Inside Lakepointe Church: A Journey Through Production Excellence

When I pulled up to Lakepointe Church’s Rockwall campus, my first thought was about the sheer scale of everything. This isn’t your typical church facility—it’s a sprawling complex with multiple buildings and what feels like endless parking lots. Finding the right entrance became an adventure in itself, requiring directions to door fourteen instead of door ten. As the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas, and that definitely includes church facilities.

Walking Into a Production Powerhouse

The moment I stepped into their main auditorium, I knew this was going to be unlike any church tour I’d done before. Roberto Bautista, the production pastor, welcomed me into a space that seats 4,400 people—a number that still makes my head spin. But what struck me wasn’t just the size; it was the intentionality behind every piece of equipment and every system they’d built.

Lakepointe operates seven campuses across the Dallas metroplex, with this Rockwall location serving as their broadcast hub. The complexity of what they’ve accomplished becomes clear when you consider they need around thirty volunteers every weekend just to run a single service, drawing from a pool of 150 trained volunteers. Yet somehow, they’ve made it all feel manageable and systematic.

The Audio Journey: From Challenges to Innovation

My conversation with Kiki Duenas, their audio director, revealed both the triumphs and ongoing challenges of managing sound in such a large space. The room itself presents significant acoustic hurdles—high ceilings with minimal treatment and a back wall that’s more decorative than functional. It’s the kind of space that would intimidate most audio engineers, but Kiki has turned these limitations into opportunities for creative problem-solving.

Their DiGiCo Quantum 5 console immediately caught my attention, not just for its impressive 240-channel capacity, but for how seamlessly it integrates with their Waves SuperRack system. What I found most compelling was their approach to volunteer training. By creating this integrated ecosystem where volunteers can access professional-level processing tools directly from the console surface, they’ve lowered the technical barrier while maintaining high production standards.

The current Meyer Mica PA system has been faithfully serving the space for fourteen years, though Roberto was candid about its age showing. Their plans to upgrade to L-Acoustics with immersive capabilities make perfect sense given the room’s acoustic challenges. Sometimes the best approach isn’t just making things louder—it’s about creating more intelligent coverage patterns that work with the space rather than fighting against it.

What really impressed me was their monitor system philosophy. Instead of traditional monitor consoles, they’ve embraced MAL Heath’s ME-U and ME-1 personal mixing systems. Every musician gets their own mix, fed via MADI from the main console. It’s an elegant solution that reduces complexity while empowering individual musicians to craft their perfect monitor experience.

Video Production: Where Cinema Meets Worship

The video production setup at Lakepointe genuinely took my breath away. Their Sony camera package represents a significant investment in cinematic quality, featuring F5500 and F3200 cameras that deliver the shallow depth of field and professional aesthetics you’d expect from a high-end production facility.

But the real star of their camera system is something I’d never encountered before: a wireless backpack system that essentially turns a camera operator into a mobile production unit. Strapping on the backpack that houses all the camera processing and wireless transmission gear while operating just the sensor and lens creates incredibly dynamic shooting possibilities. The operator becomes almost like a steadicam system, capable of fluid movement throughout the entire worship space.

Zachary Bowers, their campus production director, walked me through their distribution strategy using RESI encoders and decoders. They’re not just streaming to their other campuses—they’re sending content all the way to Mexico for their Spanish-language services. The technical coordination required to make this work seamlessly across multiple time zones and languages speaks to the sophistication of their operation.

Their Sony XVS-7000 switcher anchors the video control room, and I was struck by how they’ve maintained this older but reliable piece of equipment while upgrading everything around it. Sometimes the smart financial decision isn’t always buying the latest gear—it’s identifying what still serves your needs and building around those solid foundations.

Lighting: Theatrical Thinking in a Worship Context

Brandon Daughtry, their lighting director, opened my eyes to a completely different approach to worship lighting. Rather than the traditional busking style where operators are constantly adjusting faders and triggering individual looks, they’ve adopted a theatrical cue-list methodology. Every service runs as one comprehensive sequence of lighting cues, timed to match the flow of worship and teaching.

This approach serves multiple purposes. First, it creates consistency across services and reduces the skill level required for volunteer operators. Second, it allows for more complex and coordinated lighting looks that would be difficult to achieve through manual operation. Third, it integrates seamlessly with their RESOLUME system, allowing lighting operators to control background video content and LED mapping directly from the lighting console.

Their LED screen setup deserves special mention—a massive center screen that can move up and down on motorized trusses, flanked by side panels for IMAG content. Watching the wall move during our tour, I was impressed by how quietly and smoothly the system operated. The safety protocols they’ve established, with spotters at each corner and clear communication from the producer, show their commitment to both spectacular visuals and safe operation.

The Human Element: Making Complexity Accessible

Throughout my tour, what struck me most wasn’t the impressive gear list or the technical capabilities—it was how thoughtfully they’ve designed every system to work with volunteers rather than requiring professional operators. From the DiGiCo’s intuitive integration with Waves to the lighting console’s cue-list approach, every decision prioritizes accessibility without sacrificing quality.

JJ Ammons, their senior technical director, and Janie Orantes, their senior content producer, demonstrated how their control room operates with precision during services. The KVM switching system allows operators to seamlessly move between different workstations, while their comprehensive multiview system puts everything on a single screen. It’s the kind of setup that makes complex operations look effortless.

Roberto’s pride in their systems was evident, but so was his realistic assessment of ongoing challenges and future needs. The acoustic treatment they’re planning, the PA upgrade they’re considering, and the continuous refinement of their processes show an organization that’s never satisfied with “good enough.”

The Creative Studio: Where Ideas Come to Life

Walking through their creative studio space revealed another dimension of their operation. This beautifully designed room serves as both a writing space and a recording facility, with warm lighting and comfortable atmosphere that feels more like a living room than a sterile recording booth. The intentional design fosters creativity and collaboration, with high-end preamps and monitoring that allow them to produce professional-quality demos and recordings in-house.

The studio represents their commitment to original content creation, providing a space where teams can write, arrange, and produce custom content for their services without needing to rent external facilities. It’s another example of their strategic investment in long-term capabilities rather than short-term solutions.

Lessons for Churches of All Sizes

While most churches will never operate at Lakepointe’s scale, there are valuable lessons here for any worship production team. Their emphasis on templates and standardization, their investment in volunteer training, and their integration-focused approach to technology all translate to smaller environments.

Perhaps most importantly, they’ve demonstrated that advanced production values don’t have to come at the expense of authenticity or accessibility. Every technical decision serves the greater purpose of creating an environment where people can encounter God without distraction.

Their approach to volunteer management particularly stands out. Rather than dumbing down their systems, they’ve invested in making professional-grade equipment more accessible through thoughtful integration and comprehensive training. This philosophy allows them to maintain high production standards while empowering volunteers to operate complex systems confidently.

The Bigger Picture

Walking through their facility, from the main auditorium to the broadcast control room to the creative studio, I saw a team that understands technology is only valuable when it serves people. The real success of Lakepointe’s production system isn’t measured in the sophistication of their gear—it’s measured in the seven campuses they’re serving, the volunteers they’re empowering, and the worship experiences they’re facilitating every weekend.

As I wrapped up my tour, looking back at those twelve equipment racks Roberto jokingly compared to the twelve disciples and twelve tribes of Israel, I realized I’d witnessed something special. This isn’t just a church with impressive production gear—it’s a community that’s figured out how to harness technology in service of something much larger than themselves.

The scale may be intimidating, but the principles are transferable. Whether you’re working with a 50-seat sanctuary or a 4,400-seat auditorium, the commitment to excellence, volunteer empowerment, and serving the mission above all else remains the same. Lakepointe has simply shown us what’s possible when those principles are applied with vision, resources, and unwavering dedication to the craft of worship production.