What AVL Equipment Does My Church Actually Need?
Updated: Oct 12
You probably need less equipment than the internet is telling you.
That doesn’t mean churches shouldn’t invest in technology. It means every piece of equipment should have a job.
We like to start by separating needs from features.
Your church probably needs people to hear the message clearly. If you have a worship band, the PA needs to reproduce that music appropriately for the room. Your team needs a console they can understand and operate. Your platform needs the right microphones, DIs, cabling and monitoring.
If you stream, you need a reliable way to capture the service and create an online experience that makes sense outside the room.
Lighting needs to let people see what matters.
Video needs to communicate information clearly.
Those are outcomes.
A Dante network, moving lights, wireless IEM system, broadcast console or six-camera video system might help accomplish those outcomes, but those products are not automatically requirements.
One of the easiest mistakes to make is starting with equipment instead of the experience you’re trying to create.
It’s a little like buying a garage full of tools before deciding what you’re building.
We would rather see a church build a simple system that its volunteers understand really well than a complicated system with twenty features nobody knows how to use.
Start with what has to happen every Sunday.
Make that reliable.
Then build from there.
Need help making Sundays easier?
Prioritize the improvements that solve real problems with Ignite's church AVL equipment upgrades and consulting.
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About the author
Chris Eslinger is a founder and partner at Ignite Sound + Stage and Creative Production Director at Greenwood Christian Church. A contributor to Technologies for Worship Magazine, he helps churches improve audio, video, lighting and volunteer workflows through practical, hands-on training.
Read Chris's Yamaha DM7 mixing console review in Technologies for Worship Magazine.
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