ROCK CHURCH
CITY HEIGHTS
SAN DIEGO, CA
It's not often that the local Mayor, Chief of Police and Fire Marshall all turn out for the grand opening of a church, but in an area with one of the highest crime rates in San Diego, they did just that. Senior Pastor, Miles McPherson, along with his team at The Rock, partnered with area officials to bring hope to the City Heights neighborhood. The new campus opened in December 2015.
Project's Scope
The scope of the City Heights project was to transform a former car dealership into a functional space for services, with room for 450 attendees. Technical Director, Aaron Paiva, says,
"The goal was to have a state-of-the-art church in the building, with all of the latest technology necessary for a multisite location to accept a broadcast signal from the main campus."
The church chose Clark to design and install the AVL for the facility - the firm's third time partnering with the San Diego congregation.
Challenging Architecture
One of the selling points for the City Heights location was the building. The pastor fell in love with the architecture, which made perfect sense when staff found out it was designed by the same architect who also designed The Rock's main campus, as well as Terminal II at the San Diego International Airport. Three walls of glass are not only aesthetically pleasing; they also allow those walking or driving past to see what's happening inside the facility. As Mark Duckworth, Clark's Project Manager, says, "It's great for evangelism."
Far from a “black box” room, City Heights features three floor-to-celing glass walls that, while beautiful, post sonic challenges for the rooms audio system.
Those same glass walls provided an interesting challenge when it came to ensuring even audio coverage throughout the space. Tile flooring added another hard surface. Since covering up the glass with acoustic panels was not an acceptable alternative, Clark recommended implementing the Martin Audio MLA Mini System. Aaron says,
Using 3D modeling software, Clark’s Tom Donahue is able to configure an audio system that works with the room’s glass walls and tile flooring, rather than fighting against it.
"We had to get a PA that would allow us to control where the sound would drop off. We demo'd the Martin System and fell in love with it." Mark adds, "The new steerable Martin technology allowed us to put the sound where it needed to go and keep it off the glass."
“You can literally stand three feet in front of the glass and be in the pattern, take a step back and it falls off. It’s pretty incredible”
Another hurdle presented by the glass walls was visibility of the screen. With City Heights being a multisite campus, it was imperative to have high quality video. "Clark recommended an LED screen, because projectors, while nice, won't give you that brightness, that definition, that clarity an LED screen provides to people walking by. And on Sunday mornings, you need something bright to really see, because Pastor Miles is projected on it," says Aaron. An added bonus? Visibility from the freeway. "We leave the LED screen on and put on a loop of our upcoming events so people walking or driving by can see it," Aaron adds.
Joint Effort
A compressed schedule - the project kick-off meeting was on September 2nd and the opening was December 6th - made teamwork vital. Aaron relied heavily on Rick Sybrandy, The Rock's multisite AV Tech, throughout the project. (Rick's responsibility is supporting and troubleshooting at all of the campuses, as needed.) In fact, the City Heights project was a joint effort by the church's entire tech team, as well as their partner in the endeavor, Clark.
The AVL firm is grateful for the partnership. Mark says, "We felt like The Rock brought us in as a trusted team member. We were able to be a part of the design process and the vision from day one. That helped a lot, to have that trusted status and be a part of the collaboration." Houston Clark, Co-Founder and Principal of the company, adds, "Our partnership with The Rock began several years ago, helping them implement the streaming solution for their first remote campus. Our relationship has grown and we now partner on most all of the AV elements for their main and remote campuses. We have a great relationship - it's a friendship."
The tight timeline, and the fact that it was leading up to the busy Christmas season, required Clark to pull together all of their internal resources to ensure the project was completed on time and on budget.
Project/Partner Success
Aaron and his team have been very happy with the outcome. The Technical Director says,
"I love it. Out of the multisite campuses, that PA is my favorite." Rick agrees. "The PA the cleanest and closest to our main campus at Point Loma, as far as quality, clarity and low feedback. It's been working fantastically," he says.
The partnership with Clark was also a plus. Aaron says, "Working with Clark has been great. From my experience, it's not about the project; it's about the people. Clark is a partner with us, not just a provider."
Future Plans
Future plans include programming custom slides for the evening, in order to minister to anyone walking by or waiting at the stoplight. Using specific slides to reach prostitutes in the area are one idea. "There's a lot of potential that we haven't tapped into yet," says Aaron. They may be just getting started, but The Rock's goal of bringing hope to a community that needs it is well on its way.
