Born from the venerable Passion worship movement of the 1990s, Passion City Church in Atlanta is one of the largest, most influential ministries in the country. In addition to its three locations in the Atlanta and Washington, D.C. metro areas, Passion City is also home to the present-day Passion Conferences and Six Steps Records label.
For director of production Taylor Charboneau, that driving mission is still at the heart of the church’s DNA. “Before we were a church, we were a movement focused on college students,” says Charboneau. “Today we’re still focused on reaching that same group of young adults.”
“We’re very door holder-driven,” continues Charboneau, referring to Passion City’s in-house term for volunteers. “We may have a staff member leading over specific areas, but all of the positions under them are door holders.” He continues, “For instance, at our Passion 2020 Conference, the video director over the cut in the stadium was a Door Holder. So it’s not always just staff driving the high-profile positions. We want to make it a cohesive thing, where all of us serving together are door holders.”
Another distinction of the ministry of Passion City is its team’s willingness to embrace big events and cutting-edge experiences. “We get to do some pretty unreal things that can seem [nearly] impossible,” states Location Production Manager Noah Hawley. “Recently, we actually hosted bull riding in the auditorium, then we had to turn it around in 48 hours for weekend church. We really believe we can go and conquer the impossible.”
“We like being pushed,” adds the church's lead audio engineer, Stephen Bailey. “I love what we get to be a part of and the spiritual impact that it carries, both here in Atlanta and around the world."
Putting down roots
After launching its Cumberland location at North Atlanta High School in 2017, church leadership decided to invest in building a permanent home for the community that had grown there. “We were doing a weekly rental package, which had to be loaded in and loaded out completely for a few years,” Charboneau recalls. “Our dream was always to have a building to call home in Cumberland, and what drove the project was to make sure we had the right production gear to support what we were doing.”
He continues, “One of our very top priorities was to make sure the location sounded great. We also wanted to ensure that the sound was consistent, week in and week out. That meant finding the right partner to work with, one that had the same goals as we did.”
A second priority for the production team was ensuring that the technical infrastructure in the new Cumberland location was solid and ready for future expandability. “We knew we needed to be right on the leading edge of technology,” states Charboneau. “Cumberland is our production hub, which means the broadcast video and audio are both mixed from that location. So the stakes were high.”
“From a visual perspective, the question for us was, ‘How do we place screens for the optimal experience?’” says Hawley. “It was really thinking through how we wanted to create something new that we hadn’t done before. It meant looking at how we could make the scenic design and the video display design function as cohesively as possible.”
Ultimately, the goal of the new AVL systems for the Cumberland campus centered around ensuring a fresh, inspiring experience for each and every attendee. “The question was how we could improve the functional line of sight,” explains Charboneau, “how we could make sure each seat in the venue was optimal. We wanted to be fresh in our approach but still keep the function front and center.”
Partnership model
To ensure their unique vision for the new location met and even exceed expectation, the production team at Passion City chose to partner with production systems and media technology integration company Diversified. “Working with Tim Corder and the team and Diversified was really pleasant,” notes Charboneau. “This was the first time that Passion has worked with a single integrator for audio, lighting, and video, and they proved to be a great partner for us.”
A second priority for the production team was ensuring that the technical infrastructure in the new Cumberland location was solid and ready for future expandability. “We knew we needed to be right on the leading edge of technology. Cumberland is our production hub, which means the broadcast video and audio are both mixed from that location. So the stakes were high.” - Taylor Charboneau, Director of Production, Passion City Church, Atlanta, GA.
And he adds, “We have a number of area experts on our team, and we were able to work with Diversified down to the granular level. They absolutely supported exactly what our vision was, developing solutions for what we needed.” Corder, director of strategic accounts for Diversified’s house of worship team, says, “Passion City holds themselves to the very highest standards that I’ve ever experienced, often executing services on Sunday with complexity that would make professional production crews’ heads spin, all with the most dedicated team of door holders you’ve ever seen.”
He adds, “The teaching pastor can decide to preach from either Atlanta location at a moment’s notice; live linked moments or even baptisms going back and forth round-robin style between locations are the norm. And the worship you experience online may be from a different location from where the live message originates. The production team adapts in both pre-production and in real time at the highest levels.”
Corder continues, “We love partnering with organizations where we are all driven toward a common goal. We also are fueled by a desire to pave new ground, find new ways to improve the live experience, and leverage cutting-edge thinking and technology in ways that make our clients better. My favorite part of working with Passion is when they come to us with an idea and we all work together to make it the best it can be.”
Gearing up
“The new auditorium features 180-degree seating spread between the main floor and the balcony,” Corder describes. “The best part is that the furthest seat is only 60 feet away from downstage center, while the room still fits nearly 1,400 people. Passion is so well-known and respected for their live experiences, and this new room has such a unique vibe because it feels so intimate for such a large space. People are going to love worshipping here.”
At the heart of the new audio system at the Cumberland location is a series of L-Acoustic K2s and A15 speakers. “L-Acoustics’ K2 boxes are some of the very best in the business,” Bailey states. “For us it was about getting the same sound at every seat in the room.”
Corder adds, “This design was driven first and foremost by coverage and getting the sound as even is possible for every single seat in the room. The stability of the waveguide of the L-Acoustics boxes means that even with four main hangs of PA, the resulting experience is the very best it can possibly be in every seat.”
The team also selected Digico SD5 audio consoles for its FOH and broadcast positions, with an SD12 at monitor world. “We love the sound of these systems, but ultimately it’s the sheer flexibility they offer that is their greatest selling point," notes Bailey. "There are times that we make major last second pivots, and always having the ability to do whatever we need to do has proved invaluable.”
He continues, “The SD5 is also great for broadcast audio thanks to the custom macros functions, which we use extensively for our workflow. We have online hosts with dedicated producers talking to those hosts while the main service is going on, so we have macros that turn those monitoring channels on and off when needed. It’s a complex template that we’ve developed, and we couldn’t make it work without a console of this caliber.”
For the stage LED displays the team at Diversified supplied an inventory of Unilumin UPAD III 2.6mm LED video panels with Novastar processing and a Disguise media server. “Next to the PA, the LED screens are one of the most high-profile features of the room,” Corder shares, “and it was critical that the church had the tools to be able to create the forward-thinking stage designs they have become known for. Unilumin is a high-value product that helps the church maximize the perceived value of the system.”
The lighting system is based around a Grand MA 3 lighting console, Pathway Pathport streaming ACN lighting control network, and a mix of Martin and GLP fixtures that form a standard rep plot which can be supplemented with rental fixtures as particular events demand.
Going cinematic
Another video production turning point for Passion City was when they decided to embrace large-sensor digital cinema cameras and lenses for both the new facility and the existing 515 location. “Over the last few years the technology has really come into place that made us take notice,” says video director Rusty Anderson. “When we built our new Cumberland location, we knew it was time to go cinematic.”
”...we wanted the auditorium to be the best sounding room possible, and the PA was the absolute priority. We wanted to get it right, as we knew we really wouldn’t be changing that later on.” - Stephen Bailey, Lead Audio Engineer, Passion City Church.
After extensive testing, the team decided to move forward with Panasonic Varicam digital cinema cameras paired with a collection of Canon and Fujinon servo lenses, alongside a video system backbone anchored by Ross Carbonite switchers and an Ultrix router.
There is a mix of static camera positions, handhelds, jibs, and even a robotic dolly camera that are used to capture the spirit of what is happening in the room during a gathering. “When we shoot a music video or a story project, we love that cinematic aesthetic,” shares Charboneau, “and we wanted to see how we could line that up with the live space.” He adds, “When we upgraded to the cinema look for our broadcast, it gave us more cohesion with our video content. Plus, going with these cinema cameras gives us the flexibility to use them for creating pre-produced story and music video content with our Six Steps artists during the week.”
Tim Corder is director of strategic accounts for Diversified’s house of worship team.
Future moves
After successfully completing the construction and system integration process at the Cumberland location, the teams at Passion City and Diversified have continuing to stay connected, ensuring the overall mission of the church is firmly supported. “We love that Diversified is really structured well to make sure that our first Sunday, and the second Sunday, and the third Sunday were just as seamless as possible,” says Charboneau. “I’m excited to see us come out of COVID stronger than ever. We’re excited to go back to where we were with live events and [to be] moving forward strong with broadcast, as well.”
“For over 20 years, Passion has always been known for God-sized dreams, utilizing technology in fresh and creative ways as a tool to make Jesus known,” Corder enthuses. “They have a goal to reach 1% of the city of Atlanta, which would be 88,000 people. Helping them reach for that goal and building upon the rich heritage of this ministry is the highest honor for our team.”
