Aviom PRO64 Digital Snake Brings At Central Baptist Church

After 79 years of ministry, Central Baptist Church, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, launched a portable extension of its permanent church location. The portable church has been equipped with an Aviom Pro64 digital snake.

Central Baptist Church's permanent location seats about 2,500 members and hosts many services each week. Over the past year, the church has been working to expand into a multi-campus entity, including the launch of the portable Journey Campus, which administers contemporary services to Arkansas State University (ASU) students and the community's growing population. EliteMULTIMEDIA was tasked with designing a setup for Journey Campus.

"Since the church is using Aviom's Pro16 in the main sanctuary, it made sense to remain consistent across all campuses," says B.J. Shaver, vice president of sales and installation, EliteMULTIMEDIA. "After looking at the church's existing facilities, we determined the Journey Campus should have Pro16 personal mixers for its band and a Pro64 digital snake system that will interface with the church's Yamaha LS9-32. I've designed a lot of church systems around Aviom's Pro64 technology, and I've found that it's the most cost effective digital snake. Compared to other systems, it gives churches the most flexibility in terms of growth, and it's user-friendly."

The Journey Campus is launching in three phases, with the most recent (and second) stage debuting near the ASU campus, requiring the equipment to be lightweight and portable to ensure a seamless transition when it launches in a more permanent location. According to Shaver, by selecting the Aviom Pro64 system, the church is able to use Cat-6 cables, which provide a lightweight, cost-effective solution, compared to heavier, more expensive analog snakes.

All Aviom equipment being used throughout is integrated into one system. The church selected a Yamaha LS9-32 console for the Journey Campus; the Aviom integrates easily into the LS9.

"We've found that with portable churches, a digital snake is a very important part of the audio setup," says Shaver. "With the snake being set up and wound up every weekend by volunteers and then being run over by dollies, an analog snake would be impractical, because it ends up broken and then you end up losing channels and going through more snakes. The Cat-6 is a pretty inexpensive cable, so if for some reason they were to damage a cable, it would be pretty easy to get another one really quick."

The audio setup includes the Yamaha LS9-32 with two Aviom 6416Y2 A-Net interface cards. These I/O cards are used both to receive mic inputs from the 6416m mic input module that is located in a rack near the stage and to send 16 channels to both a6416o output module and an ASI A-Net systems Interface. The ASI converts the Pro64 A-Net signal to Pro16 A-Net for distribution to seven A-16II personal mixers used by the church's worship band.

One Cat-6 connects front of house to the input rack at the stage. From there the church is able to plug in its personal mixers as well as route audio to the speaker system. This setup completely fulfills the current audio needs of the Journey Campus but is flexible enough to allow for expansion.

"Since the church plans on growing, this setup includes additional digital outputs if it ever needs them," says Shaver. "When it decides to move into a permanent location, this would make for a seamless transition, as the church has all the pieces it needs and can just add another 6416m and expand to 32 inputs on the stage."