Thursday, June 30, 2016

GC Pro Guides Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

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The AV control center at the Houston-area Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, featuring a Studer Vista 1 console.

— Large Houston church acquires two Studer digital audio consoles with GC Pro managing a complex transaction from initial planning through installation and commissioning —

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, June 30, 2016 — The Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church has been among the Houston area’s largest houses of worship for over 60 years. However, through most of that time, it was also a very analog institution, with a pair of analog consoles used for front-of-house mixing and to route audio to congregation overflow and post-production areas. As of this year, however, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church has entered its own digital age, with the acquisition of two Studer digital consoles, purchased through Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the business-to-business (B2B) division of Guitar Center providing highly customized service for professional accounts. GC Pro managed the sale of a Studer Vista 1 desk, which was installed earlier this year, used to route audio to a number of locations around the church campus. A Studer Vista V console intended as the church’s new FOH console was also installed and commissioned at the beginning of the summer. GC Pro’s Houston-based team of account managers and sales associates handled both transactions.

“I knew what I wanted for this,” says Lennon Allison, AV Production & Design Engineer at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, of the church’s transition to digital audio technology. “I spent a lot of time researching and even taking training on a number of consoles, to make sure I found exactly the right one for us. Acquisition of equipment is a part of my job, and GC pro is my first choice when it comes to price point and ease of transaction.”

Allison had worked in the past with GC Pro Account Manager Troy Hanchett, including the purchase of the church’s Avid Pro Tools HD and Control 24 control surface for the church’s post-production department. While he had done his homework, Allison still depended upon GC Pro to make sure he got expert help in managing the transition to digital for the church’s key audio platforms. “Troy set up the conference calls between me and Studer, which made sure that we have everything planned out ahead of time,” he recalls. “He’s had a great working relationship with the church even before I took this position three years ago, so he knows our facility and its needs. We really depend on that.”

The first console has already made an impact on the church’s media operations. The audio is always split three ways – to FOH, a broadcast stream and Pro Tools. The church’s “tricaster” stream, which is always uploaded to the church’s website and for a campus-wide broadcast, generally sync’ed the “broadcast” video with the Pro Tools audio – in the past, processed with dynamics and EQ. “But now with the Vista 1,” notes Allison, “the audio being sent to the tricaster is so pristine that we no longer need to do any post-production of audio before posting the video, which means no post-production of audio required at all.” Another issue was inconsistent volume for a video-over-Ethernet signal, which goes straight to TVs in the church’s overflow area. “But now, the Vista 1's accurate metering and exceptional dynamics has made our levels consistent and tackled the problem of music vs. spoken word volume differences,” adds Allison.

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

WheelPower Studio Biking Fitness Center (Deerfield, IL)

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WheelPower Studio in Deerfield, Illinois, featuring audio and lighting systems sourced through Guitar Center Professional. Photo courtesy of Evie Steege.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, June 15, 2016 — Fitness centers may not be the first thing people associate with Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the business-to-business (B2B) division of Guitar Center providing highly customized service for professional accounts, but in fact GC Pro has supplied audio and lighting systems to several exercise facilities, for instance, through its long-standing working relationship with Atlanta-based Indoor Cycle Design. The company specializes in creating and outfitting indoor biking studios, including one of its latest projects, the just-completed WheelPower Studio in Deerfield, Illinois.

Tracy Chudnow, “chief sweat officer” of WheelPower worked hand in hand with Barbara Chancey Hoots of Indoor Cycle Design, Ryan Nigh and Jonah Joffe (Account Managers at GC Pro) and Mike Love of GC Pro’s Affiliates Program partner Accutronics LLC, in bringing the project to the finish line. WheelPower is GC Pro’s first fitness-center installation in the Chicago area. It has a unique interior design with a main exercise room that features tiered banks of indoor cycles in a stadium-seating arrangement, complemented by a sound system that Nigh points out “can rock the house with more SPL than most nightclubs and bars,” programmable LED lighting along the ceiling perimeter and two video screens.

“Chudnow and Hoots wanted to create an exciting, adrenaline-pumping atmosphere that had more in common with a rock concert or dance club than your typical static gym environment,” said Nigh. “The instructor can instantly tailor the music and lighting and the video screens can display the performance of the cyclists in real time.”

WheelPower’s four zones of distributed audio and lighting – main “cycle stadium” room, strength-training room, locker room and reception area – are all controlled by a unique custom instructor’s podium at the center of the cycle stadium, designed and built by systems integrator and acoustical consultant Accutronics.

The podium houses all the audio and lighting control gear and enables the instructor to operate all audio and video sources and lighting via laptop. “The podium is completely custom,” noted Nigh. “Mike Love had it custom built. It’s really a functional work of art.” In addition, wall controllers mounted throughout the facility enable adjustment of volume and source selection.

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WheelPower Studio in Deerfield, Illinois, featuring audio and lighting systems sourced through Guitar Center Professional. Photo courtesy of Evie Steege.

At the heart of the installation is a Rane HAL DSP platform for distributed audio, paging and room combining. The system’s HAL 1X multiprocessor utilizes Cat5 cable to send audio and control signals over long distances.

A total of 17 QSC AD-S10T (2-way 10-inch), AD-S8T (2-way 8-inch) and AD-S6T (2-way 6-inch) surface-mount loudspeakers are mounted on ceiling brackets throughout the facility, and the speakers in the main room are angled at the tiered rows of cycles to provide smooth, even coverage for every rider. The speakers are driven by QSC PLD4.3, PLD 4.2 and GX5 power amps. A QSC KW181 18-inch, 1,000-watt subwoofer can deliver up to 135dB peak SPL of low-frequency impact to the main room and a QSC AD-S112SW sub handles the bass for the strength-training room.

20 Chauvet COLORband3 IRC strip lights are mounted along the ceiling, providing striking lighting effects including RGB color mixing and three control zones that can be synced to the system’s Elation DR-PRO RACK DRP665 DMX lighting controller. A Shure BLX14/SM31 headworn wireless mic system ensures that the instructor can be heard over the sound system.

To say that everyone was under pressure during the project would be like pointing out that the Tour de France is an important bike race. “The irony that we were racing against time to get a cycle studio completed was not lost on anyone,” Nigh said. “The installation simply had to get done by WheelPower’s April grand opening.” Love and the Accutronics crew had to work after hours so that the other contractors could complete their work during the day. “If any of them delayed, that cut into our allotted time,” Love pointed out. “We wound up working 16 to 18-hour days.”

Adding to the challenge, WheelPower Studio is located in a strip mall in between a hair salon… and a mattress store. Love noted, “If you’ve ever been to a mattress store you know it has to be dead-quiet – and here we were installing a system that could hit a high volume! Ryan did a great job with specifying the acoustic treatment in the wall – you can put your hand on the wall and not even feel the slightest vibration.”

“Considering all the challenges, in particular having to conform to the extremely strict Illinois electrical codes and the acoustical requirements, the actual installation itself went very smoothly,” Love said. “The Cat5 connectivity of the Rane components really saved time and labor and they worked exactly as specified, the QSC speakers could not have been easier to mount and GC Pro was top-notch in recommending the right products for the job and making sure we got them on time.”

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.