LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), formed in 1845, took place this year June 23– 24 in Louisville, Kentucky at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center. The convention included Music features and Concerts of Praise over the two–days and was attended by over 8,800. Audio assistance was provided by Bill Thrasher, Thrasher Design Group; Chris Hinkle, Prestonwood Baptist Church of Dallas; Blair McNair, independent monitor mix engineer; Phil Allison, Waveguide Consulting; Jim Carey, Liberty Baptist Church; Jack Pitts, Capitol Design Group; as well as house of worship product and marketing managers from Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. Jeff Davidson of First Baptist Church of Dallas provided technical coordination.

The Southern Baptist Convention purchased 24 new Yamaha TX6n amplifiers late last year from Capitol Design Group in preparation for this year’s event. Yamaha Commercial Audio has supported the SBC for over 20 years, and this year provided the mixing, digital signal processing, and amplification arsenal consisting of DME64N, PM1D, PM5D–RH and PM5D–EX digital consoles, DSP5D Expander, SB–168ES stage box, all based around an EtherSound network. The SBC–owned audio inventory is quite vast and can support crowds of up to about 15,000 in a convention center/exhibit hall/theater configuration.

"We chose the new Yamaha TX6n amplifiers based on three main criteria, states Jeff Davidson, SBC Technical Coordinator. First, was the needed power and sonic quality to properly support our distributed speaker system; second, the ability to maintain a completely digital signal path from the digital mixer through the signal processing and directly to the amplifiers utilizing an EtherSound protocol. This was made possible via Yamaha MY–16–ES64 and MY16–EX Mini–YGDAI cards inserted into the Digital I/O slots on the TX6n amps. And third, the extensive system monitoring and internal digital signal processing capability afforded by the new amplifiers."

"The Yamaha amp manager software was great for an event like this where the speaker and amplifier zones are hundreds of feet apart," adds Phil Allison, System Engineer. Being able to actively monitor individual amplifier channel parameters during the program was a great advantage."

Chris Hinkle, front of house engineer notes that ’the Yamaha TX6n amplifiers did indeed supply an amazing amount of headroom. With the increased overall headroom, the amplifiers produced less distortion throughout the system. Even though the room had a fairly high ambient noise level (HVAC), we could get the program above the noise to an intelligible level without the distortion we had been accustomed to.’

Davidson also said that Yamaha Commercial Audio staff were available to ensure a successful event and provided exceptional customer support, from sales engineering and network configuration, to telephone and on–site set–up support. "We are so pleased with the new amps, we intend to purchase additional TX6n’s to replace our current monitor amps before next summer’s event."

The SBC Louisville featured choirs, orchestras, and worship teams from First Baptist Church of Woodstock, GA; Second Baptist Church of Springfield, MO; Hunter Street Baptist Church of Hoover, AL; and Highview Baptist Church of Louisville, KY. Featured Christian performers included NewSong, Brian Free & Assurance, music evangelist Luke Garrett, and worship recording artists The Paul Baloche Band.

For more information on the Southern Baptist Convention, visit www.sbc.org.

For more information on Yamaha Commercial Audio products, visit www.yamahaca.com.