Located in Jupiter, Florida, Grace Immanuel Bible Church holds two identical
worship services each Sunday with a smaller service Sunday evening in its 415-seat
sanctuary. Services feature a blend of traditional and modern worship music for all
ages and cultures with several vocalists and a variety of instruments and
percussion. To support its worship services and special programs, Grace Immanuel
recently acquired an Allen & Heath S7000 digital mixer with a DM64 MixRack and
DX32 Expander.
Dan Kreider, Grace Immanuel’s Minister of Music, says the church’s special services
may include a 12-voice mixed ensemble and an orchestra resulting in as many as
78 sources. To provide separate mixes for its sound reinforcement system, while
accommodating this quantity of inputs and simultaneously mixing in-ear stage
monitors and live broadcast, the church had been cascading a pair of older, 32-
channel digital mixers. However, this setup was complex to operate, the channel
count was insufficient and the broadcast feed had “hit its limits’.
As part of their research into new mixers, Grace Immanuel contacted Kenny Bergle
at Sweetwater who recommended Allen & Heath’s dLive S7000. “We discussed
several competing mixers,’ Bergle said. “But I recommended the dLive because we
could configure it with the channel count they needed and it had plenty of flexibility
along with Allen & Heath’s great sound quality.’
Grace Immanuel’s mix booth is home to their new dLive S7000 Surface and the
DX32 Expander for the church’s 16 wireless microphones. The DX64 MixRack, near
the stage, receives wired microphones and instruments and connects to the S7000
via CAT5 cables using Allen & Heath’s GigaACE dual redundant network link.
Kreider says he and his tech team were able to do most of the dLive setup
themselves but appreciated the training provided by local Allen & Heath rep firm,
Mainline Marketing. “The dLive was easy to learn,’ he says. “And we love the
color-coded channels, mute groups and recallable scenes which make it easy for
volunteers to log in and mix simple services like weddings.’
The dLive’s versatile DSP allows the church to eliminate most of their rack-mounted
effects. Kreider says they’re using compression on selected vocals along with
“careful EQ which helps us find each place in the mix.’ Each service is recorded
and broadcasted over internet radio and the church’s website via the dLive’s Dante
feed. Kreider saves the entire dLive configuration to a USB thumb drive for backup.
For its special services and programs, the church sets up multiple dLive layers and
uses them with scene recall to provide extra flexibility while maintaining a simple
work flow. “We live on the touch screens,’ said Kreider. “And we really customize
the mixer. The dLive has lots of flexibility but mixing is far simpler than it’s ever
been for us.’ He added, “We plugged in the dLive on the first day and tested the
pulpit mic. One of our tech crew walked in and asked, “What is that?’ We’d never
heard it sound that good!’
