BROOKLYN PARK, MINNESOTA – MARCH 2009: In addition to a beautiful 2,900-seat auditorium, Living Word Christian Center (LWCC) in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota is blessed with the need to hold five services a week to accommodate over 10,000 members. A Wednesday service, a Saturday night service, two Sunday morning services, and a Sunday night service keep FOH engineers Dave Langholz, Bruce Reichstadt, Seth Bergstrom, and monitor engineer Scott Fahy abundantly busy. They rely on Sennheiser wireless microphones and wireless personal monitors to perform flawlessly service after service so that they can focus their attention on other matters.
LWCC can accommodate up to ten vocalists on stage at one time – and often does! – with ten Sennheiser evolution series G2 550 with the 935 dynamic capsule handheld wireless microphones. Five Sennheiser G2 550 dual-channel receivers grab the RF signals at Fahy’s monitor position for the vocalist. There are two dual-channel EM 3532 for the main speakers and senior pastor Mac Hammond uses a Sennheiser SK 5012 belt-pack with a lavaliere mic.
“Sennheiser is absolutely rock-solid on the RF,” said Fahy. “Of course, wireless is wireless; you have to do appropriate pre-planning and know that all your frequencies are coordinated. But if you do all that, Sennheiser won’t let you down. There are no nasty surprises, and everything works week after week.”
Almost everyone on stage at LWCC wears personal monitors. Members of the band, such as the drummer, the bass player, keyboardist, B3 player, and saxophone player wear wired monitors because they are relatively immobile. However, Fahy has ten sets of Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G2 wireless personal monitors for vocalist and other soloists.
For the much-anticipated Christmas show, the church brought in four additional Sennheiser SKM 535 G2 mics and four additional Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G2 wireless personal monitors. Paul Peterson, former music director for Donny Osmond and current bass player and backing vocalist for Kenny Loggins, was part of the show. Fahy outfitted him with an SK 5012 wireless belt-pack with the Sennheiser HSP4 head-worn mic, a wireless bass pack, and a set of wireless personal monitors. Also on stage using an SKM 5000 wireless was Laura Osnes, a local celebrity who won NBC’s “Grease, You’re the One” contest last year.
“Paul was a walking RF factory!” laughed Fahy. “He had lots of bad memories from wearing a headset mic in the past. It had been uncomfortable and sounded far worse than a handheld. So when I asked him to put on the HSP4, he gave me a look that said, ‘Do I really have to do this?’ I asked him to give it a shot and, being a professional, he did. It turned out to be a big surprise for him! Throughout all the rehearsals and performances, he kept telling me how fabulous everything sounded. Of course, part of that was the monitor mix, but you can’t build a good mix without pristine raw materials.”
The support they receive from Sennheiser also impresses the engineers. “The attention paid to us by local representatives Jane Johnson and Chris Phillips is impeccable,” said Fahy. “A lot of other manufacturers will bend over backwards when you’re buying, but once you’ve made the purchase, you’re on your own. Not so with Sennheiser! I get a call from Jane at least once a quarter, just checking in to make sure everything is fine. If we want to demo something, she’s right there. And Chris will stop by to help out with any technical issues, including frequency coordination.”
ABOUT SENNHEISER Sennheiser is a world-leading manufacturer of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems. Established in 1945 in Wedemark, Germany, Sennheiser is now a global brand represented in 60 countries around the world with U.S. headquarters in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Sennheiser’s pioneering excellence in technology has rewarded the company with numerous awards and accolades including an Emmy, a Grammy, and the Scientific and Engineering Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
For more information, please visit www.sennheiserusa.com
PHOTO CAPTIONS IMAGE 1 Sennheiser wireless delivers simple, reliable and pristine audio at thriving Living Word Christian Church. (PHOTO CREDIT: Rick House) IMAGE 2 Sennheiser wireless systems handle the multiple audio tasks for the beautiful 2,900-seat auditorium at Living Word Christian Church. (PHOTO CREDIT: Rob Schrader) IMAGE 3 At Living Word Christian Church’s Christmas Spectacular, local celebrity, Laura Osnes, lead the celebration using a Sennheiser SKM 5000 series microphone. (PHOTO CREDIT: David Katzung)
