GUITAR CENTER PROFESSIONAL BRINGS GRACE FAMILY CHURCH’S NEWEST FACILITY UP TO SPEED WITH COMPLETE TURNKEY SERVICE FOR AUDIO, VIDEO, LIGHTING AND ACOUSTICS

The view from the lighting console at Tarpon Springs, Florida’s Grace Family Church East Lake. The church looked to Guitar Center Professional for audio, video, lighting and acoustical treatment. Pictured are an ETC SmartFadeML lighting console, Soundcraft Si2 digital console, Da-Lite 25-foot projection screen and JBL Professional VRX line array loudspeaker system, all acquired with the help of GC Pro.

— All products and systems for an entire high-tech church facility – from a music stand to a line array P.A. system – are specified, designed, installed and Integrated via GC Pro and affiliated companies —

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, April 28, 2010 — Grace Family Church is one of Florida’s fastest-growing congregations. Its newest satellite campus, Grace Church East Lake, which serves the Tarpon Springs, Trinity and Greater Pinellas County communities, had a vision to bring a more technologically advanced church experience into the area, where most churches still hold very traditional worship services. Their vision was to implement the latest technologies for concert-level sound, wide-screen high-definition video and LED lighting systems to create a simultaneously immersive and personally intimate worship experience. To help guide them in making wise equipment selections and with cost effective project planning, Grace Family Church East Lake turned to Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center which uses personal account managers to focus on the specific needs of professional users. GC Pro provided them with a comprehensive package of audio / video design and lighting systems that allowed the new church to not only realize their vision, but to come in on budget and on time. GC Pro specified and sourced all the technology products and services in the design. Everything, from the keyboards, guitar and bass guitar amplifiers on stage, to the full PA with complete wireless in-ear implementation, to the sanctuary centerpiece, a 25-foot-wide projection high definition video screen, was provided by GC Pro. By calling upon the best affiliated contractors in their fields GC Pro was able assure on-time, on-budget installation and flawless integration of cutting edge technologies.

“GC Pro is able to successfully marry the personalized attention, experience and expertise that would be expected of a private consulting firm, with the incredible buying power of Guitar Center, to provide unprecedented access to the products and services most desired in the House of Worship market. We partner with churches to provide comprehensive and complete, expert consultation, turnkey design and installation capabilities, at very competitive prices,” stated Mick Hall, GC Pro Account manager at the GC Pro Tampa location.

The 16-year-old Lutz, Florida-based congregation opened its doors to the new campus in January after a five-year search for an additional location. It found the perfect site at what was previously the Generations Christian Church, which Grace Family Church renovated with the help of 300 volunteers who dedicated their time on nights and weekends. When it came to the technology systems for the 800-seat church, it was an easy choice to turn to GC Pro.

Hall helped the church leadership decide which platforms and products would work best together to deliver a compelling church experience in a cost-effective manner. For instance, to be able to reach both the main floor and balcony seats with audiophile quality, GC Pro recommended a stereo JBL Professional VRX line array system with JBL Professional DP Series speakers used to cover down fill in extreme side seating areas. To minimize console footprint but still provide for the large number of stereo mixes required for the all-wireless in-ear monitoring system, GC Pro suggested the Soundcraft Si2 digital console. “It has great monitor mixing capabilities. These coupled with a very intuitive and user friendly interface made the Si2 a better fit for the church than any other mixer in that price range,” Hall explains. Other recommendations based on GC Pro’s massive wealth of experience included installing all Sennheiser wireless microphone and in-ear monitoring systems with antenna distribution to insure complete compatibility and optimum frequency coordination. A 25-foot-wide Da-Lite projection screen was matched with a 10,000-lumens Panasonic PT DW 100U WXGA wide-screen rear projector to provide an interactive backdrop for services. Video is also distributed throughout the church plant via seven LG 42-inch and 50-inch LCD flat-panel commercial plasma displays, with efficient CAT5 video signal distribution using Kramer Electronics products. Live video for IMAG and overflow viewing is captured using a Panasonic HD camera. Grace Family Church East Lake congregants are enjoying the wide range of vivid colors and immersive atmospheres provided by the high-end variable white and color LED lighting systems from Chauvet® Lighting. The lighting system also includes feature, key and gobo projection lighting from a dozen ETC Source Four ellipsoidal effects units. Both theatrical and house lighting is operated via an ETC SmartFadeML console and conventional dimming is accomplished using a Leprecon MX2400 dimmer. And just as GC Pro was able to source large, advanced systems such as these, they were also able to call upon Guitar Center stores to provide all of the musical equipment that the church needed, including guitars, drums, keyboards and even music stands and strings.

But what GC Pro was able to accomplish goes far beyond just selling products and systems. Hall was able to call upon the resources of the best systems installation contractors in the U.S. On this project, that included the Miami office of Malvicino Design Group, which did the acoustical design for the church, fabricated custom acoustic panels for it, and did much of the systems integration work. Aerial Rigging, Inc., of Lakeland, Florida, was called upon to handle the rigging installation for all of the flown and hanging sound, video and lighting systems.

“We work with the best service providers in the country and in the world,” says Hall. As a result, GC Pro’s clients receive the finest service and access to the largest array of technology products and services anywhere.

Because of the success of the large screen HD video and flexible LED lighting implementation, GC Pro was subsequently called upon by the main Grace Family Church campus in Lutz to provide a $25,000 upgrade to its video projection systems and a $25,000 LED and moving fixture upgrade to their existing conventional lighting system. Additionally, GC Pro installed a $30,000 audio, video and LED lighting solution for the main campus’ new youth center, added a $10,000 audio system installation for their children’s ministry and helped the church navigate a $10,000 700mhz FCC mandated wireless makeover. Because GC Pro is keenly sensitive to clients’ budget needs in a still-fragile economy – GC Pro was able to utilize a number of components from existing sound systems in the new church, integrating them with the new systems and saving the client thousands of dollars.

“This is the third end-to-end turnkey project we have done in the past few months, and all of them have gone extremely well,” says Hall. “Our mission is to work with our clients to enable them to achieve their goals and visions. We do this by partnering with them, learning their specific needs and unique desires, and by becoming a trusted source that they can count on to provide them with great advice and great deals whenever they need us. We want them to know that we are there to help them navigate all of their production and technology implementations, start to finish.”