My church has finally purchased a new sound board. Let’s pause so that you can rejoice with me.
Yea!! New sound board!!
Thanks for that. Moving on…
So, we replaced our decent but decaying Mackie mixer with a Yamaha TF5, which is exciting for a lot of reasons, but I’m going to focus, for a moment, on the one feature that most directly affects me: app-based control of the house and monitor mixes.
Before we get into a discussion of the apps, I’ll let me friend Josh explain why he voted for buying this mixer:
I chose the Yamaha TF5 console because of the Yamaha name, the preamps, and the iOS functionality. You can control the front of house with up to three iPads and the monitors with up to ten iPhones simultaneously.
That’s right! Three iPads and ten iPhones! Simultaneously!
Now, I’ve only had to run sound from the actual sound board a few times, but I have had to make several adjusts via an iOS device, and it truly does work! Plus, it is an actual app. Not a web app, but a native iOS app that can be downloaded, for free, from the iTunes and Google Play App Stores. There’s a learning curve with this system, to be sure, but it’s a very neat ability to have.
And that’s what I want to get at in this post: when you buy equipment, look for overall quality, convenience, and that unique ability that will fit nicely in your church culture. Don’t buy what I or any reviewer tells you to buy. Buy what you think will work best.
When we were looking for a new mixer, our team read tons of reviews, check numerous catalogs, and actually did some in-store testing. In the end, it wasn’t the app-enabled remote control that sold us on this board, but it was a feature that appealed to us in our context. And that’s the trick. Figure out your context. What are the particularities of your church? Once you can answer that, you an begin to figure out what you need to be looking for with regard to equipment.
Have your ever made a purchase for you church that just worked perfectly in your context?
Do tell in the comments below.
Speak your mind...