HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY ― Once exclusively a recording business designed to give young musicians a leg up in the industry, Front Row Seat Productions has evolved to include a wide array of audio and video production services for clients of all types. Today, that includes spec’ing and installing equipment at houses of worship throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in the surrounding regions. Included among these are Pendle Hill Retreat Center in Wallingford, PA, and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Gladstone, NJ, where the Front Row Seat Productions team deployed DPA Microphones.
Like most houses of worship in recent years, leadership at both Pendle Hill and St. Luke’s needed a way to connect with members remotely. Today, the live streaming format still holds strong for these houses of worship and others like them, which have found that members unable to attend in person — due to distance, age, illness or otherwise — have come to rely on this remote connection.
As a Quaker study, retreat and conference center, Pendle Hill Retreat Center “seeks to transform lives and foster peace” through a somewhat meditative style of worship. In recognition of peace and tradition, the Quaker faith brings its members together in a silent service wherein any member is welcome to stand and speak whenever they feel the spirit has moved them. This style of worship means that Pendle Hill also requires bidirectional communication for its livestream, which they accomplish via Zoom video conferencing.
“With Pendle Hill, members attending in person need to be able to stand and speak freely, without having to grab a microphone to ensure the home attendees can hear them,” explains Front Row Seat Productions Founder and President Robert Bullington, who worked in conjunction with DPA Global Support Manager Gabriel Antonini to find the ideal solution. “For that installation, we installed a network of 10 ceiling-mounted DPA 4098 Goosenecks affixed to the DM6000 Mounting Base, to allow for clear, intelligible speech pickup that perfectly complements the hybrid online worship format.”
At St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, the ministry is considered “participatory,” with members encouraged to join in on the hymnal singing that is synonymous to the Episcopal/Anglican Church. With both traditional and contemporary styles of worship available to its members, one of the unique aspects about St. Luke’s is that its clergy offers outdoor services during the warmer months, while the beautiful parish hall is utilized during the colder months found in the Northeast.
“The team at St. Luke’s wanted to offer an immersive-style video livestream to its members and needed a mobile AV system that could be used during the outdoor services,” adds Bullington. “We had previously installed an audio system for livestreaming at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, and we took what we learned there to accommodate St. Luke’s. For this project, we installed a network of microphones indoors, which includes a 4006A Omnidirectional Mic in the most critical spot, pointed up the middle of the chancel; 2006 Twin Diaphragm Mics for ambient capture and 4097 Choir Mics hung above the two opposing sides of the choir. This gives the church a beautiful, immersive sound for the live stream on Facebook and YouTube.”
Bullington and Antonini also created a second system for St. Luke’s contemporary services, which are held in the courtyard and in the parish hall. “The church members have affectionately nicknamed the system R2D2, and it integrates DPA’s 4099 Instrument Microphones for the piano and two guitars,” adds Bullington. “We also deployed DPA 2028 Vocal Microphone capsules on a Sennheiser wireless handheld system for the pastor and vocalists. We project everything through RCF loudspeakers, and the combination of these solutions has resulted in pristine audio for all participants.”
In addition to these livestream applications, Bullington has also specified DPA mics for smaller projects, such as integrating a pair of 4098 Goosenecks at the lectern and pulpit at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Trenton, NJ, which is the seat of the Diocese of New Jersey. “That is a huge sanctuary, with a lot of resonance, and they have had very differently statured Bishops over the years, which were two sticking points,” he explains. “The 4098 has very accurate, dependable off-axis rejection, so I was able to find a fixed position that is perfect for any speaker. Trinity previously had so much trouble with spoken word applications, and the short boom version of the 4098 has solved all their problems.”
Similarly, Bullington sold one single 4098 Mini Gooseneck for use on the lectern at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Metuchen, NJ. “I went to install cameras, audio mixers and other live streaming equipment, and found that they were using a little consumer pencil mic at the lectern,” he says. “I plugged in the 4098 that I had on-hand to show them how much better their system could be. They were smitten. The one DPA microphone that St. Luke’s Metuchen has is the 4098 at the lectern, and my contact, Chuck, gushes about it anytime it’s ever mentioned.”
Bullington also has a DPA collection of his own, which he utilizes for a variety of Front Row Seat Production’s video production services. “So many of the concerts that I record are done using the DPA 4015, which have a very accurate sensitivity pattern that you can trust, and do a great job of capturing width,” he says. “Then, I’ll flank the conductor with a pair of 4099s on mic stand adapters. Doing this in combination with the 4015s allows me to capture all the beauty of the room and the singers.” Finally, Bullington adds that he has also deployed DPA lavalier microphones for various AV applications, in churches and other locations alike.