Compaq Center, perhaps
best known as the one-time home of the Houston Rockets
basketball team, has changed ownership and undergone
an extensive renovation resulting in the new Central
Campus for Lakewood Church? the largest and fastest
growing congregation in America. The church’s mission
is one of “reaching mankind with the Gospel through
media,” hence; broadcast and Internet streaming
play a significant role in its activities. Serving
as the nucleus for these various media-related tasks
are multiple consoles from Euphonix.
Renovated at a cost of $90M and providing seating
capacity for 16,000 worshippers, the facility’s
original playing surface has been replaced with
a raked floor, while one end of the arena is now
home to an elaborate stage area with dual choir
lofts, an orchestra “pit” capable of multiple elevations,
large LED screens at stage right, center, and left,
plus cascading waterfalls on each side of the stage.
Central to the church’s production activities, there
are four Euphonix consoles?a System 5-B at the sanctuary’s
FOH, a Max Air at the monitor position, and two
System 5-BPs for on-air and audio post work.
On July 16 and 17, 2005, Lakewood celebrated the
grand opening of its Central Campus. According to
Reed Hall, Lakewood’s Director of Audio and Technical
Production, “People packed the main sanctuary and
video overflow rooms to be a part of the church’s
historic activities. The grand opening was carried
live on two national networks, with special guests
including founding members and their families, construction
contractors who helped transform the sports arena
into a house of worship, and several government
officials including Texas’ Governor Rick Perry.”
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Hall’s selection of Euphonix’ System
5 and Air Max consoles was based partly on previous
experience, combined with extensive research and
comparison of competing systems. In the church’s
previous location, Hall used a System 5-BP, which
just prior to the grand opening, was relocated to
its new home in a building adjacent to the main
sanctuary. This facility is equipped with two identical
control rooms developed for the church by the Russ
Berger Design Group. Hall installed a second, new
System 5-BP in the other control room and equipped
both rooms identically.
In addition to identical System 5-BP consoles,
each control room and FOH is equipped with 112-channel
Steinberg Nuendo DAW systems that function as
the main recorder/reproducers. MADI serves as
the common interface between the consoles and
Nuendo, while iZ Technology RADAR and TASCAM DA-98,
88, and 38 digital multitracks provide backup.
Hall notes, “We looked at a wide range of products,
and settled on Euphonix due to the System 5’s
open architecture, its ability to handle remote
microphone preamps, and the flexibility of the
console’s layout. We’ve been particularly impressed
with the console’s Spill feature, which facilitates
easy access to both stereo and surround component
sources, making it very easy to bring multiple
sources to the console’s surface, as opposed to
having to step through numerous layers or pages.
This is a really useful feature that makes it
quick and easy to get to a specific signal.”
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