A fixture in Cape Coral, Florida, since its founding in 1983, Grace Baptist Church celebrated its 30th year by moving into a new home. While a more traditional congregation might typically purchase an existing sanctuary and renovate, the members of Grace Baptist are known for being a very forward-thinking bunch and wasted no time in converting a former racquetball and health club into an impressive new worship space.
“The sanctuary is located in what was originally two big racquetball courts and some offices,” says Tony Flammia of Creative Sound and Lighting Solutions in Cape Coral. “They knocked down some walls and created a large, open space with a 23-foot ceiling near the stage, sloping down to 10 feet over the seating.”
No strangers to technology, the church's audio crew knew what they wanted to accomplish. “They're a very tech savvy bunch; one or two of the people on the tech crew go to Full Sail Recording Academy,” says Flammia. “They knew they wanted a setup that would enable them to do more than just mix the live services.”
Indeed, their wish list included running multiple in-ear monitor mixes, snapshot scene recall, plenty of onboard processing power, multitrack recording capability, and more. “They were originally thinking about a large-format digital console,” says Flammia. “But when we started talking about what they really needed, it became clear that the PreSonus StudioLive had all the features they were looking for and more, for a whole lot less money.”
With a full praise band and several singers on stage, the StudioLive provides enough aux mixes to give everyone what they need. And with each performer able to control their mix using QMix for iPhone/iPod touch, the added energy has made the band even tighter than ever.
Besides amply filling the bill for front-of-house duties, the StudioLive suited the church's recording needs. “They do a lot of multitrack recording there, both for the church and for outside projects,” says Flammia. “Sometimes the worship pastor will come in and record his own stuff as well.”
With construction to be completed several months before their console of choice was shipping, some creative thinking was in order. “They knew they wanted the new 32-channel StudioLive, but it wasn't going to be available for a few months, so we came up with a temporary solution,” says Flammia. “We took two 16-channel StudioLive desks and linked them together. That has held them in good stead for a while, and now they're just taking delivery of their brand new 32-channel console. And yes, they're very excited.”
