Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Takes Control of Its Sound

The main worship space at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, featuring an extensive arsenal of sound, video and lighting components sourced through GC Pro and installed through GC Pro’s Affiliate Program by affiliates Crown Audio Video and Trinity Group International.

— In addition to sourcing a wide array of audio, video and lighting components for an extensive upgrade to the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship’s facility, GC Pro’s Affiliates Program connected the church with two highly specialized systems integrators for AVL and system control —
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, November 25, 2015 — Dr. Tony Evans understands the need to make the message clear. He’s the pastor of the 10,000-member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship (OCBF) church in Dallas, Texas, which he founded with wife and ministry partner Dr. Lois Evans in 1976, as well as president of The Urban Alternative radio broadcast that can be heard over 1,000 outlets daily throughout the U.S. and in over 100 countries worldwide. So when the OCBF needed more sound, video and lighting earlier this year, the church turned to Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the business-to-business (B2B) division of Guitar Center providing highly customized service for professional accounts, to both select and source the right components and to match the best systems integrators for the AVL and control systems.

The project was substantial, says Jeff McDaniel, Account Manager based at the GC Pro location in Dallas. “This is a large facility building, across from the church’s main campus, that houses their activities areas, such as their youth centers,” he says. “They needed a lot of additional audio, including a lot of speakers and DSP processing, as well as new video displays and new lighting. But they also wanted to add more sophisticated control over the AVL systems, to enable a wider number of users to access and configure the systems as needed more easily. That called for a Crestron control system. Installing audio, video and lighting requires one set of specialized skills, and programming a complex control system requires a different set of skills. So we matched Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship with two different Affiliate Program member integrators for this project.”

Crown Audio Video was assigned to the Crestron programming tasks while Trinity Group International took on the job of installing new audio, video and lighting. The latter aspect of the project included over a dozen ceiling-mount QSC speakers, including in-ceiling subwoofers, with QSC processing and amplification for the main activities hall; Community Sound all-weather speakers for outdoor use; an LG 47-inch LCD display and a Blackmagic Design HDMI SDI-to-HDMI conversion unit for one of the building’s youth centers and a Sennheiser wireless microphone system for a second youth center on another floor. Chauvet LED lighting components were also added to several areas. All of these were sourced through GC Pro.

Walter Jones, Media Director at the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship.

“It was a pretty sizable project,” observes Walter Jones, Media Director at the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. “The main entrance area is huge at about 30 feet wide and about 300 feet long, and it serves as the main artery that leads to the other areas of the building. We wanted to have a zoned sound system in that area to support live events, background music and announcements. The video screen is now used as confidence monitor for those using our ProPresenter software. We also added LED lighting to the stage and some additional acoustical material in the second floor youth room. A major part of the project was the activation of our Crestron control system. Our first floor youth room is loaded with high-tech AVL systems. We really needed an easy way for our not technical staff and volunteers to be able to access and control those systems. I knew the programming would be intensive, but it had to be done right.”

And it was, thanks to GC Pro’s extensive inventory of technology products and its wide range of integration partners through the Affiliates Program, which allowed them to allocate the right resources and expertise to each aspect of the project. “Anyone who needs to use any of the spaces can access the audio, video and lighting from the Crestron control panels on the wall,” says Jones. “Working with Jeff was great on this project, and the choices of Crown Audio Video and Trinity Group International met our installation needs. We had a vision of what we needed to achieve here, and Jeff and GC Pro had the resources to pull that all together and make it happen. It all worked out exactly the way it was supposed to.”

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.

Koinonia Christian Center Church

The A/V equipment rack at Koinonia Christian Center Church in Arlington, TX, featuring a variety of gear sourced through Guitar Center Professional and installed by GC Pro affiliate Featherston Media. Photo courtesy of Featherston Media. © 2015.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, August 3, 2015 — Since its founding in 2004 by Pastor Ronnie Goines and his wife Nikki, Arlington, Texas-based Koinonia Christian Church has gathered a congregation of over 4,000 people. Now, as a result of an extensive renovation of a new church site whose technology needs were sourced by Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, the church is ready to move forward on an even greater scale.

GC Pro worked hand in hand with Featherston Media, an AVL and IT systems integrator in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, providing a wide range of equipment and technology platforms, including an Avid SC48 Venue FOH console, Shure in-ear monitors, Sennheiser wireless systems, JVC cameras and Blackmagic Design video systems. These were installed by Featherston Media’s integrators in consultation with GC Pro Account Managers. Featherston Media is also the newest addition to GC Pro’s highly successful Affiliates Program, which matches AVL clients’ projects with the best systems-integration partners and vendors nationwide.

A view of the stage and screen at Koinonia Christian Center Church in Arlington, TX, featuring a variety of gear sourced through Guitar Center Professional and installed by GC Pro affiliate Featherston Media. Photo courtesy of Featherston Media. © 2015.

The Koinonia Christian Center Church project was a large one — the church acquired a former Albertson’s supermarket site in Arlington and needed audio and video systems designed and installed for a new sanctuary, youth and children’s center, and gymnasium. They were already working with Featherston Media on the project when Adam Barnes, Featherston’s Director of Audio, Video & Lighting, brought Jeffery McDaniel, his former colleague and Senior Account Manager at the GC Pro location in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, into the project to consult on design and product choices. “I used to work at the Guitar Center store in Dallas before coming to Featherston, and I knew that Jeff was the absolute best at making really practical technology and product suggestions, and GC Pro was the best at sourcing those systems and working with project budgets,” he says. “It was a great fit working together with them for this project, and as a result the client got the benefit of our design and integration capabilities, and of GC Pro’s depth of resources, their pricing power and their experience.” Barnes says he sent the project’s original bill of materials to McDaniel, who made some additional technology suggestions and then came back with an attractive proposal in terms of delivery times and budget-matching. “Also, Jeff makes himself available and can be on site if we need him,” says Barnes.

For his part, McDaniel says the project went as smoothly as it did because GC Pro and its Affiliates achieve a synergy that no other vendor can offer. “Featherston Media are what we look for in an integration partner — totally professional, easy to work with,” he says. “We’re already planning the next set of projects that we’ll be working together on. Companies like theirs are what lets GC Pro continue to be the leader in turnkey solutions for AV systems projects anywhere in the country.”

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.