WESTERN SPRINGS, ILLINOIS: Western Springs Baptist Church, also known as the Village Church, reserves its place in history as the only church where Reverend Billy Graham served as pastor (1943). Years later, it would also be the home of the "Songs of the Night" radio program which featured renowned singer George Beverly Shea.

"The program was broadcast out of the sanctuary. When Pastor Art Brown joined us, it moved to the Moody Church. Since then we've had a hodge-podge sound system for the last 25 years," explained George Winkler, a congregation member for the past 35 years. "The control booth was in the back of the church. You had to use a scary straight ladder to get up there."
 

Evolution wired and wireless mics give Western Springs Baptist Church reliability coupled with sonic superiority.

In 1999, the church began a fundraising drive called "Faithful Today, Transforming Tomorrow" to fulfill its vision of worship in a new, state-of-the-art sanctuary - one that could clearly deliver His message. Two short years later, construction of the new sanctuary began as part of a $6 million renovation of the church campus. Members of the congregation moved to a temporary space for 16 months while awaiting completion.

"The old sanctuary is now classrooms with modern updates. In the newly constructed sanctuary we installed a total AV package, including projection screens, presentation tools and new wired and wireless microphones. The system was installed and designed by SPL Integrated Systems," said Brad Shockley, the church's director of media.

The installation included six Sennheiser EW 300 handheld wireless microphones and three Sennheiser EW 312MP wireless lavaliere microphones. Also included, there are two Sennheiser e 845 vocal wired microphones. The media staff also uses two Sennheiser HD 25 headsets for live mixing and recording. The choir is recorded using four Crown CM-30 microphones.

Additionally, there are nine Sennheiser EW 300 diversity wireless receiver systems, six Sennheiser BB25 50-ohm terminated antennae, two Sennheiser ASP 1-NT1 passive antennae splitters, three pairs of Sennheiser A1031-U antennae, and one Sennheiser AB1 antennae booster located in the control room.

The church's recent Christmas concert used all six of the Sennheiser wireless microphones at once with no issues. "I was in it because I am also in the choir. There's just no comparison between the new and the old system," said Winkler. "I am also involved in creating and operating the screens and projections during the services. We project graphics, song words and readings, which adds so much to a service. We also use our Sennheiser headphones to record our services live onto cassette tapes and MP3 files. The MP3 files are transferred to CDs for use by the congregation."
 
"The microphones are used within the sanctuary with the receivers based in a rack in the media booth located on the upper balcony, approximately 80-100 feet away. The media booth handles all AV for the church," explained Shockley. "I like the Sennheisers for their narrow coverage pattern. It doesn't pick up resonance or ambient noise. That is helpful since sometimes we have inexperienced mic users or small children who perform. We've had zero feedback issues, even with people standing right next to a loudspeaker."