First Baptist Church of Bentonville
Bentonville, Arkansas
Project Type: New Construction
Seat Count: 1,700
Opening: November 2001
Architect: Hight Jackson Associates
A/V/L Installation: Ford A/V
AD Scope: Acoustics, Platform Design,
Audio, Video and Lighting
Music is an integral element of FBC Bentonville's worship services. When a new worship facility was in the planning stages, they wanted to make sure that the facility took into consideration their 100 member choir and their orchestra/praise band. Now that the new facility is complete, the church's attention and concern for their musicians becomes that much more apparent, not only in the overall design of their worship center, but also in the design of their rehearsal and production support spaces.
The dedicated choir rehearsal suite was given the same shape and acoustical attention as the choir loft in the worship center. This allows for truer rehearsals and controlled seat planning and loading for worship services. An audio recording studio was placed adjacent to the choir's rehearsal suite to allow for professional grade recordings of the choir and to support audio for video recording for the worship space. This space includes a dedicated isolation booth for recording soloists, individual instrumentation and spoken word.
A video production studio is situated next to the audio recording studio. Its primary function is to support the video projection systems for the congregation in the worship center. The video studio allows sermon support graphics, pre-produced video pieces and two JVC professional DV multi-core camera systems to be switched live to the worship center screens. This switched program material may also be recorded to the DV format for the churches archives and for mass duplication. The two camera systems may be broken away from the worship center cable infrastructure and used for field recording in support of the church's many ministries. The acquired material may then be edited together in a professional manner using the church's nonlinear video editing systems also included in the equipment complement supporting the church.
