Stage Electrics has supplied Baglan Community Church in Port Talbot, south Wales, with a Roland M-300 digital live mixing console and two S-1608 digital snake stageboxes. The church’s multi-purpose venue, previously a social club, is undergoing a full audio, visual and lighting installation as part of a renovation that was started in August 2012 and is due to be completed later this month. During the project, the building was taken back to its ‘bare bones’, allowing the audio installation to be designed around newly fitted Cat-5e points. The venue is currently used primarily to host church services for 220 or more church members, but once the renovation is complete, the intention is to hire out the building to the community to use as a conference centre or hall. The audio solution therefore needed to be digital with a flexible set-up to cater for a number of uses, from varying live band set-ups to a single microphone. With a background in professional theatre, church member Steve Dennis had a clear idea of the features he was looking for and, having previously seen a demonstration of the Roland M-400 running over Cat-5e at the Torch Theatre, he was happy for Neal Tomlinson of Stage Electrics to specify a similar set-up, but using the smaller M-300. The M-300 is used in a front of house position in the large main hall with the S-1608 stage boxes racked with the amplifiers in a room adjacent to the stage. The stage area also features hard-patched XLRs so that visiting bands can patch easily into the existing set-up. “The audio solution had to be digital and the ability to run over Cat-5e was important as the building will have several different areas such as an auditorium upstairs, function rooms and a coffee shop,” commented Dennis. “In future we want to be able to move the equipment around and be fully functional in all rooms. The M-300 is a great solution for us, easy to use and easy to set up with the Cat-5e, and the menus on the M-300 are really intuitive which means that those using the desk rarely have any problems finding what they want – such as recalling a scene – and if they do, I can easily talk them through it over the phone.” As part of the V-Mixing System, the M-300 32 channel console connects easily with Cat-5e to the Roland digital snake products for simple and high-quality audio transmission, distribution, splits and merging. Built-in REAC (Roland Ethernet Audio Connection) connectivity provides the flexibility to use the Cat-5e points around the venue to connect to the mixer via patch instead of having to use XLR right and left out of the mixer. The S-1608 Digital Snake System is a small-format audio snake solution that provides high-quality audio signal without high frequency losses or the bulk of an analogue snake. Neal Tomlinson of Stage Electrics commented: “The M-300 is an ideal scalable solution for small to medium sized venues and is also lightweight and transportable. We have had a great deal of success specifying the M-300 for this type of venue and had some great feedback from customers who have really started to unlock the potential of this powerful little console.” www.rolandsystemsgroup.co.ukwww.baglanchurch.comwww.stage-electrics.co.uk
