Planetshakers City Church, Melbourne have just taken delivery of some brand new equipment supplied by Forefront.

The church uses the Dallas Brooks Centre in Melbourne for its Sunday services, which most of the time means having to setup equipment early Sunday mornings and pull it back out Sunday evenings. Not to mention all the mid-week meetings and activities that keep the production department very busy.

So not only did any new equipment need to provide high quality results, it needed to be tough enough to provide longevity of use.

On the audio side of things, the project scope call for a new main speaker system, monitor wedges, wireless microphones and both front of house and monitor mixing consoles. Whilst for lighting a better stage look for TV was important as well as more moving heads.

Over the course of a few months we tested various PA systems from different manufacturers in the Dallas Brooks Centre. The last system to be tried in the space was the Nexo GeoS12. It was the system that was chosen due to it’s spectacular sound and coverage within the room, and also its affordability.

The main left and right arrays consist of 9x Nexo GeoS1210 boxes per side, with an additional GeoS1230 per side providing under-balcony fill. Two Nexo PS8’s supply front stage fill, whilst 4x PS10’s are deployed on stage for monitors.

For subs the Nexo RS15 were choses. Using three units per side on the floor under the main arrays, with a further pair flown top and centre in cardioid mode to push some additional low end into the upper balcony area.

The PS10’s and RS15’s will also be used to compile two smaller independant PA systems for mid week meetings and functions – able to be setup in just minutes.

The system is powered by just five Nexo NX4x4 amplifiers.

At front of house and monitors, the Digico SD8 digital mixer was chosen. Complete with two remote stage racks totalling 96 inputs and 48 outputs.

The new wireless mic systems are Sennheiser G3 500 series, with twelve channels in total.

For lighitng, three new RGB star curtains were deployed for a quick neat backdrop, running down from the existing panoramic 48’ x 9’ video screen. Front, key and rear conventional lighting were significantly improved with the advent of new Selecon Pacific profiles and Rama fresnels.

Additional moving lights came in the form of eight SGM Idea Spot 575 and eight SGM Idea Wash 575, bulstering the existing moving head inventory upt to 26 fixtures.

The results are stunning. The sound has never been better, with such fantastic consistency through every seat in the auditorium. The stage looks refreshed and revitalised with more movement and a much better look for video.