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Green Room Runthrough

We had the first runthrough for the Green Room (our college worship) at Missouri State this weekend. I'm incredibly excited about moving our college worship to the campus, but man is portable church a lot of work. We held the group to the core leadership team (about a dozen people), met at the church at 1:30, and headed to the Plaster Student Union. Getting things out of Schweitzer and to MSU was easy. We did leave some key equipment on the floor of the church and had to send a group back to get it. Load out from the room we're using to having things put away in the church was also very quick. I think both of those tasks took less than 40 minutes each. I really see the benefit of a packaged system for portable ministry, but I think we did a decent job putting our kit together given how smoothly we were able to move things. 

Our biggest hurdle was the time it took from getting all of the gear in the room to being setup and ready to run worship. We're going to have to do some substantial training/practice on the tech/band setup. We did okay - we were ready to do worship about two hours after we met at Schweitzer. I'd really like to get that under 90 minutes.  

We're going to do the worship on campus monthly for the rest of this semester to get us ready for the fall.

College Ministry Sound Gear

Justin & Gear

Unboxing


Basic Setup


M400 Boxes

 

 

Last fall we received a grant to help us fund buying a portable audio setup for our college ministry. We're going to be moving our college worship to the Missouri State campus rather than doing it here at Schweitzer.

As far as our research (and a lot of students) have told us we'll be doing the only full-band worship within walking distance of MSU. I'm incredibly excited about the possibilities.

We finally got around to ordering the equipment and it showed up yesterday. I figured it would be fairly big, but I didn't expect what we received. For some perspective on the size I made my friend Justin stand next to the wrapped pallet. It really isn't all that much stuff, but the packing to ship it is ridiculous. 

Several people have been giving me advice about the system so I thought I'd post a basic list of what ended up in our gym yesterday.

• 2 RCF Mains - 12" drivers, 350w
• 2 RCF Subs - 15" drivers, 800w
• 4 Mackie SRM 150s (for monitors)
• 2 ART headphone amps for wired in-ear
• 4 Shure SM58 mics
• 2 Shure SM57 mics
• 2 Shure ULX wireless mics (one Beta 87 and one Countryman headset)
• Bags, cases, and a pile of cables 

I'd had a couple of people tell me that they really liked the Kaltman Cable Coiler, so I decided to give it a try as well. Quality cables are expensive, and if this can make sure they always get coiled properly and can do it quickly it will be an absolute win. 

You'll notice that what's lacking in this setup is any type of a mix console. I'm really torn about that purchase. We decided that we wanted to go digital for a lot of reasons, but that's a different post. I've got experience (as do a lot of people) with Yamaha consoles and been pleased with them. While I was talking to our rep at Full Compass (we love them by the way) he suggested looking at the Roland M-400 system. 

The M-400 is a new console from Roland which raises some issues with me. It's built around the digital snake (40 channels over cat5) that Roland has had out for  awhile and I know many people who have been using it and are happy. We've got a demo unit for the next week so we can evaluate it before making the purchase. Initial impressions are good. We're doing a more thorough review with a full band this weekend so I'll write more later.

More big announcements related to the college ministry next week. 

Great Ash Wednesday

 

We had a great Ash Wednesday service last night. We had a short acoustic worship set with Kathy and Stephanie. It was also our first attempt at any type of architectural projection. I love the stuff Cameron Ware is doing at Irving Bible Church and been planning something of our own. Ash Wednesday is a good service to do this type of experiment - it's not Sunday and the crowd is generally pretty flexible. We set up an Optoma EP1691 projector at the back of the sanctuary about 10 feet off the ground pointed at the front wall. We used imagery from Awake Images, a large celtic cross. The throw from the projector to the wall is about 85 feet at the farthest point. I love that this is possible with a $1,000 projector and a laptop. We're going to do a similar set up for Good Friday. I'm hoping that we'll be able to incorporate a more permanent setup to establish this type of atmosphere more often. in the not to distant future.

NB: Something went arwy with the publishing of this, it's actually from last Thursday. 

Mardi Gras in Columbia

I had to come to Columbia for the pitch related to our college ministry grant proposal. I think the presentation went pretty well - it was very brief though. I've got to say I think it's a bit ridiculous to drive six hours round trip for a 10 minute presentation followed by five minutes of questions. Thankfully I was able to schedule some other work doing some tech training and a few other meetings. I'm just wrapping up the last of my business in town and headed back to Springfield for Ash Wednesday services (including our first stab at architectural projection).

I was looking for something to do for Mardi Gras but I was in Columbia by myself which doesn't lend itself to going out. That said, I didn't want to spend the night in my hotel room. One of the people I met with yesterday suggested that I go to Village Wine and Cheese for dinner, they had a special Mardi Gras menu. VWC has been a great Columbia establishment for years. They used to mainly focus on selling high-end cheese and wine (think Brown Derby IWC for you Springfieldians). About a year ago they pulled out the cheese case, put in a bar, and began serving dinner. They always used to have outstanding brunch, sandwiches, and other food that would go with being a purveyor of cheese/meats. Now as a dinner establishment they have great choices with a rotating menu.

The entire menu looked great, but I opted to have the crab stuffed trout. The trout was perfectly cooked and lightly brushed with a spicy butter. It was served on a garlic pilaf that had both white and wild rice and sauteed vegetables. The crab stuffing was a perfect compliment to the spice of the dish. The sweetness of the crab and carmelized onions was delicious. Starting with a salad and closing with a cup of coffee made for a wonderful cajun themed meal. 

Long Weekend

It's been a long weekend. I really wish our staff meetings weren't on Monday mornings. I suppose that it's both good and bad - we get the meeting done early in the week, but we have to be here on Mondays. We took a little getaway the first part of the weekend then came back for the normal Sunday morning dance at Schweitzer and then a super bowl party for the college students at our house made for a long day.

This weekend Sarah and I went to Columbia on Friday night to hang out with her family and go to the Mizzou/K-State game. It was a great weekend of basketball and food favorites from our college days. Friday night we ate a late dinner at Flat Branch. Saturday morning we ate breakfast at Ernie's Cafe & Steakhouse. It's a Columbia establishment having been around since the 1930s. Ernie's is a bit of a hole in the wall though and if you come with less than three people you should expect to be seated with others. We had six in our group and ended up at a table that should seat four - cozy. The MU/KState basketball game was outstanding. Mizzou was down most of the game, but pulled it out in the end handing KState their first Big 12 defeat. There was much screaming and jumping. After the game we went to Shakespeare's Pizza and devoured a Masterpiece. While we were there we ran into several other Cowherds.

Overall a great weekend. Not very healthy, but a lot of fun with family and friends. I've got to be sure to hit the gym this week.