The nearly 60-year old Pioneer Memorial Church, a Seventh-day Adventist institution located on the campus of Andrews University in Berrien Springs, MI, has long used audio and video to bring services to congregants both in-house and off-site via live streaming. Upon migrating video operations to high-definition, the operations staff looked to Hitachi on the acquisition side, selecting five Z-HD6000 HDTV cameras to capture services in the main (8,000 square feet) auditorium and pulpit.

“When we made the switch to HD, we wanted a camera that offered full broadcast quality at a reasonable price, as we had other equipment we needed to purchase,” said Jonathan LaPointe, Interim Media Director for the Pioneer Memorial Church’s Media ministries department. “We liked the Hitachi Z-HD6000 because it was a fully functional broadcast camera with great picture quality, but very affordable. The price-to-performance value was unbeatable.

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Just like everything else in facility design, technology is getting more complicated. This means that it is more important than ever to get things right early. One of the best ways to do that is to have a structured plan in place. Building design follows and organized process and the Audio Video Design Process Fits Neatly within that structure. In this article, we’ll take a quick look at some audio video design process best practices to make your next project flow more smoothly.

The most important stage of AV design, in my opinion is programming. There are two reasons. The first reason is that this is where the biggest improvements can be made at the least expense. You can no longer think of a building without considering its audio, video, and technology.

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Audio-Technica, a leading innovator in transducer technology for over 50 years, announces $25.00 and $50.00 rebate offers on its System 10 Stack-Mount Digital Wireless System ($25.00 rebate) and System 10 Stompbox Digital Wireless System ($50.00 rebate). Systems purchased from an authorized A-T dealer in the U.S. and its territories between October 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015 are eligible for a rebate on each system purchased (no limit).

System 10 eligible products and U.S. street prices:
$25.00 rebate: ATW-1101 UniPak® Transmitter System (stack-mount) $279.95
$25.00 rebate: ATW-1101/G Guitar System $299.95
$25.00 rebate: ATW-1101/H Headworn Microphone System $349.95
$25.00 rebate: ATW-1101/H92 Miniature Headworn Microphone System $379.95
$25.00 rebate: ATW-1101/H92-TH Miniature (beige) Headworn Microphone System $379.95
$25.00 rebate: ATW-1101/L Lavalier Microphone System $349.95
$25.00 rebate: ATW-1102 Handheld Microphone System $299.95
$50.00 rebate: ATW-1501 Stompbox Guitar Wireless System $349.95
(Rebate not eligible on System 10 Camera-Mount and System 10 PRO Rack-Mount Wireless Systems)

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On Saturday, September 26, 2015, Pope Francis visited the Festival of Families on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Chosen to capture the Pontiff’s audio was an Audio-Technica AE6100 Artist Elite® Hypercardioid Dynamic Handheld Microphone, custom-painted white by Audio-Technica especially for the occasion (pictured with Pope Francis, center). Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

For more information, please visit www.audio-technica.com.

For hundreds of years, the Black church consisted of people of color congregating in a reasonably-sized building, listening to a large church choir sing old hymns, and glancing at the Good Book while listening to the preacher. Sunday services of today have completely transformed from that of yesteryear, and that’s all thanks to technology.

Walking into a modern church today is a drastically different experience from even 10 years ago. Many places of worship are deemed ‘mega-churches’ due to their enormous size and ability to carry tens of thousands of worshipers. Other churches have coffee bars; flat-screen televisions that display Bible verses, church information, and a live view of the preacher; and smaller church choirs that sing contemporary Christian songs.

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Making the transition from the portable to the permanent is nothing new at Saddleback church. One of the most widely known and highly respected houses of worship in the world, Saddleback started out as a portable church, holding its first service on Easter Sunday, 1980 in the apartment of its founders Rick and Kay Warren. Saddleback, which now has 10 campuses in California and four overseas, did not even acquire its first permanent home until 1993, when it opened the doors of its Lake Forest, CA church.

This June, history repeated itself for Saddleback, when it made the transition from portable church to permanent campus in Anaheim by opening a 40,000-square-foot facility with ten classrooms and a 1,000-person worship area across from Angels Stadium. When it came to lighting the new campus, which is located in a retrofitted building, Saddleback technical director Greg Baker called on CCI Solutions to provide something that wasn’t even available back in 1993 – an energy-efficient LED system. CCI met this request with the help of a collection of fixtures from CHAUVET Professional.

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