First Baptist Church
Full-Venue Church AVL Technology Enhancements Create Authentic Worship Experiences
When the original production systems at First Baptist Church began showing their age, church leaders saw an opportunity to launch a long-term plan to reimagine the live-worship experience in their 7,200-seat venue. The ideal enhancements would create an environment to increase the intimacy in the large space by better connecting the stage with the audience and setting the tone for the future of worship at the church.
Diversified worked alongside the church for over two years to ideate, design, and deliver the first phase of new systems that would marry two different styles of worship. The design parameters contained only technology, so the sanctuary would not be physically renovated. The challenge was to find and leverage the right audio technology to elevate the sanctuary sound quality, along with improving other pain points such as stage lighting, video screens, and the aging intercom system.
The project scope included a new audio system, choir loft monitoring, a new curved 80-feet wide stage LED wall, flown LED wall lyric strip, 30,000 lumen laser projectors and screens, a stage lighting system with all new fixtures, truss and motors, power distribution, and control system, production matrix intercom system, and all the necessary construction to facilitate the installation of these new systems.
The new stage lighting system has completely transformed the look and feel of both the stage and the room, immersing both the artists and congregation in color that supports the worship beautifully. With the new loudspeaker system, nearly three-quarters of First Baptist’s attendees are now in the “sweet spot” for experiencing spatialized audio.
“There is great comfort knowing the production quality matches what’s happening on stage. Our new baseline is consistent, and leaps and bounds better than our old system’s best,” says Josh Belokonny, FBCW Production Director.
Worship is now more engaging, participation has increased, and the church’s team is proud of the experience they are able to create for attendees each week.
