Southside Church Builds a New Home With Allen & Heath

From humble beginnings in a school gymnasium, Southside Church has served the city of Chilliwack, BC, for 28 years. A rapid and sustained period of growth has seen the church outgrow several temporary homes since 2008, culminating in the building of a brand new, purpose-built facility with two auditoriums and several multipurpose spaces.

With the key criteria for a new mixing system being flexibility, scalability and ease of use, Southside Church enlisted system integrators Sapphire Sound to design a system that would meet the church’s requirements.

In the main auditorium, a dLive DM48 MixRack, fitted with a Dante card, is paired with a dLive C3500 Surface to handle both FOH and MON from one location. dLive’s integration with Shure digital wireless systems is utilised for the monitoring and control of eight Shure ULX-D receivers from the C3500 Surface, all via the Dante network. Additionally, a ME Personal Mixing system, consisting of a ME-U hub and ME-1 personal mixers, is connected to the system to give performers the option of controlling their on-stage monitor mixes.

“At FOH, the mixer has everything we need,” says Josh Esmeijer, the in-house engineer at Southside Church. “I always find myself reaching for the DEEP compressors, and Dyn8’s multi-band compression and dynamic EQ makes controlling dynamics across the frequency spectrum easy. But, most importantly, it just sounds good.”

In the broadcast booth, a computer running dLive Director software is augmented with an IP8 remote controller, providing six layers of eight motorised faders, to deliver hands-on control of the broadcast feed with a minimal footprint.

“We use the dLive for everything, from live services, to live-streaming, and multitrack recording” adds Esmeijer. “The added flexibility of Dante, and the use of dLive Director gives us total control throughout the building.”

For the secondary auditorium, designed with youth ministries and conferences in mind, a 48 channel SQ-6 mixer, fitted with a Dante card, is partnered with a portable DT168 Dante remote expander which can be freely moved around the building as required.

“The SQ is a great fit for our smaller auditorium” Esmeijer adds. “I like that the workflow and user interface is similar to the dLive, which will be important for training volunteers, and having them comfortable in both rooms.”

As with the main auditorium, a ME Personal Mixing System is present with a ME-U hub feeding several ME-500 personal mixers for simplified on-stage mixing when required.

“Our music team loves using the ME system to control and customize their monitor mixes easily on the fly” notes Esmeijer.

“dLive is by far one of the easiest and most flexible platforms to train and equip users on” concludes Steve Klassen of Sapphire Sound. “Its powerful routing capabilities and ease of use made it the right choice for this project.”