Eric Jones, Head Audio Engineer, Mount Zion Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC
As Mount Zion Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C., expanded its worship arts department, staff members found themselves searching for necessary production upgrades. With both the worship team and holiday productions growing in size, the church looked for a comprehensive audio solution to handle both the current needs and allow for future expandability.
“The praise team has grown to 12 handheld microphones as well as adding several stereo keyboards. We simply outgrew our console,” says Eric Jones, head audio engineer for Mount Zion. Jones also says that along with channel count, the church was looking to add full multi-track recording, improve the live broadcast mix, and have better on-stage monitoring for musicians.
After attending a recent NAMM convention and speaking with various manufacturers, the church settled on new Roland M-5000 consoles for FOH, monitor, and broadcast positions. Along with consoles, the church also installed Roland's REAC networking system for I/O stage boxes, M-48 personal monitors, and MADI interfaces enabling multi-track recording. “When deciding on a system, the production budget had to account for camera and lighting upgrades, so we needed to get the most bang for the buck,” says Jones.
Jones credits Roland field representative Brian Belcher for his help in streamlining the initial setup and configuration of the system. “You need to have a good understanding of the console infrastructure to send and receive signal between multiple consoles,” Jones says. “But just mixing on the console is a breeze.” He also says the church's other audio engineers have found the on-board effects and dynamics processors to be top-notch. They also agree the large touchscreen interface is easy to navigate.
While solving each of the church's current needs and allowing for future expansion, Jones says the upgrades have been worth the investment and time. “The Roland system was the right choice for our needs. We haven't had any issues and we've been very happy with the results.”
