Inside the Churchfront Warehouse: How We Build Turnkey Church AV Systems
We recently took the camera into our primary warehouse here in Florida to give you a behind-the-scenes look at how we design and assemble the audio, video, and lighting systems that end up in churches around the country.
Fair warning—it’s a little messy right now. We’re expanding, building out more office and assembly space, and growing the team. That growth also means we’re hiring, especially for technician roles. If you’re interested in joining our team, check out our open positions linked at the bottom of this post.
Why We Pre-Assemble Systems in the Warehouse
One of the keys to our integration workflow is doing as much assembly as possible ahead of time, right here in the warehouse. Instead of building everything from scratch on-site, we treat this space like a light manufacturing operation.
That approach gives us a few big advantages. We can work in a controlled environment with all of our tools and inventory within arm’s reach. We can focus on quality and detail—especially cabling, labeling, and terminations—without the time pressure of an active construction site. And by the time we get to your church, much of the system is already dialed in, which shortens install time and reduces risk.
Our assembly team, including field technicians like Noah, move between two worlds: they’re out in churches doing installs, and when there’s a gap between projects, they’re here in the warehouse pre-building racks and systems for upcoming jobs.
The Audio Rack: Clean Signal Flow and Easy Patching
One of the racks Noah is currently working on is our audio world rack. This particular build includes Fulcrum Acoustic Drive/Flex amplifiers powering four main point-source speakers, a pair of subs, front fills, and delays if the room requires them. It also houses an Allen & Heath AHM matrix processor for routing and processing, in-ear monitor transmitters, wireless microphone receivers, and network patch bays for clean, flexible connectivity.
A key piece of this setup is the Bit Tree normalized patch bay—a small design choice that makes a big difference in day-to-day usability. When no patch cable is inserted, the signal flows straight through as normal. When you insert a short patch cable on the front, you can re-route audio without ever reaching around the back of the rack. That means your volunteers or staff don’t need to constantly unplug and re-plug XLR cables at the preamps just to test or reconfigure things. They can make changes quickly and safely from the front of the rack.
By the time you’re seeing this rack, it’s about 90–95% assembled. The remaining work—final interconnects, tying into building infrastructure—happens on-site.
The Video, Computer, and Lighting Rack
Next to the audio rack is what we often call the video/computer/lighting world rack. This one brings together a lot of the backbone infrastructure for modern church production: network patch bays, a Unifi Dream Machine for routing and network management, production computers and control hardware, NDI encoders and decoders from Kiloview for distributed video workflows, and Adder KVMs that allow you to control computers from multiple locations.
We’re also building with Mac minis paired with Sonnet Echo III expansion chassis loaded with PCIe cards—DeckLink cards, 10 Gb Ethernet, and other connectivity expansions—plus an additional audio amplifier for distributed lobby speakers.
On this project, one rack will live behind the stage while the other sits in a separate room behind front-of-house. Our technicians always build from a plan set so everything lines up with the design.
How We Design Systems Before Anything Ships
All of this assembly is guided by detailed design work we do long before we cut the first cable.
We design our systems in Vectorworks, a building information modeling platform. From there, we generate top plan views showing main speaker locations, stage layout, and audience coverage, as well as section and elevation views that show how arrays and subs are stacked or flown, lighting positions, and throw angles. We also produce power and receptacle schedules that tell electricians exactly where we need power and low-voltage boxes, along with coordination packages for structural engineers that include load calculations to verify that rigging points and structures are safe and compliant.
For loudspeaker systems like Fulcrum Acoustic PAs, we work from acoustic prediction files that show expected coverage and performance in the room. That gives us confidence that what we’re designing on paper will translate to real-world clarity and even coverage once it’s installed.
Equally important are the schematics. Every system gets documented: audio routing from mixing console to stage boxes, DSP, amps, and speaker runs; video routing, conversion, and distribution paths; lighting and DMX universes, nodes, and runs; and networking including switches, VLANs, patch bays, and labeled ports. Every floor box, patch bay, connector plate, and rack space is documented and labeled. That’s what keeps your system serviceable years down the road.
Why a Dedicated Assembly Space Matters
Behind the camera, this warehouse is lined with bins and inventory for all the little pieces that make systems reliable and volunteer-friendly: custom blanks and panels branded for Churchfront racks, toolless keystone jacks for network terminations, connectors, hardware, and labeling supplies.
Having everything within reach means our team can assemble quickly and accurately instead of hunting for parts or improvising in the field. It also keeps quality consistent across projects.
From Warehouse to Job Site: Shipping and Logistics
Once a job is fully assembled and tested, it’s time to get it to your church.
We have a couple of ways to handle that. When it makes sense for the project and distance, we load up our own truck and trailer and handle the transport ourselves. For certain regions or very large shipments, we palletize and ship via freight. When we’re using third-party freight, we tend to go overboard on edge protection and reinforcement—because no one cares about your gear as much as you do. When it’s on our own trailer with drivers we know and trust, we can be a little less cautious.
We also try to stay ahead on assembly, even if the install is still a ways out. That keeps us from building up a backlog and helps ensure that when your date on the calendar arrives, we’re truly ready.
Growing the Team That Builds These Systems
All of this happens because of a team of technicians, designers, and engineers working together every day—from warehouse assembly to on-site commissioning.
We’re in a season of significant growth and are actively hiring for multiple roles, especially technician and field positions. If you’re passionate about church tech, love solving problems, and want to help churches build reliable, volunteer-friendly systems, we’d love to hear from you.
