Church of the Epiphany Gets Loud with Adamson Systems

When the Church of the Epiphany first opened its humble doors in 1967, an initial lack of chairs and furnishings has been balanced by an abundance in faith over the years. Over half a century would pass before a new church would be constructed on the same site close to Seletar air force base in Singapore. Having relied on offerings such as second-hand pews, a new generation of worshippers gave generously to ensure the church would broadcast its services pristinely and powerfully within and beyond their new five level home.

The AV and lighting systems gracing three levels of the new construction were similarly provided in charitable circumstances. For a church that was indoctrinated a year following Singapore’s own coming of age, Epiphany reminisces its history with a certain nostalgia. However, the church elders including the vicar’s warden and music co-ordinator, Abraham Manimuthu are focused firmly on the future AV requirements for their coming-of-age worshippers.

Having served at eight churches prior to his posting at Epiphany in July 2015, Reverend Paul Xavier arrived off the number 88 bus to enter ‘a very rich cultural heritage’. “For me, this was something new as Epiphany is only one of three Tamil parishes in the Diocese of Singapore,” Reverend Paul recalls. The services have predominantly been conducted in Hindi. “From the moment I stepped through the old church gate, it felt like I had arrived home. This is a predominantly Tamil parish and 98% of Epiphany’s multi-generation members are Singaporean Indians who speak Hindi. It’s a remote neighbourhood by Singaporean standards, but people come as they have heard that the church is a great community place with childcare.

Reverend Paul quickly learnt that a redevelopment plan was nearing fruition and that the church was in the process of nominating an architect. However, there was a significant shortfall in funding required to construct and furnish their ambitious plans. When former vicar Reverend Stephen Archibald arrived in 2017, Epiphany added a Saturday service and the congregations started to grow. This in turn stimulated new interest in the redevelopment project, which led to an approval being granted to continue fundraising.

A ground-breaking consecration ceremony was held in April 2019. Over the following three plus years Epiphany, would then take advantage of a donated 100 sq. m office space and a temporary home for their Sunday services in the form of the Presbyterian Church. Following one year of construction, the effects of the pandemic resulted in the first circuit breaker programme. “Fortunately, we could go online with video conferencing over Zoom,” adds Reverend Paul. “However, the various lockdowns, a lack of manpower and some workers contracting Covid led to building work slowing down and many fundraising activities being cancelled.”

As the outer skeleton of the new Epiphany emerged in December 2021, a temporary occupancy permit was granted. “From our calculations, we still required around S$1,000,000 to complete furnish and kit out all five levels including the kitchens and offices, but with tax and inflation this had risen to S$2.4 million,” Pastor Paul surmises. Donations continued to arrive, and the committee outsourced the furniture, pews, and interior works to manufactured in Singapore, including cushions for the pews made by the elderly congregants. “We also lacked a good sound system together with acoustic panelling - naturally, we wanted the Lord to help us.”

Vicar’s warden Abraham a pioneer member since the inception of church in 1966, when the church worshipped in a more orderly and traditional Anglican style of worship. “Reverend Joseph Kanniah introduced a more charismatic style of worship where we could raise our hands and praise the Lord out loud,” recalls Vicar’s warden Abraham. “To further enhance the worship style, we staged a live band for our services. Initially, a bass and keyboard player, we added acoustic and electric guitars and this in turn drew a larger congregation. Over time, a worship team formed as we required an understanding of the technology to better worship God, which led to investments in synthesizers and electronic equipment.”

When the development plan rolled out, the technicians drafted their own wish list with a cabling infrastructure including SDI, HDMI, CAT6A, IP for remote control of the cameras at the top. “I understood their direction as I was previously employed in the satellite business with SingTel,” continues Vicar;s warden Abraham. “We were fully aware of the costs, so we were pleasantly surprised when the church agreed to our plans.”

When the time arrived to source an audio system, Vicar’s warden Abraham realised that there was little budget remaining. “Alan Mathew is a well-respected consultant and supplier amongst the Singaporean church community,” continues Vicar’s warden Abraham. Having happily operated as an end-user over the past two decades, Mathew’s integrity and production values have transformed his status to that of an influencer and, in doing so, has attracted the attention of manufacturers seeking better sales penetration into Singapore. ‘When Adamson approached me to represent them in Singapore, I was flattered. I had heard about their systems being used by Hillsong and Eighth Day, so that was good enough for me.”

Mathew based his proposal for Epiphany around an Adamson IS7 line array system, although the initial quotation exceeded the church’s budget. “Alan’s parents knew the church, and as a result he had a change of heart,” explains Vicar’s warden Abraham. “After some thought, Alan declared that he would help, and reassured us not to worry about the final price. Alan then introduced me to Colin Quek from LTA, who also assured Epiphany that he would install future proofed audio, video, and lighting components within budget.”

Prior to LTA’s arrival for the AV and lighting fit out, an IT contractor fulfilled the cabling infrastructure throughout the new Epiphany, including a 200-capacity level two hall for English and youth services, a 100-capacity level two hall for Mandarin and a further level 450-capacity main Sanctuary for the predominantly Tamil services. Fibre optic connectivity has been installed between all three venues, promoting the transmission of bilateral AV signals. “We didn't want to dedicate services to predominantly English, Chinese, or Tamil congregations, so we hold them on all three levels,” reveals Vicar’s warden Abraham.”

“The cabling infrastructure was advanced and clearly well designed,” recalls LTA managing director Colin Quek from his initial site visit. “Each level is fibre connected to a main rack with AV data routed to Netgear Pro AV switches, allowing the technicians to make changes easily with drag-and-drop software GUI. The backbone Dante and AV over IP network protocols here can be managed by a layperson. However, the church was less familiar with the need for redundancy and so we needed to build more of this into the system. AV flexibility has also been extended and the Epiphany network can now handle an increased signal transport capacity including all the 4K cameras and the PTZ’s.”

Should a service be conducted on the second level, the church can ingest the signals directly from the cameras downstairs to the displays on the upper levels from the control surface in the main sanctuary. “NDI is very easy to use,” continues Quek. “An operator has a visual of every single NDI source available from one monitor. In terms of productions, there are many possibilities. For example, a worshipper can be seated in the Sanctuary and participate in any programme that is available to stream as a mix down source.”

Established in 2019 as a new professional audio distributor in Singapore, Alan Mathew heads M3 Professional Audio (M3PA). Differentiating itself as a specialist supplier to high-performance entertainment venues within the city-state, M3PA created a simple L-R design for the main Sanctuary comprising six IS7 enclosures in each hang augmented by four floor-standing IS119 subwoofers. Powered by three Lab.Gruppen D120:4L and single D80:4L amplifiers, a pair of Adamson IS7px passive point source fills with rotatable prolate spheroidal waveguides complete the setup. The audio setup is connected using Sommer 4SQ-mm and 8SQ-m cabling.

“When we were commissioning the Adamson IS7 loudspeakers without subs, they delivered a lot of punch at 80Hz,” exclaims Quek. “This is the first time that LTA has installed Adamson and I can testify that they are very powerful for their size.” The two-way line array cabinet contains dual ND7-LM8 woofers, and a 1.4-inch exit compression driver coupled to an optimised waveguide to create a slightly curved wavefront with a nominal dispersion pattern of 100° x 12.5° (H x V). The inherent Controlled Summation Technology (CST) further eliminates low-mid lobing normally associated with two-way line source systems.

Having taken the decision to install Adamson loudspeakers at the outset of the AV and lighting fit-out, other elements including the audio mixing console were specified along the way. “Vicar Abraham and the technical team requested a user-friendly digital control surface and personal monitoring system for their services,” explains Quek. “As such, we had no hesitation recommending a Midas ecosystem as this ticked all their needs and importantly, it fell within their budgetary requirements.”

Two DL16 stage boxes combine to feed 32 inputs and 16 XLR outputs to and from the Midas M32 40-input live console. Providing up to 96 inputs and 96 outputs over the AES50-B network, the M32 can be fitted with a DN32-Dante expansion card that allows 32 channels of networked audio to be transmitted bi-directionally. The eight XLR returns at the stage end and the Ultranet output connects five Midas DP48 personal monitor mixers used by the musicians on stage via a Midas HUB4. The HUB4 collects 48 channels of audio and forwards this to the M32 console, from the DL16 stage boxes via AES50-B connection.

“An engineer can broadcast streams to the Midas DP48 personal monitors,” explains Quek. “Once channel naming has been programmed on the console, there is no further need to set the personal monitors individually. You only need to press a button to receive a broadcast on the audio channel. Whatever name the engineer has programmed on the console, the musician also has the same name on their personal mixer.”

To select the correct microphones for their needs, LTA provided demonstrations of leading brands. Following this, the Epiphany singers and church elders use Sennheiser EW-D 835 handhelds on stage for transmission to four EW-Digital wireless receivers and the choir is equipped with Audio-Technica microphones. “For the pulpit, the Pastors agreed that the Earthworks FMR600 could not be matched in terms of vocal quality reproduction.” A smaller pulpit is outfitted with an Audio-Technica U859 QL cardioid dynamic gooseneck mounted on an AT 8647 QM / S shock mount plate. The musicians elected on Audix microphones including the percussionist who has mic’ed his overheads with D2’s, snare with an i5, toms with D4’s and a D6 on the kick drum.

Like the Adamson loudspeaker system, the video requirements were specified earlier. “The worship team specified a basic level for projection owing to the financial constraints. However, we ultimately supplied a very high-impact system on a relatively low budget.” Inputs including three Bolin Technology PTZ camera units, a Mac, and a computer are routed to Blackmagic Matrix SDI and Roland V160 HD switchers. “The video inputs are routed to two switchers in the sanctuary production area. The Blackmagic Matrix SDI switcher outputs to the two left-right projection screens from two ceiling-mounted Maxell MP-WU8101B LCD projectors. Fulfilling the church’s hybrid requirements, the Roland V160 is a powerful, streaming switcher that broadcasts HD and SDI content over the IP network to the lower levels in addition to remote worshippers.”

To attain the optimum sound reinforcement in the Sanctuary, LTA also recommended and provided Primacoustic paneling including roof and wall treatments. Providing comprehensive electrical protections such as power surges, the addition of two Furman CN3600S E 16A power sequencer switches promotes simple on-off operation of all the technical equipment. The Chauvet lighting system includes DJ moving heads and SlimPARs.

The lower-capacity worship spaces on the second and third levels are equipped with smaller-scale set ups. Therefore, level two is equipped with two AV Matrix PTZ camera units, an AV Matrix 6-Channel streaming switcher, and two Blackmagic Smart Videohub Ultra HD routers. “The video mixer on the third and second levels are a lot simpler, but they also provide streaming,” adds Quek. “When plugged into a laptop, the operator can ingest the video feed without a computer.” In addition to providing two musicians with DP48 personal monitoring mixing, a similar Midas mixing ecosystem outputs to dual Adamson S10p loudspeakers augmented by twin Adamson IS119 subwoofers. A Sennheiser EW-D wireless system together with an Earthworks FMR500 gooseneck fulfills the microphone needs.

“The delays caused by COVID-19 was a huge constraint and the works took a lot longer than planned to complete” assesses Quek. He was quick, however, to credit the church volunteers who assisted LTA in delivering the AV and lighting package. “Fortunately, many of the church volunteers stepped in taking on vacant roles and the Music Ministry also helped enormously.”

They were also quick learners furthers Quek. “Having added plenty of flexibility and ease of use features to the design, we then trained the technicians and operators. The video mixer is simple to understand and is probably the most adopted mixer amongst houses of worship and rental companies. Most freelancers are familiar with it and new operators can access resources online such as YouTube to learn parts of the mixer they may not be familiar with.”

Now well acquainted with both Alan and Colin, Vicar Abraham feels blessed. “Their assistance in sourcing these products and installing the equipment including the cabling, SDI encoders, and HDMI connectors was so professional. Epiphany entrusted them and they did not disappoint. We were all so impressed with the sound quality when they finally commissioned the system. LTA made it so easy for us by taking away all our worries and adding so much future-proofing into the setup.”

When the development plan was rolled out, Pastor Paul admits that there was innermost doubt in his mind that the dream may not come to life. Now marveling at the AV setup within the main Sanctuary, he feels equally blessed by the events that led to the completion of the newly constructed church. However, he is not taking anything for granted and as his journey to his ninth church awaits, he is entrusting the younger generation to look ahead to the future.

“I continue to remind the technical operators that they will need to upgrade the current setup over the next two decades and as a result, keep up to date with current technological trends. They should not forget the people who designed this system. I hope that the synergy, the cooperation, and the relationship continue between LTA and the younger generation as we cannot forget what they have done for us.” Having played a large part in bringing the new Epiphany to life, LTA will maintain a presence during every service for many years to come.

Reproduced from Worship AVL