Times Square Church tours AES members, including Charles Weiner (in the hat), through the technical setup of the church.
The Times Square Church, founded in 1982, initially held services at The Town Hall, then the Nederlander Theater. Finally, the church was able to purchase the Mark Hellinger Theatre, following the final performance of "Jesus Christ Superstar". The church has done extensive renovations to the building, which is magnificently ornate. In addition to the main sanctuary, the church has five "overflow rooms", located in the Notel Hotel, which receive live audio and video feeds of the sermon. Sermons are streamed on the web and edited into a television program that can be seen on several channels across the U.S. To get a "behind the scenes" look at the church's technical facilities, AES members were led on a circuitous walking tour, guided by the church's Music Director, Greg Thomas and the AES NY section Secretary, Bill Siegmund.
The church offers five services per week, with eleven full time staff musicians working to create original music on a weekly basis. There is a full band on the stage, consisting of three horns, piano, a synthesizer, electric bass, Hammond B3 with a Leslie cabinet, guitar, drums and percussion. Each band member has an Intellix personal mixing station to create an individual cue mix. Additionally, there is a 150 member choir, singing in three or four parts, which monitors from sidefills flown on either side of the stage. Each instrument is miced individually, and the choir is picked up by four hanging microphones (two cardioids and two hypercardioids) with spot mics in the front for soloists and featured singers.
From the front-of-house position, Ivan (last name?) simultaneously mixes the sermons and music for the house, internet stream and broadcast. At stage right sits the monitor mixer, who provides each monitor which a specified, individual mix. It was clear from the comments of Mr. Thomas and his sound team that this is a well oiled machine, keenly aware of technological advancements, and experienced enough to carry out complex productions without duress. Mr. Thomas spoke of his next move into the future - paperless music stands (tablets) which will allow him to make changes to parts and distribute those changes to all musicians instantly.
Also on stage and in the sanctuary are several cameras, which feed the "Overflow rooms". On stage, closed-circuit monitors can display the output from any camera, including some mounted in the "overflow rooms". This allows for both communication and security. The theater's dressing rooms have been converted into an impressive video post production control room, and the church also has a 64 channel ProTools control room, used to record and archive every single service, as well as produce CD's of the church's music (available for purchase). There is a room dedicated to radio broadcast and a server room, which serves as the central brian that integrates all of the computing technology in the building.
It is clear that church founder Reverend David Wilkinson and his staff seek to spread their message from the highest mountaintop of technological advancements, allowing people all over the world to hear and see the sermons via radio, television, web stream or live in person. It was remarkable to learn how sophisticated the facilities are, and of the extensive contributions made by the music and sound staff at the church. Great thanks to Mr. Greg Thomas for taking some time directly before a sermon to patiently show us around and answer questions. For more information, visit: http://www.tscnyc.org <http://www.tscnyc.org/>
