Victory World Church (VWC) is a vibrant multi-cultural organization and multi-campus facility founded in 1990 and is located outside of Atlanta in Norcross, Georgia. 

Victory’s main campus welcomes more than 8,500 people from over 100 nations each weekend, and the ministry has expanded to include church affiliations such as Victory North in Kennesaw; Classic City Community Church in Athens; and most recently, its new satellite campus, Victory @ Hamilton Mill in Buford.

In 2010, former R&B singer-songwriter and record producer Montell Jordan joined as lead worship pastor, boosting its membership exponentially.

Recently the church leadership decided that the main auditorium consoles needed to be upgraded with DiGiCo digital consoles.

The initial challenges that prompted the upgrade were multi-fold, says Kevin Entrenkin, Director of Engineering for Clark.

Over the years the integration solutions company based in Dallas and Atlanta has helped VWC update their technology needs including building a broadcast video suite in 2009, upgrading the PA to full Meyer system in 2010 and adding a Webcast Studio and console in 2011.

In 2013, Entrenkin and VWC’s Technical Director Nathan Williams laid out a plan to update VWCs main auditorium consoles, securing a DiGiCo SD7 at FOH, a DiGiCo SD5 at monitors and another SD5 in its Webcast Studio—144 Inputs and 112 Outputs over the entire system—with local DiGiCo SD Racks at each location.

Two additional SD Racks were added on stage to handle the I/O for stage inputs including wireless Mics, and In-Ear Monitor Systems.  All of the consoles are running on a dedicated Optocore ring implemented specifically for the consoles.

“The long and short of the PA renovation was that everything in the facility was original to the building and beginning to show signs of wear and tear.  The existing system was less than 10 years old but the original digital consoles, and cabling, were beginning to need a major overhaul to keep functioning,” explains Entrenkin.

“Aside from the maintenance issues, the overall programming needs in the facility had changed and they needed more channels and mainly,  flexibility to keep up with the multiple weekend services, outside events—all with their own slightly different style. 

Entrenkin continues, “The largest challenge was the upgrade to existing cabling and getting a reliable infrastructure to eliminate some of the emergency troubleshooting and failures. The cabling in the facility had served the church well over the years but again everything was in need of repair.

“A new fiber backbone provided the flexibility, redundancy and reliable infrastructure needed to meet their needs and DiGiCo offered an elegant solution that was extremely robust yet easy to use and resolved many of the issues.”

Entrenkin’s decision to go with an all-DiGiCo system was based on the company’s reputation in general and the product’s overall feature-set, sonics and price point.

“Having installed three other systems, building from a single console to a multi-console solution —including Oklahoma City’s Crossings Community Church—the reputation of DiGiCo was easy to put our faith in and take to the client,” he adds.

“The executive staff wanted a solution that fits their needs, and they could trust to take them to the next level from a technology standpoint. We felt DiGiCo had the perfect solution to meet all of the needs with room to grow. 

“They had already been on multiple platforms between the three desks and getting consistency for the staff was a big win. Sonic quality was also a big key in this decision. 

“Excellence breeds excellence.  This church has been blessed with an excellent staff, with a host of powerful communicators, a gifted worship staff, and a technical staff who needed that next level of quality in a console to get the sound they desired.

“Channel count was an issue in the past and limited us on both inputs and outputs. Now with this system configuration, that was no longer an issue.”

Ed Crippen, an audio systems engineer, helped program the consoles and Williams says he was blown away by the SD7—literally, right out of the box.

“The first thing I noticed was the incredible detail and resolution that was present on audio tracks that I have played a thousand times on various systems,” recalls Crippen. “I made the comment, ‘that hi-hat is literally IN the PA box!’ I was impressed, to say the least.”

With the systems integrated fully into the HOW’s regular flow, the feedback was almost instantaneous from their congregation.

“When we put the SD7 in at FOH,” Williams recalls “I had people coming up to me in the first couple of weeks asking what we had changed. I heard comments like, ‘the sound is a million times better in here… what has changed?’ And these are untrained, lay people who all noticed the boost in quality immediately!

“The client is thrilled with what they have been able to do even out of the gate,” adds Entrenkin. “With the sonic quality boost they finally feel they have broken past the holdups that the previous solution provided.

“The room sounded fantastic before with a great acoustic space and a concert level PA, but now instead of listening to a great PA it’s almost as if the instrumentation is in the speakers.  The DiGiCo consoles are so transparent that the quality on the stage is now accurately represented in the space.”

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