Worship Tech Tour: Inside Alive Church’s Cutting-Edge Setup in Orlando

Welcome back to the Churchfront channel! In this Worship Tech Tour, we’re diving into the incredible tech setup at Alive Church in Orlando, Florida. This church has an impressive blend of AVL (audio, video, and lighting) systems that support their vibrant worship environment. I had the privilege of walking through their setup with James Garrett, who gave me the full breakdown of how everything works behind the scenes.

A Growing Church in a Unique Space

Alive Church is located right next to the Florida Mall, one of the busiest areas in Orlando. They currently seat around 530 people per service and hold four services every Sunday, meaning they have over 2,000 people coming through their doors each week. Their auditorium was originally an office supply store before being completely renovated into their current worship space.

One challenge they’re tackling is acoustic treatment. The exposed corrugated metal ceilings and hard walls create unwanted reflections, so they’re working on adding panels to fine-tune the sound experience.

Powerful PA System for Engaging Worship

The PA system at Alive Church is fully flown and designed to provide even coverage throughout the room:

• Main Speakers: DAS WR Series (Four flown in the front and four delay speakers in the middle of the room)
• Front Fills: DAS R Tech Series to cover the front rows
• Subwoofers: DAS Event 218s (Two dual 18-inch subs, one flown and one under the stage)

They also use side fills for extra monitoring, particularly for pastors and special venue rentals.

Drums, Keys, and Tracks Integration

Alive Church has a well-thought-out approach to drum isolation and monitoring:

• Drum Kit: DW Studio Kit
• Microphones: A mix of Shure, DPA, and Audix mics for kick, snare, toms, and cymbals
• Drum Shield: A newly installed full enclosure significantly reduces bleed into the vocal mics

For keys and tracks, they utilize:

• Yamaha Montage for traditional piano sounds
• StudioLogic MIDI Controller running Sunday Sounds for pads and synths
• Scarlett 2i2 Interface to integrate keys into their Ableton-based track system

The track rig runs through an 8-channel Radial DI and routes into their Allen & Heath Avantis console.

Wireless Mic Rack & Stage Organization

One of the biggest recent upgrades at Alive Church was moving all their wireless mic receivers from front of house to a dedicated stage rack. This cleanup effort allowed them to:

• Improve RF stability with a centralized antenna system
• Free up front-of-house space for better talkback mic integration
• Add a dedicated stage box for cleaner routing

The wireless system includes:

• Shure QLXD (12 channels)
• SLX system for wireless acoustic guitar packs
• RF Venue Distribution for cleaner reception

This move has made their wireless coordination far more streamlined and eliminated interference issues they previously had.

Front-of-House Setup & Mixing Techniques

Their front-of-house booth is elevated in stadium-style seating, which gives the engineers a great perspective of the stage. The Allen & Heath Avantis is at the core of their mixing workflow, and they utilize several advanced techniques to enhance their mix:

• Parallel compression on drums for added punch
• Side-chain gating on snare bottom for better response
• Drum reverb layering to create a more natural live feel
• Shout speaker installed to hear the MD mic and talkback channels without relying solely on in-ears

They also integrate Waves SuperRack in their broadcast room, adding studio-quality processing to their live stream audio.

Lighting and LED Walls for Dynamic Worship

Alive Church takes a smart and scalable approach to lighting and video:

• Onyx NX4 lighting console with 64 universes unlocked
• Slim Par and Hypno Beam fixtures from A DJ & Blizzard
• Springtree Spatial Wash LED Fixtures for front lighting
• Pixie Strips for extra depth and color-matching to the LED wall content

For visuals, they recently upgraded their LED wall system:

• Blizzard 2.6mm LED panels for the main wall
• Re-purposed side slices from their old LED wall
• Mapped using Resolume and ProPresenter 7

A key efficiency in their setup is triggering all their LED visuals via MIDI from ProPresenter so that volunteers can focus only on slides without needing to manually adjust layers in Resolume.

Broadcast & Online Streaming

Their broadcast suite runs a dedicated Allen & Heath Avantis for mixing a separate audio feed for the live stream. Other highlights include:

• Waves SuperRack for live mastering
• Dual Resi Encoders for redundancy in streaming
• Intercom communication with Hollyland wireless systems
• Live translation integration for Spanish-speaking members using Actio software

They’ve also begun experimenting with a dedicated online host setup using an iPhone 15 with a DJI mic for pre-service interviews and announcements.

Youth & Kids Worship Spaces

The youth ministry has a fully functional worship space with:

• Re-purposed LED walls from their previous setup
• Onyx Lighting Software with an NX Touch wing
• Beringer X32 for audio mixing
• ATEM Mini Pro for video switching

This gives youth and kids a similar high-quality experience as the main auditorium.

Final Thoughts

Alive Church has done an incredible job designing a system that is scalable, efficient, and effective for their growing congregation. From clean wireless mic setups to intentional AVL routing, every aspect of their tech infrastructure is built for excellence.

A huge thanks to James Garrett and the team for walking us through their Worship Tech Tour! If you found this helpful, be sure to subscribe to the Churchfront channel for more worship tech breakdowns.

📍 Check out Alive Church: myalivechurch.org

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