WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, September 12, 2011 — Every house of worship has its own particular needs, and Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, knows how to meet those criteria better than anyone else. Recently, at the newly opened Sacred Heart Community Center facility at the Knanaya Catholic Congress of Central Florida in Valrico, Florida, and at the Grace Bible Church in Sebring, Florida, the team from GC Pro’s Tampa location designed and supervised the installation of new live sound, acoustical treatment and lighting systems. Notable products included JBL VRX-928 stereo line array PA systems with JBL PRX618XLF subwoofers, Crown XTi 2000 amplifiers, Yamaha LS9-32 digital consoles, Eco-Panel acoustical treatments and Chauvet® LED lighting fixtures. The Sacred Heart Community Center additionally received Altman conventional fresnel and ellipsoidal lighting fixtures. Beyond the deep well of technologies and products that GC Pro brings to the H.O.W. market, it also brings a level of unmatched expertise, like the fact that GC Pro’s Mick Hall, Professional Accounts Manager at the Tampa office, has himself worked in church technology ministry for over 20 years. That combination of great gear, great prices and expertise of the technology and the market make GC Pro the go-to resource for the H.O.W. sector.
“One of the things that characterizes the H.O.W. market is that they often have to work with multi-purpose spaces,” explains Hall. “They’ll need to go from a worship service to a music or theatrical performance to a community function, all in the same room, sometimes in the same day. You need to help them pick the equipment that will let them do that, do it cost-effectively, and not tax their congregation’s ability to operate the equipment. And that’s the GC Pro advantage – we can give them all of that in a turnkey, one-stop package. Because we have access to Guitar Center’s buying power and supply lines, we take the pressure off the customer and give them exactly what they need within their budget.”
At the Knanaya Catholic Congress of Central Florida, the new Sacred Heart Community Center, which opened in June, was built to accommodate the congregation’s growth. “The new center seats about a thousand, compared to the 200 the previous center held,” says Hall. Working with A/V systems integrator Christian Sound Installation, a member of the GC Pro Certified Affiliate program, GC Pro guided the equipment choices and helped design system layouts that would let the cultural center be used for a variety of applications, including movies shown via the Panasonic PT-DW6300US projector and a 20-foot diagonal motorized DaLite projection screen that can be recessed for concerts and other live performances.
“We purposely recommended the long-throw lens for the projector so that it could be located further away from the stage and keep that area clear for other uses,” Hall explains. “We did the same with the P.A. design; we also chose an Elation Show Designer II lighting control console to give them more flexibility over lighting control.”
James Thomas, Secretary of the Association for Knanaya, was very satisfied with the outcome and GC Pro’s knowledge. “Mick gave us ideas and helped us prioritize our technology choices,” he says. “It turned out to be a great experience, and we’re already enjoying the result.”
Over at Grace Bible Church, GC Pro helped Matt Christian, the church’s Praise & Worship Minister, make similar choices. With a less complex lighting system, they were able to utilize Show Express software that lets them run the lighting from a laptop instead of a console, saving the church considerable cost while keeping control accessible.
“The challenge here, as it often is with houses of worship, was to make the most of a multi-use space,” says Hall. “The design intent was to place all the systems in such a way that they maximized their performance but didn’t have to be moved. That really took advantage of GC Pro as a one-stop solution.”
Minister Christian feels that what GC Pro delivered for the church achieved all of their goals, including great systems for use now and a pathway to upgrade for the future. “We needed up-to-date technology, an expandable strategy going forward, and reliability,” he says. “We got all of that from Mick and GC Pro, along with great pricing.” But best of all, though, Grace Bible Church found a partner. “Mick listened to what we had to say,” Christian says. “Dealing with other vendors was often frustrating – they didn’t listen to what we wanted to do and instead focused on trying to sell us the equipment each of them represented. At GC Pro, we never got that feeling. They listened to us, we got exactly what we needed, and it all turned out great.”
For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.
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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, 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.
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