Bay Community Church in Alabama, Doubles Down with Dual Midas PRO2 Consoles

	Front-of-house engineer Kevin Lammons with his Midas PRO2 at Bay Community Church.

When Bay Community Church in Daphne, Alabama, decided to extend its reach, they started a portable church across the bay in Mobile. When the Mobile campus grew into a permanent location, the church was determined to install an all-new multimedia system. The ESB Group, located near Birmingham in Springville, Alabama, was engaged to design and install all AV systems.

"The new location was an existing building, but they gutted it and started from scratch," says Larry Bounds, chief operating officer at ESB Group. "Our scope of work included audio, video, lighting, and acoustical treatment. Our electrical engineers worked directly with the architect to put the infrastructure in place. We had to be very efficient with the audio system design, because the church wanted to invest more of their money in video and lighting. The Midas PRO2 console turned out to be the key piece of the puzzle."

The production director and front-of-house engineer for the new Mobile campus is Kevin Lammons, a long time touring engineers with national acts like Lonestar. "Originally, it was going to be one console for the new building," he notes. "I had expressed a strong preference for the console I had used on tour the past few years, which I was perfectly happy with. In fact, that was part of the original spec for the room. But then I did a Midas digital demo up in Birmingham, and I saw what I was missing."

"It was actually Nic Taylor, production director at the Daphne campus, who first expressed an interest in Midas," recalls Larry Bounds. "We did the demo with the PRO3, which wasn't in their budget. But Kevin loved the console -- the sound of it, the navigation, the whole package. So when the PRO2 became available toward the end of the project, the church decided to pull the trigger on it. In fact, they bought one for each campus."

One thing that Bay Community Church wanted to do was to duplicate as much equipment as possible between their two locations. "The idea is to standardize so that volunteers can work just as easily at either location," says Bounds. "And the PRO2 price point meant they could afford two consoles for the price of the one they were planning on buying for the Mobile location. Obviously, it worked out great."

Among those happiest with the new acquisition is Lammons. "Man, I love my job, and this new console is a big part of the reason," he exclaims. "I had always loved the sound of Midas analog consoles, the XL4 and H3000. That's what I'm finding with the PRO2 that I wasn't finding with other digital mixers. It has that same warm-sounding preamp, very true to the source. You can tell when you have a good console, because you can get a good quality sound without too much EQ."

In operation, Lammons quickly became a big fan of Midas POPulation Groups. "I had read about how convenient they are, but once I got my hands on them, it was unbelievable," he says. "Between them and the VCAs, I have anything I need at the push of one button. It's really a very intuitive console, with great navigation options."

Lammons' POP Groups include one for the drum kit plus drum reverb, one for all guitars plus band reverb, and another for keyboards. The vocal POP Group includes the pastor's microphones, two headworn mics, four handhelds, plus vocal verb, and vocal delay. All playback -- including iPod, CD player, streaming video, Pro Presenter audio, and Lammons' talkback mic, comprises another key POP Group.

To ensure he always has the pastor's channel active, Lammons utilizes the Area B faders on the far right of the PRO2. "I call it my flex fader," he says. "I route the campus pastor's headset mic, vocal delay, and Pro Presenter audio to those three faders in Area B. It's actually four channels, since the last channel is stereo. So no matter what else is going on, those key channels are always on top."

Bay Community Church also took advantage of the flexibility of the PRO series architecture to address other needs. To broadcast the weekly message from the Daphne campus during services in Mobile, a Klark Teknik DN9650 network bridge card and Midas MADI interface were installed. "That sends the outputs to their broadcast studio, both for live streaming and recording," notes Bounds.

Another system requirement was the accommodation of the church's legacy personal monitoring system, the Roland M48. "Basically, we needed extra outputs to use the M48, because their Cat5 input is proprietary," says Lammons. "So we installed an extra DL252 remote stage box in each campus. That gives us 48 extra outputs, so we can send everything into the M48 hub without having to invest in a new monitor system for the band."

For Lammons, having the Midas PRO2 is like a breath of fresh air. "Before we installed the Midas and finished the acoustical treatment in Mobile, I felt like I was just doing damage control every Sunday," he says. "The PRO2 has made a world of difference. Midas really hit the mark with this console, both in sound quality and price. It gives me good sound right from the start of the signal flow, and I've really come to love the on-board effects. I've got everything dialed in to my liking, and love mixing in the same room every week. To do what I love with tour quality equipment and still be home with my family is pretty nice. I couldn't ask for more."