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The modern house of worship market has garnered a lot of attention in recent years as one of the strongest and most rapidly expanding markets in the tech industry. Reports indicate that house of worship represent a billion dollar industry (TFCInfo reported in 2006 that churches would spend 7.7 billion on audio and video throughout 2007), and the market is continuing to flourish.
As house of worship explore different forms of outreach, and in order to communicate with a media and technology-saturated audience, they are searching for new products, based on new innovation and fresh ideas.
More and more installation companies are revolving specifically around houses of worship. As smaller churches mature into larger facilities, and their outreach through inventive uses of technical tools broadens, it creates further development and additional projects. In some cases, houses of worship are leading the charge in regards to the implementation of bleeding edge technology, in an effort to remain culturally relevant and communicate directly to today’s prospective congregations.
Consequently, these houses of worship need to train their volunteers and staff members how these new technologies work. Often, these volunteers and staff members are placed in positions of overseeing and operating technology as a means for them to serve. However, these people may not always have access to the proper training they need to ensure the most effective use of the equipment they are charged with.
That’s where the Technologies for Worship Pavilion and seminar series at LDI 2008 play an integral role. Technologies for Worship Magazine, in conjunction with LDI, is bringing the Technologies for Worship Pavilion (booth #2176) and Conference seminars to the educational program again this year, with all new content.
The educational substance that makes up Technologies for Worship’s seminar program is designed to answer questions, generate ideas, and cultivate relationships between members of the house of worship community who are involved in the hands-on engineering aspect of the worship services.
The program consists of two parts: the conference seminars (held in room S106) and the extremely popular Technologies for Worship Pavilion, located on the LDI exhibit floor in booth area #2176.
The Technologies for Worship Pavilion consists of a live performance stage right on the exhibit floor. This “quiet stage” features a variety of different technologies at work. At several points throughout the conference, live performances are going on, during which time a series of training avenues open up. Attendees can not only be entertained by the musicians, they can also witness the most advanced digital instrument technology, effective personal monitoring systems (through which people can actually mix the band themselves), video mixing and image rendering, plus a host of other concepts that can be applied to various worship settings.
Surrounding the Quiet Stage, the pavilion offers several hands-on training environments, including Digital Console Workshops, where attendees can sit down and learn fundamental mixing techniques, effects control and gain structure on actual mixing consoles.
“We’re committed to introducing Houses of Worship to today’s technologies,” explains Shelagh Rogers, founder and president of TFWM and the Technologies for Worship Conferences. “Education is the key. Anyone can visit our Pavilion and see the latest products in action, which helps them determine what they could be doing with their own worship team. Our sponsors provide us their most current equipment to work in conjunction with the hands-on training sessions we offer. They also send product specialists to answer questions and offer suggestions to our attendees.”
Previous workshop attendees have been thrilled with the chance to test-drive these products in a hands-on environment. “Participating in the Digital Mixing Workshop was an eye-opening experience for me. Not only did I learn a lot about how to effectively incorporate digital mixing into our worship, but I was also able to gather a lot of information to bring back to my church,” says Gren Bray, technical director at the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd in Stayner, ON, Canada.
Pavilion Workshops run multiple times daily. Featuring workshops on Digital Consoles, Lighting, Creating Relevant Environments with Video, and Acoustics in Worship, to name just a few, the Technologies for Worship Pavilion offers something for everyone.
Signups for these free workshops is offered at onsite at booth # 2176.
Sponsors for the Technologies for Worship Pavilion® include: A.C. Lighting, Ashly, Audio Ethics, Aviom, d&b audiotechnic, EIKI, Elation Professional, JVC, Listen Technologies, Microboards, Midas, Perdue Acoustics, Renewed Vision, Sea Changer, Shining Technologies, Stage Line, Stewart Filmscreen, and Yamaha Commercial Audio.
For additional information, visit www.ldishow.com.