Atascadero Bible Church Relies on Countryman

	Tom Ferrell, senior pastor at Atascadero Bible Church.

At Atascadero Bible Church, in Atascadero, California, redwood paneling lines the back of the stage from the floor all the way up to the 25'-high ceilings -- also made of acoustically-untreated California redwood. The back wall, composed of dry wall with no acoustic paneling, rests 60' beyond the front of the stage and angles inwards at the sides, acting as a reflector plate for acoustic energy and potentially leading to significant challenges with feedback and speech intelligibility.

Each Sunday, the church offers three live worship services plus a video "overflow" service that features a live worship team. While the first service each week is traditional and serves a congregation of roughly 170 people, the remaining services are contemporary and serve upwards of 1,500 worshippers. For all services, Joey Halderman, technical director of student ministries, makes use of the Countryman E6i Omni earset microphone. Similarly, the musical instruments feed the house audio system via Countryman Type 10 direct boxes.

In addition to training and managing a team of volunteers, Halderman oversees all A/V equipment and technical aspects related to the student ministries, including sound, lighting, and video. He is also the primary student ministries worship leader. "The main worship center area fans out from the stage with approximately a 120-degree spread at a distance of 60' from the stage," he explains. "To cover this area, we have two 15", two-way loudspeaker clusters flown on each side of the stage. This layout can be prone to feedback issues with lower quality microphones, but the Countryman E6i provides terrific gain before feedback-enabling us to achieve the levels we require."

Halderman reports they have several E6i earset microphones that are used each week in the worship center. Two E6i earset microphones are used for the junior high and high school services while four E6i earset microphones are used in the church's multiuse room. "Both our senior and youth pastors wear the E6i and love it," he says. "Its small size is very discreet and the secure fit instills confidence. There's nothing more distracting than an earset mic that moves about while you're trying to focus on the message."

"Over the years," Halderman continues, "our church has tried many different microphones, with some models yielding better results than others. None have worked as well as our Countryman microphones. Their sound quality, clarity, and ability to deliver the levels we need in any situation have made Countryman the microphone of choice for every application."

Patching musical instruments such as guitar, bass, or keyboards into a production console can easily be another live sound challenge. If not managed properly, the Hi-Z unbalanced to Lo-Z balanced conversion process creates distortion and other audible anomalies. To address these matters, Halderman relies on Countryman Type 10 direct boxes. "We have three Type 10 direct boxes that we use each week," Halderman says. "They're amazing! As our budget allows, I will be replacing every direct box in our facility with these. They are really clean and don't tweak the sound quality in any way. You get the pure, unaltered tone coming from your instrument.

"We've encountered very few issues with any of our Countryman products," Halderman notes, "and whenever we've required assistance, Countryman's customer and technical support services have been terrific. The company has consistently been very supportive and responsive.

"I am very thankful for our Countryman equipment," he adds. "Having quality products that work consistently is very reassuring when you're in charge of so much equipment. It's great to know that when I plug in a mic or patch in an instrument, it's not only going to work, it's going to sound exactly as it should."