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High-quality Worship Sound in NYC
Relationships help Shiloh Church achieve top-notch sound quality
Shiloh Church in Brooklyn, NY, isn’t a mega-church. It doesn’t operate on a mega-budget, either. It’s a mid-sized congregation in the heart of the city that never sleeps, and its modest sanctuary is in stark contrast to the bustling metropolis in which it sits. Like most churches, Shiloh Church relies on members of the congregation who volunteer their time and talents to man the audio system for weekly services. And like many churches, the volunteers at Shiloh rely on the advice and support they get from Sweetwater to make sure the audio for each week’s service comes off without a hitch.
At Sweetwater, each church works one-on-one with an audio specialist called a “Sales Engineer.” This unique relationship-based approach makes it possible for Sales Engineers to really get to know their clients and to offer the type of advice and customer support that has sadly become a rarity in pro audio sales. When Shiloh Church needed to upgrade their sound system, they called Sweetwater Sales Engineer Simon Picazo to make it happen.
Simon Picazo isn’t your average pro audio sales guy. He’s a third-generation missionary kid and a third-generation sound engineer with experience at the FOH, monitor, and recording desks at one of the most prominent churches in the United States. He’s had experience on the other side of the microphone, as well, as a worship leader, background vocalist, drummer, guitarist, and bassist on worship teams. And he’s not just an employee; he’s a client. Prior to joining the Sweetwater team, Picazo spent a substantial amount of money with his own Sweetwater Sales Engineer — to say he was satisfied is an understatement. “The main reason I wanted to work here was that I had never experienced someone serving my needs as completely as Sweetwater did when I was putting my studio together,” he says.
It’s not surprising, then, that the pastors and volunteers at Shiloh Church found a sympathetic ear on the other end of the phone when they called Sweetwater. Like the volunteer sound crews at many churches, those tasked with overseeing the upgrade at Shiloh have full-time jobs. “I began working with Shiloh Church after speaking with a church member who had volunteered to help the pastor research a system for their church,” says Picazo. “As is many times the case with churches, he was a brilliant and detail-oriented guy, but was very busy with his day job. We conversed over the next few weeks on lunch breaks and came up with some good ideas together. We then ran these by the pastor and I would answer any questions. I became the central point of contact for information on the church’s system as far as setup, design, and tech support, and it ended up making it easier on everyone involved.”
First on their list was a mixer upgrade. Simon recommended an Allen & Heath GL2400, which proved to be a perfect match for Shiloh’s needs and, just as importantly, their budget. A new snake and an innovative monitor system soon followed, but a problem emerged. As Simon Picazo explains, “In the process we discovered there were grounding issues on stage. I recommended that the pastor get an electrician to come in and remedy those problems.” Knowing every component in their system made it possible for Simon to zero in on the problem, and the electrical work he recommended proved to be the solution not only to the audio problems, but addressed what could have become a serious safety issue down the road.
Next on the agenda for Shiloh Church and Sweetwater was a wireless microphone system complete with upgraded microphones from Countryman to make sure that the Word could be heard clearly from the pulpit. Picazo put together a system from Sennheiser, which fit into the church’s budget. Although there were cheaper options available, Picazo’s experience with wireless microphones led him to recommend Sennheiser’s Evolution 100 system for Shiloh, and for good reason: “I’ve always found Sennheiser to be the most flexible system for use in bigger cities,” he explains. “It turned out this was the wisest move we made in the whole process.”
The Sennheiser system quickly proved its worth when volunteers at Shiloh discovered a fact that users of wireless microphones in major metropolitan areas know all too well: finding available frequencies can be challenging. Through a process of troubleshooting, Sweetwater’s Technical Support department, with help from specialists at Sennheiser, determined that only a small band of UHF spectrum was available due to other transmitters operating in the area, including several DTV stations, and were able to guide Shiloh’s volunteers through the process of tuning their wireless receivers to get the church back on the air.
Kent Margraves, National Applications Manager at Sennheiser explains, “At Sennheiser, we build wireless systems with great frequency agility. And, so that customers can quickly set up their multi-channel systems with little effort, we pre-load coordinated channels into each unit’s memory, which work very well in most locations. In some urban areas such as New York, however, local RF traffic can be extreme and rather tricky. In this case, Sennheiser was happy to support Sweetwater and the client with custom frequency coordination based on the exact location of the church. The customer simply dialed their new frequencies and that’s all it took. Without this support partnership, the client might have returned the equipment thinking it would not work, when it fact it is a flexible system with the ability navigate through very tough RF environments.”
Next up for Shiloh and their Sweetwater Sales Engineer was an improvement to their recording setup. Like many churches, Shiloh had been recording a stereo mix of their services straight off the mixer and into a CD recorder, but they wanted to step it up a notch and move to a system that allowed for mixing and editing of individual channels after the service. Having done a considerable amount of studio and live recording himself, Picazo knew multitrack recording can be complicated, even when everything goes according to plan.
An important step, he explains, especially when working with multiple volunteers and potentially multiple computers, is to get a very stable audio interface that will work no matter what computer it is plugged into. Another factor for Shiloh was to get a system that could grow with them as their needs and track counts grew. Picazo recommended a system based around Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) FireWire audio interfaces, because, as he explains, “They work with everything. MOTU interfaces also provide a lot of flexibility and expandability allowing a generous number of individual tracks to be recorded to one session.”
Duplicating and printing CDs for shut-in ministries or bookstore sales is a very important part of spreading the Word in many churches. Over the course of conversations with Shiloh’s volunteers and pastor, Picazo was able to put together a duplicator package — using the Microboards QDDVD125 — and then ultimately a CD printer — the Microboards PXI-1000 — that would function well with the computer the church already owned.
What’s the moral of all of this? Smaller churches like Shiloh don’t typically have the budgets to hire independent audio consultants, especially for smaller purchases like wireless microphones and audio interfaces. And, reliant as they are on volunteers, they don’t typically have an in-house expert to guide them on their audio equipment needs.
Ultimately churches want to get the Word and the music heard, recorded, and distributed; that is the bottom line. Money and equipment change hands, but ultimately it is people and relationships that save the day when a problem comes up. As Simon Picazo puts it, “Sweetwater empowers each individual in the company — from Sales to Technical Support — to do just that. Serving our customers with excellence is the underlying motivation for all we do here. It’s such a privilege to be able to serve churches such as Shiloh and to know I’m helping ministers, volunteers, and professionals come together and worship without worrying about who to call if they have a need or a question.”
Shiloh Church pastor Warner Richards adds, “If there is anything I can say it is that now our worship services have come alive because we don’t have any more sound issues that take away from the experience. Because once you have to start thinking about sound...it’s already in the way. People shouldn’t have to think about amplifiers and speakers and whether everything is working or not. Now we can just enjoy the sound.”
www.sweetwater.com/feature/worship/
Jeff Barnett and Simon Picazo contributed to this story.
You can reach them with further questions at Jeff Barnett — Sweetwater Senior Sales Engineer/House of Worship Specialist, 800-222-4700, ext. 1283 or jeff_barnett@sweetwater.com.
Simon Picazo — Sweetwater Sales Engineer, 800-222-4700, ext.1251 or simon_picazo@sweetwater.com
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