This recorded discussion can be viewed here.
Elevation Church, with its broadcast campus based in Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of largest and fastest growing churches in America with high production values, numerous campuses and world tours for the Elevation Worship team. CPM sat down with Zach Kimrey, Elevation’s Tech Director and Justin Emge of Clear-Com to discuss Elevation’s communications strategies across four states and Toronto, Canada.
A video recording of this conversation can be viewed here.
CPM: Tell us about planning and workflow at Elevation pre-pandemic.
Kimrey: So, the old normal, every week there’s a team of people that get together and figure out what we’re going do for the weekend. We really don’t build anything based around sermons anymore. You never know what [pastor] going to do. The set list is done early in the week and they’ll toss that around and review videos. That all stayed the same during Covid. That meeting is actually happening right now. Our satellite locations used to do the same program over all locations but now we have given campuses a lot more flexibility to do what they want with the exception of sermon. We tell them what time in the service that the sermon is going to start broadcasting and as long as they know when that’s happening, the time in front of that is up to them to decide what they want to do.
CPM: So now what about since the pandemic?
Kimrey: We were set up for success already because we were heavily invested online, so for us it wasn’t a lot of figuring out but just continuing what we were doing. It looks a lot different now with no one in the room so now tailoring it more to what it looks like on a screen. Taking that approach of what it looks like through a screen verses what it feels like in the room as more important this pandemic has forced churches to really focus more on how a service feels through a screen verses in the live room.
CPM: Are there changes in how you’re recording sermons?
Kimrey: It’s the exact same as it had been. There’s actually only been twice that we captured the sermon beforehand. Those have been captured on Saturday. It only happened twice. Every other time when we go live at 9:20 we are truly live with everyone and we roll right into the service with live band and pastor live. Truly live in the moment. Pastor said, “I want to be right now in the moment with everyone and current no matter what it is. He didn’t want us to play back a sermon that is no longer relevant with the way things are changing so fast right now. We’re going to be live as much as we possibly can because even with him preaching at 5:30 Saturday and playing it Sunday morning things can change overnight.
CPM: How do you keep energy up playing to empty room?
Kimrey: It was immediately that we decided to leave the PA on – not at full volume, but it’s there for the band and pastor to feel it. We have a select few audience members there in the room every week – maybe ten extra people in addition to the band just to feed off the energy.
CPM: Is there consistency across all the campuses?
Kimrey: I would say we definitely leverage technology to make the experience similar. One location to the next you can run the gear with consistency across the board. Except for the broadcast facility in Ballentine. So, teams can go campus to campus and equipment is all the same and we have live communication between campuses with a live Clear-Com LQ box between them. Now we heavily use Slack. If you are a production volunteer you use that. That’s where the majority of the communication comes out. It’s been really helpful on a two-minute slip so there’s more than enough time to prep by the time they get to it.
Other intercoms for child care etc., we actually don’t have that at all. All our comms are only related to production. I’ve thought about using radios, we do have executive team on radio just for our benefit. Typically, we haven’t done interfacing with any of the other teams like usher, security, child care or parking. How we’ve programmed and functioned with those is by texts exchanged and that type of thing with very little communication to us unless its needed. Group texts keep communication going in those areas.
Justin Emge – Clear-Com: On that topic, I know we’ve had a few churches that take Clear-Com Agent-IC or even a two-wire belt pack and put it on the other end of campus. So, if there’s a kid that’s unruly and won’t stop crying we’ve had a few churches say ok we just need Agent-IC in a tablet or even installed on the wall and they can push one button and communicate with whoever is running IMAG and they can put a message on the bottom part of screen to say, “Parent of 15321, please come to child care,” instead of over two-way radio or picking up a phone and calling someone who is in the service and may not pick up the phone.
CPM: Justin tell us more about Agent-IC?
Emge: I would say today’s situation with Covid-19 has taken Agent-IC and brought it front and center. Not only just in broadcast but with military customers and especially in the church environment. They can load it on any iPhone or Android device and it can interact with your current system. In the case of Zach, he has a large matrix frame and he’s able to get those Agent-IC’s to login directly to that frame. With Agent-IC you can talk from any point - phone to phone or a party line directly to belt pack if you wanted to. And in other situations, a vast majority of churches, they have a simple two-wire analog party line system. One of them for LQ’s and one RU box with eight connections on the back allows you to plug into two wire into a Clear-Com Encore party line system. You could then take a tablet anywhere on campus, connect it to your Wifi and communicate into your system or use it independently of everything else.
CPM: Describe the evolution of Elevation’s intercom systems over the years?
Kimrey: There are several key things we have done as we’ve grown. I can think back to one of our first broadcast locations, the Matthews location, we had two channels of analog PL and made it work. And then as we grew, Clear-Com Helix Net was released and we were able to expand it out and have better communication, more clear communication without things being muddy. You have two channels of comm and you get a production line and a camera line and it all has to fit inside that. With Helix Net we had more channels of communication - a CG party line, lighting party line, cameras and all that. And then to where we are now at our broadcast location having a full matrix and that has really changed how we do everything. It’s funny that now in COVID pretty much the whole building is one big party line. Used to be a bunch of party lines and now it’s all meshed as one big team working with the matrix frame and the flexibility to do that it’s just been huge for us.
CPM: Justin, can you explain the different kinds of comm set ups?
Emge: The Charlotte campus, for instance, has a two-wire analog party line system with four channels. Most churches are using simple two-wire party line over XLR it’s got voltage and comms on another pin. It’s very simple. If you need to change channels, you have a belt pack or you go to the wall and change the plug. Helix Net is the digital age with a party line. 12 channels in a base station over XLR or plugged into your local network. And so those belt packs have a POE connection via RJ 45 from your switch and you can decide what goes into that belt pack. So, rather than unplug and plug into a different channel, you can change that belt pack remotely and what it’s going to see or talk to. Then you have the matrix which has four wire and IP and matrix allows you to do any connection except Helix. So, four wire works with analog audio - two pins in and out for that one port and then you take it into an audio mixer or into a third-party device.
CPM: How does Elevation handle training?
Emge: It’s the hardest part Zach has to deal with actually. I think about my home church and I’m in the minority of those from a professional background. Most volunteers don’t have that kind of knowledge, so with training, you’re not digging into the weeds. You’re just bringing them in saying this button talks to that person and here’s the box you’ll be working on and the buttons you need to push for this production and keep it as simple as possible.
Kimrey: All of our other locations are only two wire and two channels worth of comm. We don’t even run four channels in any other location. It’s pretty much, “Here’s your belt pack and here’s your talk button and your volume button. Don’t press talk unless you need to talk to someone.” And it’s actually working out very well. You’re just giving minimal information about things they need to do. For certain stations, I only put on the party lines that are needed to make it as simple as you can without the complexity volunteers don’t need. Like with me, I have a 32-key station with four shift pages. Over there in the other campuses they have six-key stations and that’s all. Some are not fully populated. Just give them what you need and not anymore.
Emge: However, I just want to say we do need someone on site who can get into the weeds of the system. It depends on the customer. In Zach’s case we’ve been out there to commission systems and do upgrades over the years, so we want to make sure that locally there’s at least one person on staff with a church who we train and they really know how to work that matrix or Helix Net system.
CPM: Justin, can you talk to us a little about comm trends in churches?
Emge: For Elevation, the pandemic has been no big change because the hardest part they’ve figured out already - how to get it online. We are seeing outside of pandemic more churches trying to figure out better ways to communicate with more of them needing wireless, because they’re adding bands, making bands bigger, using more lighting and that all requires bigger communication needs. More and more smaller churches are trying to add those production values. The larger churches are already there and growing from Helix to Matrix. Every church size is upsizing their comm needs.
CPM: Zach, anything you’d do different if you could build again from the ground up?
Kimrey: Two things: We were able to upgrade our frame last year. We started with small Delta frame and filled it up quickly. Something we thought we never would do. No more ports (device) were available. We filled all of those up and had to upgrade our frame. We added a MADI card. MADI card changed my life. It allows me to do whatever I want to. Before, if I wanted audio in and out of our frame, I was having to do a “inlock” with adapters. Now, I have 64 ports in and 64 ports out. If it’s on MADI I can put it anywhere in the comm system. If it’s in the comm system I can now put it anywhere in the audio network. Clear-Com is great because I was just able to buy the frame and move the guts over. It was a painless process and no one had to help me in house – it was done all remotely.
If I could change something, I have two wire interfaces to do analog party line drops. I would rip that out and put in a Helix Net system, so I can have deployable belt packs. Some spots it just doesn’t make sense to put a Clear-Com FreeSpeak pack on it, but I would love to not have analog noise in my digital system. Nothing against Clear-Com, it’s just having analog noise in your digital system. You get cross talk and bleed and it drives me nuts to have that there when I know there’s a solution. Maybe in the next building we would do that for belt packs.
Two things: You can start small and get bigger with their system. The Helix Net product is clean and amazing. Comms are important for having clear communication and Helix Net really allows you to do that.
Emge: For an example let’s look at Helix Net in my home church, Grace in St. Louis. The baptismal is halfway across the building. Let’s say they wanted to have a special baptism during the service and run a camera down there. Comms don’t reach. You could run an ethernet cable and there you have comms and a live feed back to the control room.
CPM: Zach, what are some common questions churches call you to ask?
Kimrey: -They ask, “How are we streaming?” What are we doing to get the feed to the internet. That was the biggest go to question even before the pandemic. Number one.
Now It’s about how we’re preparing content. When we record on Saturday night, it’s purely just the sermon and worship. Everything else we’re doing on Sunday is still live. It’s just worship and sermon playing back. There’s no broadcast on Saturday night, just recording.
CPM: What have been biggest pandemic changes? Any surprises with streaming as only means of worship?
Kimrey: We definitely try to keep a variety - keep it different. For all of our hosting segments we are trying to go somewhere else in the building. If it’s a nice day we go outside for welcome messages so you feel connected with us. Our campus pastor Chad, if we had to put him in a black box set he’d loose his mind. He wants to show that we are with you live. Being connected is the whole point of our pre-experience and post-experience. Viewers just need to connect to us or the people they’re worshipping with and live is important.
CPM: Zach, what does the future look like for Elevation Church?
Kimrey: What’s next? Plan? Hmmm…don’t want to make it sound like we don’t plan but I’m never going to want to do a purchase unless it’s necessary. I would rather put a band aid on something and make it work in the moment and let the band aid ride for a month, two months, before I ever start the process of saying, “OK this no longer needs to be the way. We need a solution.” So that’s how I look at it. Connect gives me a lot of grace with our CFO because when I go to him with a request it’s, “Here’s XYZ and we have been doing it this way for so long, so let’s make this purchase.” And it allows it to happen.
As far as planning goes on my half that’s kind of how that works. With the rest of the team designing other locations, they’re leading off of leadership. Let’s put a campus here, this campus is growing and needs a permanent space. Our integration team comes in and starts planning that out. It’s constantly changing there’s not a method or formula, it’s just in the moment what makes the most sense at least for me.
There are things I can see where we are going for trends. Next year I’m already proposing a new video router because ours is almost full. Those types of things we are planning out based on the load and how we’re doing and based on online and how they’re growing as well.
