The Grove Church Story

For many of the churches CCI Solutions serves, it’s the first opportunity equip them with technology solutions. Yet for The Grove Community Church, it was like going home for the CCI Solutions team. This partnership began when The Grove built their 1800- seat auditorium over a decade ago. When that amazing facility needed technology upgrades to keep up with The Grove’s talented teams and dynamic communication styles, they turned again to CCI Solutions to partner with them on new audio and video systems. As one of the leading-edge creative churches in Riverside County, the talented mix of musical, technical, and visual artists at the church were ready to expand their creative horizons beyond what their current systems could handle.

In Technical Director Dan Williams’ words, “CCI Solutions has always shown deep dedication to serving the church community, and expert-professionalism in the way they treat their clients. They listen to us, they support us, they are creative with solutions, they are sensitive to the individual needs of each project, and they deliver superior results.”

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The Technology

Needing to make a big impact with a limited budget, The Grove sought to tackle its two largest barriers to engagement in the 1,800-seat auditorium,audio and video quality. Covering all of those seats with consistent, pristine audio presents a challenge, so CCI Solutions partnered with audio manufacturer L-Acoustics to provide a speaker system that delivers clarity and consistency that Dan had only dreamed of, telling us, “From design to execution, I could not be more impressed. My expectations have been exceeded!” The bulk of the room is covered by left/right 11-box arrays of KARA loudspeakers with 6-box KIVA II arrays covering the sides of the room. A single X12 speaker covers a shaded area at the top of the center stadium seating, with X8 speakers serving as front fills. 8 flown SB18i single 18” subwoofers are flown with the arrays to provide low frequency extension for the system, with 4 KS28 high-power,dual-18” subwoofers on the floor to supply more than enough bass to the room. A combination of LA12x, LA8, and LA4x amplifiers power and control the system.

 While the congregation benefitted from the significant upgrade in audio clarity and quality, so too did the technical and musical artists. For the technical team, a pair of Yamaha CL5 consoles were installed to handle Front of House and Monitor duties, providing a much-welcomed improvement in audio workflow and needed flexibility in audio routing, with the capability of adding Dante networked audio to their systems. For the musicians, Shure PSM 900 wireless in-ear monitor systems were added, with Shure SE425 dual-driver earphones, to help their talented team hear as clearly as the congregation.

 And while audio plays a large part in engaging The Grove congregation in worship, the visual element is just as essential to the worship experience. The Grove has some exceptional stage designers, but the existing projection screen in the center of the stage limited creativity, due to light bleed on the screen or needing to keep the projection path clear. To dramatically increase creative possibilities but still maintain practical video support for the front half of the room, a 24.5’ by 13.1’ LED video wall from Absen provides HD video support as stunning as the rest of the stage design around it.

 Finally, the decade-old projectors that had long provided side screen IMAG (Image Magnification) were past due for replacement. As those side screens serve as the engagement point for at least half the congregation, it’s critical they be bright and clear enough for people in the back of the room to feel apart of the action. While LED video walls were the first choice for these sidescreens, budget dictated 2 Vivitek DU9800Z-BK projectors handling side-screen support, providing 18,000 lumens of projection at a phenomenal price point.