Formerly a portable house of worship, Living Hope Church has opened its new permanent facility in Piperton, Tennessee, complete with a Lake LM 26 signal processor. Featuring a full electric praise band regularly augmented by strings and other acoustic instruments, services at the house of worship are contemporary affairs. Memphis-based AV systems integrator, Elite Multimedia, was tasked with the design and installation of the system. It recognised the need for a flexible setup to reflect the needs of the church’s growing congregation. The Lake LM 26 signal processor was selected based on the wide range of control it offered over equalization, limiting and delay for the church’s FOH mains. Another feature of the processor is its 96k AES capability, which made it compatible with the Midas PRO2C console, creating a dynamic system that delivers the stereo imaging the facility requires. The variety of customisable filters within the Lake LM 26 also ensured the system performed to the required standard. “When we made the decision to move into a building of our own, we approached everything with our sound system by saying ‘let’s go ahead and put the best gear in and make a big impact’ and Lake was simply the best,” says Living Hope’s audio technician, Tim Johnson. “Not only does it provide a great signal path, but with the built-in filtering we were able to get the sound image we were looking for so wherever people sit they have the same experience,” he continues. “People who don’t know a lot about audio know that they love what they hear, and people who do can’t get over the how crystal clear the sound is. You’re hearing true, clean signal at 96k and the detail of every instrument. Literally, you feel like you’re up on stage with the musicians.” Both Johnson and Living Hope’s worship pastor, David Lewis, come from mega church backgrounds, and both wanted to bring the same level of sound quality to this smaller venue. “But in actuality,” Johnson adds, “with the Lake LM 26, this far surpasses the quality we had in those larger churches.” There is one potential problem, however. “After we listened to the system, David said, ‘I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. My band is really going to have to practice hard because if we don’t sound good, we certainly can’t blame it on the system.’”
