2023 Tech, Production, and Worship Experience Standards and Suggestions

OVERVIEW

Our aim with every worship experience is to create the best and highest quality presentation of the Gospel so that people encounter God in a powerful way and leave changed. We believe that clear and defined practices and methods enable excellence, they don’t limit it. Consistency across locations not only provides clarity for Production teams on how and what to execute, it also better equips the central teams to support and assist locations when problems arise.

The goal of this document is to provide clarity around what is an Elevation Worship and Production standard vs what is a suggested method or practice.

AUDIO

Patching

The audio patch and channel layout will be determined by the central Tech Team. Campuses will be provided with access to the digital patch sheet for reference.

Worship Team size and structure

Campus systems are built with the following standard capabilities
- 4 vocalists
- 2 guitars
  - Standard: guitars are run in mono, not stereo.
- 1 bass
- 1 keys
- 1 drums
- 1 Announcement
- 1 body pack for an acoustic guitar/headset mic
8 wireless IEM packs (one is a spare)
- Vocalists, guitars, and bass
- 2 wired IEM units
- Drums and keys
There are two audio console systems in place. SD9 and x32.
- SD9
  - 10 channels from Ableton
  - 5 vocalists (5th is using the spare mic)
    - Suggested:
      - The spare handheld is not to be used as a 5th vocalist. If one fails, the only option is to remove someone from stage which can be detrimental relationally.
  - Two keys (second player would be on their own wired IEM)
- X32
  - 6 channels from Ableton
  - 4 vocalists
  - 1 Keys

Stage Band Layout

The campus is free to change instrument positions a couple times a year. This will most likely be swapping drums and keys to opposite sides of the stage.

Sound Engineers

Only engineers who have successfully completed our onboarding process can mix worship experiences at locations. The onboarding process can be found here.
- If an engineer can’t be found for a weekend, campuses are asked to submit a Tech Ticket for assistance finding someone.

Playlists

Only use the official playlists provided centrally for worship experiences and events. The desire is to always do what’s ethically and morally sound, and it is actually illegal to play songs from Spotify/Apple Music for an audience. The subscription agreements for those platforms state that the music is only intended for the person who purchased the plan.

VIDEO

Lyric formatting

Lyric position can be in the center or lower third of the screen based on sightlines of the venue. Campuses will make this determination with input from central teams.
Font and lyric formatting will be determined by the central creative and programming teams. Template files will be provided to campuses every time a new update is made.
Talkback/Confidence lyrics will always be yellow text. Campuses can choose to either do current slide or current and next slide on the Talkback/Confidence monitor.
Lyric bars or graphic overlays during worship are not consistent with our brand and aren’t to be used.
For all other video, Resolume and graphics standards please see the Graphics Standards of Execution article.

Camera and Switching practices

Between all camera shots - Cuts
All other transitions - 12 frame automatic dissolve
T-Bar transitions are not consistent with our style
Please see the Production Execution Language article for suggestions on communication over Com.

Camera use and locations

Campuses using IMAG will consist of four cameras.
- Cam 1 - Back of house static
- Cam 2 - Handheld on stage or floor next to the stage
- Cam 3/4 - Fixed cameras on stage (most often drums and keys). Locations can choose to move these cameras to bass or guitars for variety.
- If there is an abundance of volunteers on a team and the room/stage size warrants an additional camera, Tech is happy to explore that with the campus.
  - The goal is consistency and quality of camera shots.

LIGHTING

Worship Visuals and Lighting Programming

Central teams will create and provide worship visuals for locations to use. In order to ensure branding integrity, content from other sources is not to be used.
Lighting programming should feel supportive of the worship and not like a concert. Crowd lighting with front light is not our style.

TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT

Purchases of Technical Equipment

All equipment will be purchased by the central Tech Team. The Production Items Order Sheet provides the list of equipment campuses can purchase as needed. Campus Production budgets are not built to include equipment purchases and should not be used in that manner.

Gear Use

All equipment in use at a location will be determined by the central Tech Team
Use of personal equipment belonging to staff, band members or volunteers is not permitted.
- Exceptions include instruments like guitars, bass, keys, and cymbals.
- A full drum kit will be provided to the campus

CAPTURE AND RETURN FEED

Every weekend, each location will set up and verify their return feed is working correctly. This feed will be Embed 1 routed to the Encoder and will consist of a camera 1 signal and FOH audio. Instructions on how to use and verify the Pulse system can be found here.

TRAINING AND CONTINUING EDUCATION

Central Production and Tech teams are available to provide Production Directors and Production Teams with training and development routinely throughout the year, as requested. In addition, the Tech Desk portion of the Staff home page has an extensive library of support and training articles.

STAGE DESIGN CHANGES

The Stage Design process can be found here.