Christian Assembly Church is Sure of SHURE

By Dirk Bolle

Christian Assembly Church runs four services weekly – Saturday night, two Sunday morning and another on Sunday night, with 3000 worshipers on average attending every week. Our facility has a North and South side with two different sanctuaries. Separate worship bands perform in each sanctuary every week, with the sermon being transferred via live streaming. The worship bands usually perform the same set list every week, and maintaining consistency in both sanctuaries is a must.

We have been in the same building since 1976, and we completely gutted it in 2010 for a major overhaul on the south side. The North side building had been renovated it in 2004. To keep the sanctuaries audio consistent, we run the same gear as much as possible on both sides.

We recently purchased Shure KSM8 Dualdyne™ wired Vocal Microphones and also wired Shure SM 58’s which we are using on the South side, and we also use the Shure UHF-R® Wireless system (ten body packs and four handhelds). On the north side, we use Shure ULX-P wireless, and wired Shure Beta SM58’s. Our pastors use the wireless body pack with headsets for the sermon, and the KSM8’s are used by the worship band and choir. Eventually, we will probably get the KSM8 capsule for the wireless.

When we started looking at getting new mics and a new wireless system, we knew we wanted to have the best mic possible for our team, as well as find a reasonably priced and reliable wireless system that would eliminate any unwanted or disruptive noises. Since the ‘58’s had been so consistent for us, we knew we wanted to stick with Shure.

We had previously used a different company for our wireless, but we weren’t happy with the way they worked – it was too easy to switch the level of the sound, and they always had a little bit of background noise, which we didn’t like. I was familiar with Shure wireless already, and I knew that Shure wireless didn’t have these issues, so we were able to purchase a couple of older Shure wireless systems second-hand, and made the switch to all new Shure UHF-R® Wireless Systems when we did our renovation. Introducing the UHF-R into our sanctuary was extremely easy. It was worth it for us to purchase the best system we could, because we knew with Shure we wouldn’t experience any problems – and the system has been a work horse. We currently have 10 channels of UHF-R® in the South Sanctuary with two antennas, a standard smaller passive antenna and an active antenna.

When we looked at upgrading our vocal mics for our worship leader and individual singers, it was an easy choice to go with the Shure KSM8 Dualdyne™. One of our sound technicians had seen them at the NAMM Show and recommended we look seriously at them. We brought in several different mics to audition, including the KSM8, and had our worship leaders blind test them to see which they preferred. The KSM8 won hand down! We were all impressed by the sound quality, rejection, and output accuracy. Not only do they sound really good, but the sound is smooth and not peaky, and presents a very warm, accurate tone. It offers a nice flat response without a lot of proximity effect, and doesn’t get ‘boomy’ when you get close.

The KSM8 sounds great regardless of the person speaking. The KSM8’s were the unanimous choice after our test. Integrating the KSM8’s into our worship was very easy. It was basically plug it in and go – there was very little EQ needed; they sounded great out of the box. I find that if you buy quality, you don’t need to tweak too much; even with a flat response, the sound is still excellent. As Christian Assembly continues to grow and look for new ways to improve our audio needs, we’ll continue to look to Shure as a trusted partner.

DIRK BOLLE LIKES TO USE PUNS, TAKE PICTURES, TAKE WALKS, TAKE RIDES ON HIS RECUMBENT TRIKES, AND TAKE NAPS (NOT ALL AT THE SAME TIME, HOWEVER.) HE ALSO LIKES TO BAKE COOKIES.