Enter for a Chance to Win a Shure QLX-D Wireless System

ENTER NOW!

Shure's new QLX-D is a perfect wireless audio system for houses for worship, live venues, auditoriums, outdoor events, and more. The QLX-D offers networked control, AES-256 encryption, and simplified setup and operation for outstanding digital wireless sound. Enter by May 31, 2015 for a chance to win this terrific wireless solution. Get more info on the Shure QLX-D here.

Perry, Georgia’s New Hope Baptist Church

Perry, Georgia’s New Hope Church, featuring upgraded audio, video and lighting solutions designed by and sourced through GC Pro.

— GC Pro acts as a one-stop shop for church’s AVL needs, including systems design and integration, readying the facility for a new generation of worshipers —
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, November 20, 2014 — The New Hope Baptist Church of Perry, Georgia, intimately understands the need for AV technology for communicating its message. But like many churches, New Hope needed help figuring out what would best suit its needs. That’s where Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, came into the picture. GC Pro account manager Brad Lyons met with the church’s leaders and offered a turnkey solution that comprehensively addressed audio, video and lighting in a single package.

GC Pro brought in one of its Affiliate Program members, locally-based Commercial Sound and Video, to implement all of these integrated solutions. They included a single-point line JBL VRX932 line array above the church’s front area with JBL CBT70J side-fills on each side. Three JBL PRX718XLF self-powered subwoofers were cut into the stage and installed. The choir monitor is a single JBL CTB70J1 line array cabinet behind the VRX line array. This is all powered by nine Crown XTI2002, XTI4002 and XLS1500 power amps. A new 32-channel Soundcraft Expression console with a 32x8 stage box is connected via CAT5.

Congregants gathered at Perry, Georgia’s New Hope Church, featuring upgraded audio, video and lighting solutions designed by and sourced through GC Pro.

“The best feature is we put this on a wireless network, allowing control from the floor and on-stage with an iPad, especially useful considering the booth is a room in the upstairs back corner part of the sanctuary,” explains Lyons. “Another huge feature was being able to program the console and lock-out controls for the volunteer team so that they have perfect sound every week.”

For video, two new Panasonic PTDW640 projectors now illuminate a pair of new 12-foot-wide Da-Lite screens. A newly installed Blackmagic ATEM1/ME video switcher has become the centerpiece of the entire facility. “We re-purposed an old projector and screen to be used as a rear-wall confidence monitor,” Lyons explains. “The Blackmagic allows us to send independent video sources to the two front screens as well as the rear-screen. This has really increased the effectiveness of the church’s video system.” In addition, a new Blonder Tongue QME Modulator allows them to distribute live video and audio to previously installed televisions in the foyer, kitchen, pastor’s office, treasurer’s office, fellowship hall and other overflow areas. A new lighting package consists of two Chauvet Ovation 165w LED fresnels and a Chauvet Ovation 190 ellipsoidal that now provide a dramatic improvement to lighting the pulpit.

What really made the difference for New Hope Baptist Church was how GC Pro was able to offer a comprehensive solutions approach for all of the church’s AVL needs. “The great thing is that Brad [Lyons] speaks their language,” says Nathan Miller, owner of Commercial Sound and Video. “Churches aren’t residential or commercial — they are their own category and have unique needs and requirements. GC Pro understands that, and that’s why they’ve been so successful in this category. We ‘get’ what churches need. And only GC Pro is positioned, through its sales, inventory, sourcing and integration resources, to provide that kind of service.”

Willie Williams, long-time member and project manager for New Hope, went on to say, “We couldn’t be more pleased with the upgrade investment our church has made. In fact, we continue to receive compliments on just how much better everything looks and sounds. There are a few more projects we need to tackle, but we are happy and excited to be working on these projects with both GC Pro and Commercial Sound and Video.”

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

===

About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Founded in 2001, 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.

Phenix City First Assembly of God Looks to GC Pro

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, August 12, 2013 — Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, has built a strong relationship with Jonathan “JT” Thornton, the Worship Pastor at Phenix City First Assembly of God, a “lively, upbeat, encouraging, and Spirit-led” church led by Senior Pastor Barry Danner in Phenix City, on the Alabama-Georgia state line. Thornton has been working closely with Brad Lyons, his Account Manager at the GC Pro office in Atlanta. “I need a trusting relationship with someone who can help me take my church forward, Thornton states. “I found that with GC Pro.”

Brad Lyons and his team worked closely with Thornton over the two years he’s been at the First Assembly of God church, helping him choose an entire new PA system for the main sanctuary, new projectors for the space’s video, and even two Yamaha keyboards for the church’s 10-piece praise band. GC Pro sourced a Yamaha LS9 console, an entire JBL VRX line array system, an Ashly Audio NE24.24 8 X 12 processor, Crown XTi power amplifiers and upgrades to the church’s existing Sennheiser evolution wireless microphone system, as well as BenQ SH960 6,000 lumen Projectors, Kramer VP728 Video Scaler/Switcher and Lyntec PDS-10 Power Sequencing system.

Thornton says there are two key principles that guide him: the need to find the equipment that best fits the church’s needs and that also best fits its budgets. “You need to have the quality that stands up over time and that keeps the church’s AV systems current for as long as possible, but I also have to be a steward of the church’s resources, to allow the technology to best further its evangelical goals in the community,” he explains. “To do that, I need a relationship with someone whom I trust who also knows what our goals are, knows the rooms we have to work in and understands our budget concerns.”

The collaboration with GC Pro has been a good one so far, and Thornton says some additional upgrades are under consideration, including possibly adding in-ear monitoring for the sanctuary stage. And through it all, he will turn to GC Pro: “I do have to do my due diligence and check out different options for equipment,” says Thornton. “You can call around and get quotes all day, but ultimately there are certain people you trust, and for me that someone has been Brad.”

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

===

About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Founded in 2001, 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.

GC Pro Helps the Bridgeway Community Church

The FOH position at Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, Maryland. Bridgeway has been relying on GC Pro for its wireless systems and related products.

— Substantial changes in the ways wireless spectrum is allocated have led to upheaval in how wireless microphone systems are used, and GC Pro helps its clients find their way through the new reality —
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, September 4, 2012 — The “White Space” issue has changed the way the wireless world works. As a result of the transition to digital broadcasting over the last three years, the region of the RF spectrum where wireless microphones have worked – mostly between the 700 MHz to 800 MHz range (aka the “White Spaces” between analog channels) is no longer available. That’s meant that wireless microphone users have had to replace their systems with new ones that comply with the newly constricted spectra available to them, beginning at 470 MHz up to about 698 MHz, and a small band above 900 MHz. House-of-worship users have been particularly affected, as many churches today rely on wireless audio for everything from worship services to theatrical and music performances. That was the case at the Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, Maryland, a nondenominational, multicultural house of worship that puts an emphasis on dramatic presentations and music concerts and uses up to 24 channels of wireless for them. So when the new regulations governing the RF spectrum came into being, the church turned to their long-time collaborator for keeping its AV systems working at peak performance: Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Working with Mitchell Shaivitz, Account Manager at the GC Pro Baltimore area office, the church’s Technical Director Derwent “D” Williamson was able to source all of the wireless systems and products he needed to keep the church’s productions at the cutting edge of technology and regulation.

“We do a very wide range of performances here,” says Williamson, noting that the church’s location in a suburb of Baltimore means that it has to be acutely aware of changes to frequency allocation rules that particularly affect large urban areas that have a lot of sports, broadcast and entertainment venues that use substantial amounts of RF. “We’ve often had as many as twelve wireless channels going at once on stage, between actors and musicians. We need our wireless to be as reliable as possible.”

In the past, says Williamson, the church has had problems with dropouts, and the arrival of new regulations regarding wireless spectrum allocation meant it was time for an upgrade across the board. Working through GC Pro, the church purchased 14 channels of new Shure ULX-D wireless, including handheld transmitter and bodypacks, plus Shure PSM900 in-ear system and a Shure PA821A 8-channel antenna combiner.

The system was delivered in time for Williamson and his staff of technically astute volunteers to install it for the church’s annual Easter stage event. “We took a bit of a risk in putting such a new system to work on such a high-profile event on short notice,” Williamson says. “But on the other hand, we’ve been customers of GC Pro for seventeen years now, and we know that there’s a level of reliability and trust that would let us feel good about something like that. They helped us decide on what we needed, provided extremely competitive pricing and made sure they were delivered on time,” including most recently a TOA line array system and a Behringer X32 digital mixer for a multi-purpose room. “It’s a great feeling to know you have that kind of support behind you.”

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

===

About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Founded in 2001, 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.