Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL partnered with InteRise for design and build services on the video and lighting systems.
They took the facility to a new level by installing both video and lighting systems that will forever change the house of worship.

The InteRise team was confident that the Ross Video product line would give the church a solid foundation with numerous options to accomplish the task at hand. The Ultrix router platform was the key to providing the church significant expansion options for the future. Specifically, the Ross Ultrix FR5 and Ross Carbonite Ultra 2ME were installed in addition to the two SquareV Vi3 28’ x 16’ Walls.

As the congregation settles in, it is clear that the LED walls are the most impactful new feature in the worship center. The two walls, which consist of 170 panels each with 2,785,280 pixels per wall have garnered many compliments from congregants. The accolades are centered around the improved sight lines in the room and how the new LED walls bring a new life to video content as well as a more personal connection to the live elements of the stage.

The Shades Mountain production team can now support future vision and direction of the church with extensive infrastructure that now exists.

The Ross Carbonite Ultra switcher was chosen as the heart of the video system and InteRise incorporated cameras that the church already owned into the design, sparing them additional expense.

The decision was made to let the GrandMA3 lighting console deliver a high-end, professional platform to tackle all the current and future lighting needs. The touring-grade desk allows for the Shades Mountain production team to do just about anything they could imagine. InteRise designed the system to have the upstage lighting truss on CM motors for flexibility and so that all lighting on the upstage bar is LED.

Specifically, the hoist and support package used was CM D8+ Hoists, Motion Labs installed hoist control, and custom Eurotruss and ModTruss trussing systems.

Saint Thomas Hospital has been caring for patients in the Middle Tennessee area for over 100 years with a mission of providing sustainable, spiritually centered holistic care to the communities it serves. We recently helped Saint Thomas Hospital complete a technology overhaul that helps their physicians educate, train, and be trained more effectively.

This project was a results-driven endeavor with a clear list of objectives from the get-go. Through an extensive discovery phase with hospital personnel and the project consultant, we were able to accurately define a scope of work that met their needs from both a technology and a financial standpoint.

We provided design and integration services for the overhauled audio, lighting and video systems for three educational environments throughout the midtown campus, including the Media Learning Center auditorium. The renovated MLC gives physicians, educators and administrators the ability to host a variety of events ranging from new employee trainings to demonstrations of the latest surgical techniques and advancements. Our goal was to make every seat in the house the best seat in the house. All viewing angles were carefully determined, and the PA was selected after an acoustic model was performed to ensure even audio coverage throughout the seating plot. The end result was a custom-built environment tailored specifically to the needs of hospital and healthcare professionals.

Given the variety of professionals who would be utilizing the space for different events, special emphasis was placed on training and continuing education–not just for what the space could do day one, but the capabilities of the system in the future.

It was apparent upon the first visit that the house lighting needed to be addressed. After taking a digital FC (Foot Candle) reading of the room with the house lights at full intensity, InteRise determined that Shiloh was only getting 4 FC. This explains why parishioners were struggling to both see their Bibles and the text on the screens during worship. In a strategic decision, InteRise chose to address the issue of the house lighting before moving on to the stage lighting.

The solution: The Ovation H-605FC house light. Throughout the sanctuary, a total of 16 of the RGBA-Lime LED fixtures were installed. This not only provided an even field of light in the room, but the new fixtures also give the church the flexibility to use white light, or any color to create a more immersive environment. The Ovation H-605FC provides the church unlimited color control of the entire room. The next phase for InteRise was to take their stage lighting to a whole new level…

The goal was to produce a wide variety of dynamic looks that engaged live audiences, while also coming across well on camera which was a priority because the church streams its services weekly to spread their message to all of the Bay Area and beyond. InteRise created a lighting package that featured 10 Rogue R2 Wash, 6 Rogue R1 Wash and 6 Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, as well as 6 Maverick MK1 Spot units and 8 Ovation F-265WW Fresnels, 4 Ovation FD-105WW Fresnel and 14 Ovation E-260WW ellipsoidal. The new system gives the church the flexibility to go from soft subdued lighting to bold fast-moving designs to support music and special moments in services.

More than lights: InteRise also helped the church update its video capabilities. By adding the Panasonic PT-RZ870BU for a center screen and Panasonic PT-RZ970BU DLP projectors for iMag in the room, along with new Panasonic and Marshall cameras, the congregation is now amazed by the updated clarity on their screens. The install also included the Ross Carbonite switcher and rack frame that allows the church to feel completely in control of their production and leaves room for future expansion.

When Pinelake Church in Mississippi opened their Reservoir Campus in 2003, the church originally had a traditional, full choir and orchestra worship style, since then the church has transitioned to a more contemporary style of worship which pointed out weaknesses and the age of their current sound system. These weaknesses created a roadblock to the overall effectiveness of their services. Pinelake reached out to InteRise of Nashville, TN to seek guidance on designing and installing a new sound system in the church to help connect the worship ministry to the congregation.

When Philip Hagood and Wade Russell from InteRise sat down with Kevin to discuss the new sound system, there were a variety of options from different manufacturers that were on the table. One of the main challenges InteRise had to overcome when helping Pinelake choose a suitable system was the low ceiling inside of the building. InteRise had to come up with a solution that created quality audio coverage across the room but also did not obstruct the visual space.

d&b Soundscape allows for a deeper, intensified connection between the congregation and the worship ministry. The d&b En-Scene software enables object-based mixing and positioning that creates an authentic acoustic reality. It locates and tracks each individual sound object; harmonizing what is seen and heard to bring together what belongs together or pushing them far apart while the d&b En-Space software modifies reverberation signatures to transform the acoustics of any space to suit your needs.

Pinelake has stayed consistent when deploying Yamaha consoles at each of their six campuses. To increase workflow efficiency while mixing, the Yamaha Rivage PM7 console was selected to drive the d&b Soundscape system as the higher channel and bus count allowed more flexibility while mixing the audio.

Located in the heart of Music City, Belmont University is a mecca for those aspiring to a career in the music business. The Curb Event Center is the hub for many of Belmonts on-campus activities its aging speaker system was not able to handle the demands placed on it. At a university that acts as a training ground for future studio and road technicians, the system was not able to provide accurate and clear audio to the students and faculty that use the Event Center.

Fortunately, InteRise was able to help. General Manager, Philip Hagood, had first-hand knowledge of the space and the team at Belmont from his time as a student there. Belmont came to InteRise and needed a fix for the system that did not impact the busy schedule of the arena but also corrected their issues using the equipment Belmont already had installed.

InteRise reconditioned the entire speaker system, added a flown center cluster and provided a temporary solution for Belmont during their summer graduation without negatively impacting the pre-existing schedule for the arena. This included removal and refurbishment of 30 speaker clusters at the InteRise HQ in Nashville. Additionally, a new DSP program and system configuration was implemented upon reinstallation that allowed for significantly improved user interface and audio consistency across the room.

Belmont was able to upgrade the quality of sound in one of their most integral venues with our help. The Curb Event Center speaker system refurbishment was a labor of love that will provide a superior sound experience to students, alumni, musicians, sports fans and more.

The C3 Church in Clayton, NC was growing but their audio gear was aging. One thing was clear: their audio systems needed to evolve from analog to digital so their dynamic musical performances could continue to captivate the congregation. InteRise began the relationship simply as advisors. Over the course of a year, they sent several board demos and equipment quotes to the church before C3 enthusiastically chose the DiGiCo SD10, along with the KLANG system, which allows for more dynamic, distraction-free communication and ministry at C3.

Troy Payne, Production Manager at C3 said it boiled down to 3 things: quality, user interface, and scalability. The DiGiCo SD series of consoles has proven itself to be one of the best for all types of live production.

InteRise complimented the console upgrade with three SD racks with 56 inputs each, operating at a 192 kHZ sampling rate. This adds endless possibilities for musicians and vocalists performing at any of C3’s four services. The personal monitoring systems give increased control to the church’s talented artists and musicians. The SD series consoles range from the rack-mounted SD11 all the way up to the SD7. “As we grow, the plan is to have all venues using an SD console for continuity and ease of training,” Payne says of the multi-venue church campus.

InteRise values personal relationships. Every church, every client is unique so InteRise strives to understand who they are, what is important to them, and what they need to thrive. C3’s aging technology created distraction and frustration for the staff and congregation. Philip Hagood, InteRise General Manager, believes THE choice to take the time on the front end to make sure C3 had the right products resulted in the outcome…total satisfaction.

When you’ve got a massive space that seats a congregation of 4,500, the experience for the person in the front row and the person in the back row can be completely different. That was the challenge Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas faced every Sunday. Our goal was to create an intimate experience for every worshiper, while also installing systems that would set Green Acres up for success in the decade to come.

We used the highest-quality equipment and latest industry techniques to achieve Green Acres’ short-term and long-term technology goals. The system that we designed and installed is one of the largest d&b audiotechnik and Solid State Logic installations in the house of worship market and includes an array processed V-Series and two SSL L500 Plus consoles with 256 channels. We used over a mile of fiber, allowing audio to be shared throughout the church’s expansive campus. We also chose leading microphone manufacturers Shure and Earthworks for the main worship center and the Yamaha Nuage system for the 128-channel recording studio.

Since 1964, Grace Polaris Church in Columbus, Ohio has seen a rapid increase in their congregation from a group of 30 to now serving over 2,000 members As Grace Polaris’ congregation continued to grow, their need for a new worship center increased and in 2018 they started construction on a new space. They turned to InteRise of Nashville, TN for an extensive AVL and acoustic installation that would transform the space and engage their audience. The three-year renovation partnership provided upgrades that have been integral in a time where congregations are advised to stay home to promote social distancing and their services switch to live streams.

At the beginning of the partnership between Grace Polaris and InteRise, no one could have imagined a full-time switch to only live-streamed services. Through a dedication to providing the best possible service and equipment while anticipating needs before they arise, InteRise helped upgrade the systems to ideal quality just in time.

The decision was made to install a NEXO STM speaker system, along with an Avid S6L-32D console allow the church to boost their live production. These additions met the needs of being able to record to ProTools and do virtual soundchecks which allows the volunteers to record all of the channels before a service and practice mixing, along with providing high channel count.

With the new Dante-enabled audio network from InteRise, Grace Polaris now has the flexibility to create a custom mix that’s catered for an at-home audience with a separate broadcast audio console, while still mixing in-house for the benefit of the worship team.

The newly installed video production system has become a vital asset to Grace Polaris. InteRise designed and installed a seamless video system with Ross Dashboard. With the new Ross Carbonite Black switcher and the accompanying 2ME panel, the production team is now equipped to produce more dynamic, creative experiences that highlight the wide array of creative talent at the church.

InteRise worked with Grace Polaris to use existing lighting fixtures that the church had to help with cost savings. The lighting design team created five pipes for theatrical lighting at different depths to give even coverage, detailed backlight and creative color across the whole stage. The entire system is driven by an Obsidian NX2 control board which allows for in-depth programming but can still easily be operated by a volunteer on Sundays.

FishHawk Fellowship Church in Lithia, FL came to InteRise with a unique project: the church wanted to build a space on a cash-only basis to remain debt free. Together with InteRise, the project was completed in several phases, over the course of two years.

The scope of the project was unique in design. InteRise set out to create a hybrid space dually used for both worship and a gym. Of course, this presented design challenges for several reasons, but chief among them was no one wants a scoreboard in their place of worship.

InteRise installed Christie projectors that doubled as scoreboards with the InteRise custom designed Q-Sys automated sports interface. Additional items were needed to protect the gear when it was in use as a gym.

Community Bible Church in San Antonio, Texas is the seventh largest church in the United States, with over 25,000 members attending services campus wide each weekend. The main auditorium seats 3,500 and the central auditorium seats 1,750, both of which received full audio, video, lighting, lobby and broadcast renovations totaling over $5 million from January 2014 to June 2015.

The upgrade process started in Fall 2013 by doing a comprehensive technology review campus wide. From this review, we were able to gather data points on which equipment was at a critical point of failure and which would be a candidate for either a short-term or long-term upgrade. Our 18-month plan for the total project gave the church the ability to budget their financial resources accordingly over this time period.

Given that the technology life cycle for each venue is 10–12 years, our design team focused on the need to future-proof the audio, video and lighting infrastructure and equipment as much as possible while keeping the systems consistent throughout the campus. The challenge was to incorporate industry-accepted state-of-the-art digital protocols in a clean, consistent methodology, while not getting so far ahead of the curve that the design wouldn’t be cost-effective or inefficient to implement.

The intent was to create a design that lent itself towards participation and engagement for the audience. We wanted it to be easy for everyone to hear the music and the person speaking on stage, but they also needed to hear their neighbors worshiping around them in order to create that sense of community that is pivotal to what the church is about. Working from the strategic plan and overall design plans, in 2013 we implemented a half-million-dollar upgrade to the mission critical audio and lighting consoles in the 3,500-seat main auditorium, as they were quickly failing. Then, in 2014 we renovated the central auditorium and gymnatorium, transforming both spaces into a single 1,750-seat space featuring HD video, expansive theatrical lighting and line array-driven audio, each supported by an all-digital workflow.

With expectations exceeded by the work in the central auditorium, we were then asked to perform the technology renovations to the main auditorium. We installed a 4K video system, comprehensive theatrical lighting system, digital matrix intercom system and tour grade line array audio system, all utilizing an all-digital infrastructure.