Yamaha RIVAGE PM7 Serves as New ‘Vessel’ at Houston-Area Ark Church

The Ark Church upgrades to a RIVAGE PM7 to better serve 10,000 weekly attendees with a laid-back, contemporary atmosphere.

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Yamaha RIVAGE PM7 Serves as New ‘Vessel’ at Houston-Area Ark Church

It doesn’t take long for anyone to figure out things are done a little differently at The Ark Church than in most other houses of worship.

The Ark Church in Conroe, Texas, just north of Houston, offers weekly and Night of Worship services in a laid back, contemporary worship music-centric atmosphere.

The congregation is approximately 10,000 people with seating of 2,600 per service. At any given service, nine musicians and vocalists perform.

As the saying goes, everything’s bigger in Texas.

RIVAGE PM7 Perfect for the Space

Sound Productions of Irving, Texas recently upgraded The Ark Church’s audio console in the main auditorium to a new Yamaha RIVAGE PM7 Digital Audio Console.

“The church was looking for reliability when upgrading from their previous console,” said Jon Sheets, sales floor supervisor at Sound Productions.

“The company also upgraded their wireless mics and in-ear monitors as well as lighting control and fixtures.

“Our seven-plus-year-old console was having issues, and with no parts available, we looked to replace it,” said technical director Chris Allgood.

“As we are in the beginning stages of a 50,000-square-foot addition to our existing building [centered on the young parishioners], we were also looking to take one platform across five auditoriums. It makes training for volunteers less of a headache.”

Other Audio Upgrades at The Ark Church

Yamaha systems application specialist Kevin Kimmel trained the qualified professional media staff.

Caleb Hendrick is The Ark Church audio director with volunteers working all auditoriums and venues outside of the main auditorium.

Allgood said the church has two Yamaha LS9-32 consoles that are just pure workhorses.

“I was looking for a solid desk with an I/O count that could provide for future growth,” he said.

“The TWINLANe networking along with Dante capability gives us a lot of future growth potential. The RIVAGE PM7 brings so much to the table. In fact, we had to completely retune our entire room to really take advantage of the warmth.”

Allgood also mentioned The Ark Church will be adding Yamaha CL desks with Rio units into their new auditoriums.

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