DiGiCo SD7 in the mix in South Korea

14 September 2012

South Korea - The Global Mission (Jiguchon) Church is an evangelical 'megachurch' with a total of over 20,000 people attending its 14 Sunday services. A feature of the church is a DiGiCo SD7 console with EX-007 expander, installed to help ensure that its gospel is spread as widely as possible.

The church has four buildings - the main Bundang church and the GMN Chapel in Bundang-gu, the Suji church in nearby Suji-gu and the Gyeonggi University Chapel in Suwon-si.

In addition to the Sunday services - which include gatherings for children, youth, university groups, young adults, foreign language services in English, Chinese, Japanese and a specific service for foreign workers - the Bundang church holds prayer meetings every day except Sunday and additional Wednesday services.

The SD7 and EX-007 have been installed to take care of two discrete mixes. The first - mixed from the SD7's surface - is for the congregation while the other - mixed from the EX-007 - is a 'broadcast mix' which is routed to different rooms and the church's other buildings.

"The acoustics in the main hall are quite difficult, so if they transmit the Front of House mix to the other rooms and buildings it can be quite a harsh sound," says Chanwoo Kang of DiGiCo's South Korean distributor Soundus Corporation. "Because the SD7 has such a high channel count and, by using it with an EX-007 they could produce two completely separate live mixes, mixed by two different engineers, from a single set of rack inputs."

A key feature of the system's flexibility is that the SD7 and EX-007 are installed in different locations. The SD7 is in the main body of the church, while the EX-007 is in a separate broadcast room. An additional DiGiRack in the broadcast room provides extra audio inputs and outputs, which are handily placed for the EX-007 mix engineer.

"The church is using around 70 channels for the FoH mix and another 70 for the transmitting mix," says Chanwoo. "The channels are split into different layers, which allows them to perform the independent mixes at the two positions. Of course the SD7's dual redundant engines are mirrored for the utmost stability and the brilliant sonic quality means that both the FoH and the broadcast mixes deliver superb results."

He concludes, "Rack sharing and redundant mirroring were not familiar concepts for the church's sound engineers, but they learned mixing on the system very quickly and they are very happy with what is a uniquely flexible set-up."

(Jim Evans)