Matt Wheeler was Senior Audio Engineer at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas before accepting a position with Epic Resource Group, based in Dallas, as Senior Audio Designer.
Church Production: Tell us about your first experience as part of a church tech team.
Matt Wheeler: I loved music from a very young age. I really owe this to my father. He had purchased a HiFi system when he was in Vietnam and sent it back to the states. I couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5 years old and distinctly remember him cranking that thing up and literally shaking the dishes out of the cabinets. I grew up listening to records on that system and so started my obsession. In Jr. High, I started playing trombone and later guitar. In high school, my friends and I started a band, and I played guitar. They eventually realized I wasn’t very good and kicked me out of the band and told me that maybe I should just run sound. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I knew that when I sat in church on Sundays, it didn’t sound right. I remember thinking, “Why are the vocals so loud? Why doesn’t this sound like music?” So, I asked if I could help run sound. For better or worse, they let me! Little did I know, I would be doing that for the next 38 years!
Church Production: What led you to Epic Resource Group?
The room could have been a nightmare. The technology available in the Wavefront Precision series from Martin Audio helped turn it into a room where it is quite fun to mix.
Matt Wheeler: It’s funny how God works. Brandon Chynoweth, the owner of Epic, used to work for me when I was Sr. Audio Engineer at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas. He was one of our broadcast engineers and also helped launch some of our satellite campuses. He was also one of only a couple people allowed to fill in for me at FOH at the main campus. When we met 16 years ago, Epic was Brandon and a few solid contractors. During that season at Fellowship, I started moonlighting at Epic designing and commissioning sound systems. At that time I had no intention of leaving Fellowship, but there was this voice in my head saying, “Someday you will do something with Brandon.” I didn’t know what that would look like. It was just always in the back of my mind. When the time came for me to leave Fellowship, he asked me to be a full-time member of the team. I prayed about it, talked to some trusted friends about it, and their response to me was, “We have been praying about this for you for a long time. So, yes! You need to do it.” So, now I work for him! We’re close friends, and he jokes that I still tell him what to do.
With external, dedicated multi-channel amplifiers, Martin Audio's Wavefront Precision line arrays are designed to be uniquely flexible, upgradeable and financially accessible for a wide range of applications.
Church Production: You have access to a wide range of loudspeaker solutions? What keeps you coming back to Martin Audio products.
Matt Wheeler: Three things: Value, Quality and People. At Epic, a majority of our clients are churches. We have high end corporate and educational clients as well, but our roots are in ministry. Our goal is empowering that message for maximum impact. We are looking for ministry partners, not just clients. This holds us to a higher standard. Products lines like Martin Audio’s CDD and Wavefront Precision help us uphold the highest standards, even with partners that have more limited budgets. That covers the first two reasons. The third is people. There are people at Martin Audio I’ve known from the industry for a long time - some for decades. They are people that I trust. I also know that if we have a problem or a question, someone will answer the phone and be there for us. Customer service is big for our team.
Church Production: Part of an AV system designer’s job is solving problems. Give us an example of a design where a Martin Audio offered a compelling or unique solution?
Matt Wheeler still finds time to mix church services. Here he is at the FOH position at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas.
Matt Wheeler: Recently we had a church that came to us for help with a building they had just purchased from another church. The 1200-seat sanctuary was an octagon shaped compression ring building with a balcony and no acoustic treatment. They had a limited budget and were doing many of the renovations themselves. We had a small allowance to strategically place some of our proprietary acoustic panels, but most of the room had to be left untreated. This was a very live room. The challenge was they like it loud, concert loud with lots of low-end. Still, speech had to feel personal at every seat. The answer for them was Martin Audio’s WPM Optimized Line arrays for mains and SX218 subs flow in a Logarithmic End-fire array along with single 18” in a broadside array on the ground. The eight per side WPM arrays were run in single box resolution for maximum control and were powered by (2) iK81s. One for each array. The array optimization allowed us to keep sound off surfaces like the balcony face and the back wall on the second floor as well as giving us incredibly consistent coverage from the front row downstairs to the last row in the balcony. After commissioning and tuning the system, I had the pleasure of mixing their first rehearsal to make sure the system behaved itself with a live band. After the first kick and snare hits, I knew it was going to be a good day. The system sounded really good. It’s still a live room, but we were able to keep room interactions to a minimum. That room could have been a nightmare. The technology available in the Wavefront Precision series from Martin Audio helped turn it into a room where it is quite fun to mix.
About Martin Audio's Wavefront Precision Line Arrays
These optimized line arrays feature scalable resolution via DISPLAY software and external, dedicated iKON multi-channel amplifiers. The greater the resolution of the array in terms of individually driven enclosures, the more precisely DISPLAY can fine-tune audience coverage and hold the frequency response and SPL’s throughout the venue within a tight window specified by the user. This means Wavefront Precision are uniquely flexible, upgradeable and financially accessible which is why they have been Martin Audio’s fastest ever selling line array format in their history. The series comprises four sized formats to fit any sized church.
