Heath’s dLive systems based upon their versatility, sonic quality, budget-friendly price point, and the unified approach they brought to the church’s diverse needs and environments.
“Our production demands are extensive and demanding,” Williams notes. “That’s probably why one of the things we value most is flexibility. With dLive, the options in our toolbox have grown without having to make additional investments.”
The dLive consoles bring a level of portability to the church helping to fuel its rapid growth. Among the four existing systems in use, three can be moved about freely. At the Winter Springs location, operations are spearheaded by an S7000 control surface equipped with a gigaACE card and a DM64 MixRack outfitted with a Dante card. Currently the site of broadcast operations as well, Winter Springs additionally houses a ready-to-roll broadcast rig supported by a dLive C3500 control surface with Waves onboard, and a DM0 MixRack packing a pair of Dante cards and a gigaACE card.
“If I want to bring something in via Dante and go out with MADI, it’s not a problem,” Williams adds. “We’ll split from our FOH desk and move into our broadcast console with gigaACE, record tracks and playback in Dante, then perform audio embedding and de-embedding via MADI. Everything we do seems to require multiple layers, and dLive just stays lock-step with us all along the way. When Action Church’s new location opens this fall in Winter Park, it will be equipped with permanently-installed dLive capabilities using systems nearly identical to those currently found in its Winter Springs location.”
