Rose Heights Church chooses M-5000 as "natural progression" from Roland mixing equipment already in use
When Shane Weber of Web Feat Productions, a media consulting firm that specializes in serving churches and not-for-profit organizations, was brought in to spec solutions for a new FOH console at Rose Heights Church in Tyler, Texas, he focused on his normal priorities: “When I come in, I really want to make a functional system for people to walk up to. It’s going to do everything they want it to and more, and it’s going to be as simple as I can make it.” Once a church makes an A/V upgrade a priority, a consulting or installation firm sometimes specs solutions that are too engineering-based and difficult for Sunday volunteers to wrap their minds around, he notes, again emphasizing the elegant simplicity that complements the functionality of a well thought-out infrastructure. With these things in mind, to Weber the solution was obvious: the Roland M-5000 OHRCA Live Mixing Console.
“They were updating their audio components while adding video production capabilities, five cameras, video projection, environmental projection, new screens, upgraded lighting, LED components and a new lighting console,” notes Weber. “Another focus was on production for live streaming on Sundays. I needed a front-of-house console that would play well with these components and the existing infrastructure, and the M-5000 was a natural fit. I did the installation for all the video equipment and designed and installed the audio systems.”
The “existing infrastructure” involved several Roland M-48 Live Personal Mixers, which the church’s membership already understood and was partial to, as well as Roland S-4000D Splitter and Power Distributor units. Weber added several more M-48’s, which are now used for personal mixes for the church’s individual musicians, as well as another S-4000D to route audio. “With their Roland units already in place, the M-5000 was a natural progression from what they had. And its open architecture is truly future-proof, working well with whatever they are bound to throw at it – Dante™, the REAC protocol, and the list goes on.”
The M-5000 fully integrates the M-48 personal mixers with the M-48 manager, with easy setup and control of all M-48 Personal Mixers directly from the M-5000. The M-5000 and M-48 integration includes an engineer’s monitor function that allows the M-5000 engineer to listen and adjust the mix of any musician’s M-48, the ability to synchronize console scene recall to memory preset recall on the console, and the ability to create two separate M-48 worlds from one console, allowing a different and unique selection of 40 sources to be sent to each M-48 world.
The church’s decision-makers did not require much convincing. Notes Weber, “Other options would have required more connections and conversions, which can easily become ‘points of failure’ on a hectic Sunday morning. Once I showed them how simple this solution was compared to other options, they were sold on the M-5000 right away. And they have a new part-time audio engineer, and he has learned the M-5000’s operation very quickly. He is happy, and so are the musicians, the church leadership and congregants. Everyone is pleased with this solution, and I’m proud to have been a part of it.”
For more information, please visit http://proav.roland.com/ohrca/.
About the M-5000
The Roland M-5000 Live Mixing Console is the first product based on the OHRCA platform, which opens a new generation of live sound solutions for audio professionals. “OHRCA” stands for “Open, High Resolution, Configurable Architecture,” and the M-5000 reflects this by delivering freely definable audio paths, supporting multiple audio format protocols and offering pristine 96 kHz sound quality throughout the system. The Roland M-5000’s internal mix architecture is not fixed and can be freely defined for mixing channels, AUXs, Matrices, subgroup buses, and MIX-MINUS buses within a range of up to 128 audio paths, allowing users to create a console structure to suit the needs of the application.
About Roland Professional A/V
Roland’s professional A/V division is dedicated to providing solutions in support of audio and video professionals demanding excellence in both performance and functionality. Through the development and support of video and audio products, we endeavor to improve workflow and maximize creative possibilities in a variety of markets including Broadcast, Corporate, Education, Legal, Live Production, Sports, Theater, Theme Park, Videography, Visual Performance, Worship. Roland is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. For more information: http://proav.roland.com.