The Sandals Church Story

In 1997, a small group of people gathered in the living room of Pastor Matt Brown to begin a church for people who are real with themselves, with God, and with others.  With the overarching theme of simply being real, Sandals Church has grown tremendously over the last two decades, now with over 6,000 people gathering at 3 campuses across Southern California’s Inland Empire.

Starting off as a portable church for the first 13 years of their existence, in 2010 Sandals Church purchased and moved into their current home in the Hunter Park area of Riverside, CA, in a neighborhood that was slated for major residential growth over the next decade.  With their new location and a permanent 800 seat worship center, chapel, and phenomenal kids’ ministry areas, Sandals Church has seen explosive growth in their new home, and has quickly outgrowth their 800 seat venue.  In 2014, plans began being finalized to renovate the other end of the corporate park building they bought with a new 2,000 seat auditorium.

A long-time partner with CCI Solutions, our team spent two days dreaming and defining all of the characteristics of how technology needed to equip them for engaging people as well in their new 2,000 seat room as they had in an 800 seat room.  At the same time, in keeping with their mission of keeping things real and organic, the technology couldn’t be too over the top.  It had to be effective yet easy for volunteers to run, and able to rock without becoming the focus.  And of course, it had to fit in a limited budget.

Powerful Audio

For audio, both the Sandals and CCI Solutions teams have had fantastic experiences with the Bose RoomMatch speaker systems, and after a small shoot-out between a few different manufacturers, it was confirmed that Bose was the right choice for Sandals.  The speakers are of course powered via Bose PowerMatch amplifiers with the whole system delivering big, powerful, full range sound with a highly strategic coverage pattern to minimize side- and back-wall coverage and reflections.  Three Yamaha CL consoles handle the mixing duties for FOH, Monitors, and Broadcast, all sharing inputs from a set of Yamaha RIO stage racks, delivered via Dante.  Shure QLXD wireless mics and Shure PSM 900 wireless IEMs round out the major audio components of the system.

Lighting and Video Create Depth and Impact

As much as Sandals likes to rock the audio, the Sandals team creates an amazing environment through lighting every week as well.  Programmed on a High End Roadhog 4, with central power, distribution and architectural controls handled by an Interactive Technologies system, Sandals chose to redeploy most of their conventional and LED fixtures for front lighting and general color wash.  Added to their lighting rig was an assortment of Chauvet Rogue R2 Washes, R2 Spots, and R2 beam fixtures, which give them incredible versatility in their looks and provide plenty of punch in an efficient package.

As you can imagine, video support in a 2,000 seat room is critical to making every seat a great seat.  Two 22’ by 12’ screens flank each side of the stage with Christie HD14k projectors delivering both content and IMAG for all to see.  With the dynamic lighting that Sandals Church uses during services, often with minimal front light on musicians, the 2/3” chip Hitachi Z-HD500 and DK-Z50 cameras handle both the IMAG and multi-site lock-down camera feeds with ease, producing amazing images that connect people to what is happening inside the room, at each of the multi-site venues, and across the web.  And it all comes together and gets mixed through a Ross Carbonite switcher and 34x34 router.