Metro City Church Expands with D.A.S. Audio

The view from the front-of-house position at the new Riverview, Michigan campus of Metro City Church, outfitted with A/V components sourced through Guitar Center Professional.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, August 24, 2015 — Several years ago, Metro City Church, located in the Detroit metropolitan area, outfitted its 900-seat sanctuary with a system of Aero Series 2 products from Spanish manufacturer D.A.S. Audio with assistance from Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Building on the success of that project, the church recently returned to GC Pro to purchase a second D.A.S. system for a new campus and its touring praise band.

Metro City Church is a very modern organization, employing the latest technology and media, especially music, to engage its congregation, which reportedly numbers about 1,500 people each weekend. According to Paul Johnson, GC Pro Senior Account Manager in Detroit, “Music plays a vital role in their worship services because it’s a great way to be relevant to their congregants. They have a praise band—Alive—that reaches out to hundreds of high school students.” Alive is also the name of the church’s high school division, which meets every Sunday night and addresses the local Downriver community of ninth through twelfth grade students.

Toward the end of 2012, Johnson, together with Paul Long, a Guitar Center Sales Associate based at the Southfield, Michigan store, in collaboration with Steve Trimble, D.A.S. Audio Regional Sales Manager, designed and installed a new sound system for the church after carefully considering the available options. Long, who is also on staff at Metro City as the church’s lead sound engineer, explains, “The church is very active with music, bringing bands in as well as it sending its own bands out, for probably 10 years now, so we see a lot of the equipment that’s being used. There were really three major companies—the top three brands that we’ve worked with on tours—that we were looking at, including D.A.S.”

The new Riverview, Michigan campus of Metro City Church, outfitted with A/V components sourced through Guitar Center Professional.

The sanctuary at the church’s original campus in Taylor, Michigan, features D.A.S. Aero Series 2 powered line array components flown in an LCR configuration—three cabinets in the center with six hung at either side of the stage. Two D.A.S. LX-215A powered band-pass subwoofers and eight LX-218CA dual-18-inch high performance powered subwoofers are stacked to the left and right and are configured in cardioid arrays in order to reduce standing waves on the stage. A similar setup was ordered for the church’s new campus, located in the southern Detroit suburb of Riverview, including a total of 15 D.A.S. Aero 12A line array modules flown in an LCR configuration, and 12 LX-218CA dual-18-inch subs, along with dbx DriveRack VENU360 speaker processing. The systems at both the Taylor and Riverview campuses are similar, says Long, “But one thing that is a bit different is that we originally sold them Aero 12As and they have since modified and upgraded the system to include Aero 38As as well as Aero 12s. So it’s more of a hybrid system now.” The powered three-way Aero 38A module houses two 12-inch and two 10-inch speakers plus a 1.5-inch high frequency compression driver.
The latest upgrade also includes four Sennheiser G3 Evolution 900 series handheld mics, a pair of G3 wireless body pack transmitters and rackmount receivers and three DPA d:fine 4088 miniature cardioid headset mics. This purchase also includes band equipment, including Meinl cymbals and an Ampeg SVT head, and a variety of instrument microphones, most notably Shure Beta52A, Beta56A and Beta91A dynamics and an Audix DVICE drum mic mounting system.
In appreciation, the church made its facilities available to Guitar Center for multiple GC Pro Live Sound Expos in 2014 and 2015, featuring the latest products from many high-end manufacturers. “Metro City Church was the first to partner with us to do one of those events,” says Johnson. “That was a big deal—they opened up their church to us.”

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.

Gloria’s Latin Cuisine Gets Immersive AVL

The exterior of the newly renovated Addison, Texas location of Gloria’s Latin Cuisine, featuring immersive AVL sourced through Guitar Center Professional. Photo courtesy of Custom Audio Video Services. © 2015.

— Gloria’s Latin Cuisine has been reinventing itself to accommodate changes in the hospitality culture, and GC Pro has been there providing the AVL technology it needs to stay at the leading edge of the business —

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, June 4, 2015 — It began in 1988 as Gloria’s Restaurant, a single outpost in Dallas offering the authentic Tex-Mex and Salvadoran comidas envisioned by Gloria and Jose Fuentes, newly minted American citizens with an entrepreneurial dream. That dream has now grown to 15 locations and has been re-conceived as Gloria’s Latin Cuisine, with the re-opening last year of a newly renovated restaurant in Addison, Texas. And for the past several years, the new stores have been able to take Gloria’s brand to the next level, utilizing AVL technology and design input from Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, and which has become a strong partner with Gloria’s as the company has evolved.

Like several of its other recently opened locations, the newly renovated Addison restaurant serves many different kinds of customers, as a family restaurant during the week and as a dance club on the weekends. A DAS Audio active sound system is also fitted with a pair of DAS LX215A subwoofers that assure a pumping dance floor, and they’re just as capable of being the gentle background sound system for the restaurant during meal times. Martin MH1 Profile moving-head light fixtures, X-Laser X-Beam 2500 and an Ultratec Radiance hazer make for a great dance experience on weekends, while the self-powered sound system helps keep cabling to a minimum, assuring a clean, sleek look to the restaurant. All of the audio, lighting and projection products used in the new Gloria’s location, as well as in three new Texas locations in South Lake, Flower Mound and Las Colinas that are slated to open in the near future, were sourced through GC Pro, and Jeffery McDaniel, Senior Account Manager at the Dallas GC Pro office, provided design help and systems advice.

“We first met with Jose and Gloria at the original Addison location about four years ago,” recalls McDaniel. “They were having problems getting their sound and lighting evenly distributed throughout the restaurant. They’re using recorded and live music, and getting even coverage at the right volume levels takes the right equipment being installed properly, and we were able to provide that for them. That was the beginning of what has become an ongoing and growing relationship as we help Gloria’s expand throughout the region.”

The dining room of the newly renovated Addison, Texas location of Gloria’s Latin Cuisine, featuring immersive AVL sourced through Guitar Center Professional. Photo courtesy of Custom Audio Video Services. © 2015.

On weekends, the newly renovated Addison, Texas location of Gloria’s Latin Cuisine, reinvents itself as a dance club, featuring immersive AVL sourced through Guitar Center Professional. Photo courtesy of Custom Audio Video Services. © 2015.

The bar area of the newly renovated Addison, Texas location of Gloria’s Latin Cuisine, featuring immersive AVL sourced through Guitar Center Professional. Photo courtesy of Custom Audio Video Services. © 2015.

Joe Ramos, Owner & Founder of Custom Audio Video Services, a premier audio and video company that services its home base city of Dallas as well as Houston, Austin and surrounding areas, says a key part of his mission was to make sure that the sound, video and lighting were well integrated into the restaurant’s aesthetic design. “You really wouldn’t notice any of the hardware footprint during the day, but at night, the sound and lighting, come alive, and so does the club,” he says. “Jeff and GC Pro were a great fit for this project. Their collaborative efforts proved helpful in many ways as they provided keen insight into the best products. For instance, they chose the sound system in part to make sure the DJ booth fits into the space well. And now that Gloria’s has been introducing a new look, with lots of new colors, they’ve been helping me pick the elements that best support the new look. Gloria’s is growing and improving, thanks in part to GC Pro, and Custom Audio Video Services is right there with them.”

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.

Helping Light the Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill

— Martin Lighting’s new Rush Series of cost-effective LED fixtures makes this barbecue-and-music destination a real Discovery —
You wanted cast-off hot cars brought back to life before your very eyes? Gas Monkey Garage proprietor Richard Rawlings’ reality-TV hit Fast N’ Loud has done exactly that for four seasons on the Discovery Channel. You wanted to chow down on Texas brisket in a place like that? Rawlings brought the Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill, his Dallas barbecue emporium and live-music destination, to life last year. The Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill combines two of reality television’s biggest draws — food and cars — into a major-league music venue with world-class sound, video and lights, with all systems designed and installed through GC Pro’s Dallas office.

What touring artists like Anvil and Uncle Kracker — both of whom visited the club this year — will find at GMBG, as the place has come to be known, is rider-ready equipment such as the 180-degree, 32,000-watt D.A.S. Aero line array sound system capable of hitting 121 dB and composed of two Aero 40A cabinets, four WR6412DX weatherized enclosures, a dozen D.A.S. Road low-profile monitors and two D.A.S. Avant 118 subwoofers. These cover an outdoor concert area that can hold as many as 1,500 people. Inside, eight D.A.S. Aero 8A compact line array columns and four D.A.S. LX215 subwoofers keep crowds in the 19,000-square-foot dining space amply entertained. Music is mixed through a Behringer X32 FOH console indoors and a Midas Pro 2 digital desk outdoors.

Hot Lights
Matching the sound is world-class lighting, with one of the first major installations of Martin Lighting’s new Rush Series of products. These include six Rush MH1 profile moving-head LED fixtures, six Rush MH2 wash moving-head LED fixtures, and four Rush MH3 beam moving-head fixtures. These and other fixtures are controlled through a Martin M1 lighting console with a built in folding touchscreen. The emphasis on LED lighting is what makes GMBG as flexible as it needs to be — you never know when Rawlings and company will show up with cameras ready to show that barbecue is done and the joint is rocked.

But lighting of this level of sophistication wasn’t this readily accessible or this affordable before Martin’s Rush Series became available last year through GC Pro. “This is a great match: Martin’s Rush and GC Pro,” observes Greg Jones, senior manager for installation products for the Harman Pro Group, which acquired Martin Lighting in 2013. Martin Rush fixtures hit a home run with target markets such as small to mid-sized venues like GMBG that need sophisticated LED and moving-head fixtures. The Martin brand and reputation is recognizable and acceptable to compete for national touring acts, and with the NEW RUSH line by Martin it is now possible to keep costs reasonable. They’re a perfect fit, too, for GC Pro’s broad market that ranges from small cafés to large clubs that can handle national concert acts and more.

“We were originally contacted by one of GC’s Lighting Champions, GC Pro Account manager Jeff McDaniels, who brought this opportunity to the table,” says Jones. “Sometimes timing is everything. With the recent launch of the Martin RUSH Line, the new Partnership between Martin and GC and the fact that GMBG was looking for a professional system that delivered and met every expectation, it all seemed to fall into place. We are very excited to work with the likes of Jeff and the rest of the GC Pro team on many projects to come. If GMBG is an example of what’s ahead then who wouldn’t be!” GMBG was also sold on the Martin Rush two-tear warranty. Alex Mendonsa, General Manager of the Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill and a veteran of high-profile multi-use venues (having managed the House of Blues in Las Vegas), knows the value that products like Martin Rush can bring to a complex AVL project. “It’s been a seamless experience, thanks to GC Pro, and GC Pro Affiliate Program Member Trinity Group International, which also installed the audio components,” Mendonsa notes, though he adds that there were plenty of twists and turns. “For instance, we had to raise the roof on the stage, and we needed custom trussing fabricated for it. No problem for GC Pro. They got us out of a pinch on several occasions.”

Jones says that the Martin Rush Series fixtures are at the leading edge of a revolution in entertainment lighting, not unlike what the advent of affordable digital audio technology has been for music recording and production. “LED technology is exponentially making lighting better, replacing the discharge systems that had been the standard for decades. LED has allowed an option that is lower in weight and power consumption, smaller in size, and affordable without sacrificing features. With products like Rush that really leverage the power and price-performance of LED, we’ve got a whole new market of venues, like Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill, open to us. And through GC Pro, we now also have a way to find them. Instead of clubs having to wait until they were working on a national level to be able to afford Martin lighting, now Martin can be their first lighting system and follow them as they expand. GC Pro has become our gateway into that market.”

As it turns out, the Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill has been greenlit for its own reality-TV pilot on the Discovery Channel. And thanks to GC Pro, the club has the entire package it needs to make Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill as ready to rock as it is to cook.

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

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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.

Metro South Church in the Detroit Area

D.A.S. Aero 12A powered two-way, mid-high line array modules, sourced through GC Pro, at Metro South Church in the Detroit area. Photo credit: Jamie Mink.
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, September 18, 2012 — Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, was recently contracted to design and install a new sound system at Metro South Church in the Detroit area. The church, a non-denominational Christian church located in the suburbs south of Detroit, is a growing and vibrant congregation that serves more than 1,500 people each weekend. Recognizing the importance of delivering their message in a clear and appealing manner, church management recently elected to install a robust sound reinforcement system. After careful evaluation, the decision was made to deploy a new loudspeaker setup drawn from the Aero Series 2 catalog of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio.

GC Pro Account Manager Paul Johnson, working in conjunction with Guitar Center Sales Associate Paul Long and D.A.S. Audio Regional Sales Manager Steve Trimble, oversaw the project. Ultimately, the new sound system included a sizeable contingent of D.A.S. Aero 12A powered two-way, mid-high line array modules along with LX-215A and LX-218CA sub bass enclosures.

Johnson discussed the project: “Metro South Church is a very modern organization with a contemporary worship experience that really engages the congregation,” Johnson explained. “Music plays a vital role in their worship services because it’s a great way to be relevant to their congregants. They have a praise band—Alive—that reaches out to hundreds of high school students. The sanctuary is approximately 124 feet wide by 124 feet deep, has a 22 foot high ceiling, and seats roughly 850 people, so it’s not a small space. In order to deliver a high level of speech intelligibility and first-rate music reproduction capability, we determined that a line array system, augmented by multiple subwoofers, would be the most effective means of providing coverage. After coordinating three product demonstrations, the decision was made to go with the D.A.S. equipment.”

The house mains for Metro South Church’s new sound system consist of an LCR loudspeaker configuration. The system comprises fifteen D.A.S. Audio Aero 12A enclosures, with six elements each on the left and right hangs and a center fill cluster consisting of three modules. Low frequency support is provided by a combination of two D.A.S. LX-215A powered band-pass subwoofers and eight LX-218CA high performance powered subwoofers. “We stacked the subs on both sides of the stage, and this was done in a cardioid setup with some sub enclosures turned around in order to reduce standing bass on the stage,” Johnson said.

In discussing the challenges of the project, Johnson noted that D.A.S. Audio was competing against a number of prominent loudspeaker manufacturers and, that in the end, the decision came down to sound quality, design, and value. “Our client was looking for a system that delivered incredible sound and presented a clean, unobstructed view of the stage area so as not to be distracting. Given the self-powered nature of the D.A.S. system, we were able to accomplish this at a very competitive price point. By going with a self-powered system, we eliminated the requirement of having to house a rack of power amps, and since the power is integral to the enclosures, it’s optimized for each loudspeaker model. As a result, each of the three loudspeaker clusters was able to run on a single 15-amp circuit, making this a very efficient setup.”

With any project of this nature, quality customer and technical support services are critical and, in this regard, Johnson gives D.A.S. Audio high marks. “D.A.S. was very patient with what turned out to be a somewhat time-consuming project,” he said. “We actually started system demonstrations during the construction phase. In an unprecedented move, D.A.S. sent us the entire system and allowed us to keep it on site for three full demos during different stages of the build out. This was key to closing the sale. In the end, they flew in Ramon Franco, their systems specialist, and tuned the room so we could have the most accurate representation of the system. Both the client and all of us at GC Pro were very impressed.”

Johnson adds that, since being placed into service, the system has impressed the client: “Church management is very happy with the new system. Everyone we’ve spoken with believes they now have one of the best sounding worship services in southeastern Michigan. They are very proud of their new D.A.S. system. Equally important, D.A.S. has become a valued business partner. I expect to be working with D.A.S. for many jobs to come. It was an overall pleasure, and I’m glad to have had the experience.”

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

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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 Outfits Mother of Perpetual Help

DAS Aero 8A Line Array Boxes, part of a new sound system at Mother of Perpetual Help Parish Church in Garland, Texas, outfitted/installed by GC Pro and Affiliate Program member DJ Sound & Lighting

— GC Pro’s unmatched inventory translates into a full sound system design adapted exactly for the customer’s needs, and installation from one of GC Pro’s Affiliate Program integrator partners results in another successful project —
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, September 10, 2012— Mother of Perpetual Help Parish Church in Garland, Texas, serves the vibrant Vietnamese Catholic community in the Dallas and Ft. Worth areas. The church recently constructed a new auditorium with a multi-purpose mission: as a place to hold conferences and seminars, and as the venue for the elaborate wedding ceremonies and receptions that are part of Vietnamese culture. And all of these applications would require sound that could accommodate the full frequency range of music and the high intelligibility demands of spoken word. That’s why the church turned to Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, to fulfill this multi-part mission. Working with a budget typical for non-profit organizations like houses of worship, the Dallas GC Pro office was able to draw from a wide range of vendors that could not only provide cost-effective equipment and technology solutions but also offer design capability that would assure the system perfectly fit the specific needs of the church. The project also drew upon the deep installation base offered through GC Pro’s acclaimed Affiliate Program of highly qualified AV systems integrators to execute the design.

Kevin Deal, Account Manager at the Dallas GC Pro office, brought an understanding of the church’s needs to the table, as well as a long relationship with Kahn Nguyen, the church’s music consultant, who is responsible for operation and maintenance of the church’s sound systems. “We listened to what they were looking for, and we also were aware that the church was considering other bids,” Deal recalls. “But we knew that we had a much broader range of options we could choose between, from which we could put together a system that would both fit their budget but also perfectly fit the needs of the room and the applications.”

GC Pro presented a solution that used a DAS sound system consisting of 15 DAS Aero 8A Line Array Boxes, 6 DAS Avant 118A Subwoofers and a DAS DSP 4080 Processor. On the stage, eight DAS Avant 112A floor monitors would be managed by DBX 220i loudspeaker processors. Live sound is mixed through an Allen & Heath iLive T112 large-format analog console with an Allen & Heath IDR48 mix rack. Zoned sound is provided through DAS Arctec 26T speakers managed by a DBX ZonePro® 640 and powered by QSC CX108V amplifiers. DAS agreed to provide a detailed design plan for the system that precisely covered the entire auditorium, and it was all expertly installed by GC Pro Affiliate DJ Sound & Lighting.

Deal points out that the competing bid would have used a more expensive system that, based on the church’s budget, would have resulted in some areas insufficiently covered for sound. “The church had given us the CAD drawings of the auditorium and DAS worked from those, so there was a custom system perfectly suited for this project before they had even spent a penny,” Deal says. “That gave the church an enormous amount of confidence and gave us a huge competitive advantage.”

DAS and GC Pro arranged for a DAS systems specialist to fly in to tune the PA system after it was installed, to maximize its performance, at no additional cost to the customer. Kahn Nguyen was more than pleased with the entire project. “Myself and the church have been customers of Guitar Center for a long time, so we knew to expect the utmost from GC Pro,” he says. “And it's been great so far. Kevin has been very professional and knowledgeable.”

That kind of service – intimate understanding of the needs of a client through patient listening, the ability to source that widely for cost-effective solutions offering both products and services such as design, and the capability to bring installation as part of a turnkey package would be considered above and beyond the call of duty for any other pro audio retailer. But for GC Pro, “’Above and beyond,’” says Deal, “is what we do every day.”

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

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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.