Third New Hope Baptist Church Purchases HARMAN’s Soundcraft Si Expression 2 Digital Console For New Campus

DETROIT, Michigan – Third New Hope Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan now featuring Sunday services at their three locations (Main, West and Northwest Campuses), recently purchased a HARMAN’s Soundcraft Si Expression 2 console for its newest Northwest campus in Farmington Hills, which seats approximately 300 people. The church is known to offer a mixture of styles when it comes to its services, ranging from traditional hymns to contemporary Christian rock.

As the Lead Sound Engineer for the church, Derrick Holmes travels between all three campuses to manage the sound installations and train volunteers at each location. Having started his own live sound company for local bands called D&G Sound, he temporarily installed a Si Expression 3 console at the Farmington Hills campus. The church was so impressed with the console that it led to the purchase of its own Si Expression 2, which marks another step towards implementing the latest audiovisual technologies at the new campus.

“Based on my past experience as a live sound and studio engineer, I can confidently say that I’m impressed by the Si Expression Series,” said Holmes. “They’re user-friendly, and they hide well behind a screen. I can sit in the theater seat with an iPad and it feels great to control everything remotely. When I am on the board, the FaderGlowTM illumination makes the operation more intuitive than other boards, especially when using the console in dark theater environments.”

The Farmington Hills campus has a modern venue that is also used as a theater, so the Si Expression 2 was the perfect choice to highlight the acoustics of the venue, and to help volunteers transition out of their analog background.

“It’s easy to teach people with relatively little experience to use the board, because it’s so intuitively designed and it sounds great!” said Holmes. “Considering the price-point, you get high quality in sound and construction. The layout is very organized, so it wasn’t hard to transition people out of analog.”

For more information, please visit www.thirdnewhope.com

HARMAN designs, manufactures and markets premier audio, visual, infotainment and integrated control solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets.   With 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson ®, the Company is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a global workforce of 15,200 people and reported sales of $5.1 billion for the last 12 months ended March 31, 2014.

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Heather Nova Takes HARMAN’s Soundcraft Si Expression 1 On European Tour

POTTERS BAR, United Kingdom – As part of the Cultural Center Circuit, multi-million selling singer-songwriter Heather Nova performed throughout Europe during the winter of 2013, embarking on a 50-day tour that stopped at 15 Dutch municipal theaters, 12 Belgian cultural centers, German symphony halls, an English church and Swiss clubs. The technical team selected a HARMAN’s Soundcraft Si Expression 1 digital console to power through these cultural venues, while maintaining a small footprint on the road.

While also in charge of his own live sound and production company called The Old Lion Touring Company Limited, Production/Tour Manager Tim Boardman handled all the audio equipment during the tour. Having worked with many Soundcraft consoles before including the Si Performer 3, he especially appreciated the amount of outboard gear the Si Expression console was able to eliminate.

“I love the ability to run a whole tour on a powerful 19-inch rack-sized mixer,” said Boardman. “After putting up with the limitations of a Yamaha LS9, it is refreshing to have something that is so expandable and adaptable. By carrying a stage box and CAT5 looms, we can plug into local systems rather than move them to suit our specifications, allowing us to take the console to any venue without removing in-house gear.”

The Si Expression 1 features a massive mixing capacity of 66 inputs in a small form factor, enabling quick setup times from unloading to microphone check. With incredible expansion options through ViSi Connect™, the console takes unnecessary gear and hassles out of any tour. The unrivaled combination of size and power is a force to be reckoned with in the live sound segment of the pro audio industry.

“The small size compared to the huge processing power is why I go with Soundcraft each and every time,” said Boardman. “It allows me to carry consoles on smaller tours than we usually would, while still reaping all touring benefits from bringing our own consoles. There is a lot to be said about the smaller Si Series consoles, because not once did they crash during a year of live mixing service.”

The controls are mapped out just like analog consoles, where each key corresponds to a singular function without layering of controls. To expand on Soundcraft’s legacy of user-intuitive mixing consoles, Soundcraft FaderGlow™ was added to color-code multiple motorized fader groups with backlit LED lighting; it is a feature that FOH engineers swear by when focusing on stage cues during live events.

“The colored fader lights for each mix are a godsend when mixing monitors and FOH applications from one console. Gone are the days of accidentally sending click through the FOH,” said Boardman. “What I love the most is that it feels like a nice analog console: I can build, patch, change and save anything I need to and through the Soundcraft ViSi Remote App, I can even give power to the bands themselves, which deals with all the psychosomatic mix issues we are all used to!”

HARMAN designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 14,800 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.7 billion for the last twelve months ended December 31, 2013.

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First Reformed Church Receives Sound Upgrade with HARMAN’s Soundcraft Si Expression Consoles

LANDIS, North Carolina – The First Reformed Church in the town of Landis, North Carolina has a strong connection to its membership and recently added two HARMAN Soundcraft Si Expression 3 digital consoles to deliver an even more dynamic audio experience for its congregation. One Si Expression 3 is used for the main 400-seat auditorium, while the other is in the smaller 200-seat auditorium.

“Our past sound equipment does not even come close to the Si Expression,” said the church’s Technical Manager, Adam Combs. “Our old console kept breaking down and I just can’t allow that to happen anymore during Sunday service.”

When asked why Combs the Soundcraft consoles for the church, he replied, “Soundcraft in general has a much stronger and reputable brand name compared to what we were using before. When investing in new consoles, I looked for reliability and sound quality. In both departments, Soundcraft delivered beyond our expectations.”

As the largest of the Soundcraft Si Expression consoles the Si Expression 3 comes with 30+2 faders and 32 mic/line inputs. Also, the 14 aux/group mixes and four matrix mixes can be reconfigured as mono or stereo mixes. To top it off, only Soundcraft consoles possess BSS GEQs and Lexicon FX processors.

“For this price point, I get a ton of versatility coupled with beautiful sound quality,” Combs said. “I feel ecstatic, because no other console in this price range that I’ve tried producing and mixing with even comes close to the Si Expression. Coming from an analog console background, I am impressed by how simple yet effective this digital interface is.”

“On every Sunday, we have 9-piece bands and singers, and to support all that music with unreliable sound equipment would do neither the performers nor our worship service justice. I am happy to say that Soundcraft is living up to its reputation.”

HARMAN (www.HARMAN.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 14,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.3 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013.

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Snapped on the River Music Propels Forward with HARMAN Soundcraft Si Expression Series

BROOMFIELD, Colorado – Production Company Snapped on the River Music recently invested in a HARMAN Soundcraft Si Expression 1 console for use in the company’s support of live music productions. Joe Michaels, President of Snapped on the River Music, is a seasoned veteran in FOH and live production, and naturally sought a device that could mirror his decades of experience.

The Soundcraft Si Expression 1 is a versatile board that combines power and performance with a compact form factor. “I record the majority of my music in multiple studios,” Michaels said. “This little Soundcraft console allows me to travel without hassle between locations, and yet bears an amazing resemblance to its bigger counterparts due to the quality of the sound that it produces. Sixteen inputs are more than enough for my needs.”

Besides the mic inputs, the Soundcraft Si Expression Series comes fully loaded with all the features that artists and producers need, including but not limited to analog style digital controls, 66 processing channels, BSS® GEQ on every bus and the famous Lexicon FX processors.

When asked why he preferred the Soundcraft Si Expression over competitive consoles, Michaels replied, “The sound from this console is absolutely superior to others in its price range. I love the pre-amps and the Lexicon effects, and everything is so easy to use. Unlike other brands, which sound overly mechanical, the Si Expression sounds sweet, warm and happy.”

The company currently uses the console for local and national shows, while accommodating studio projects as well. The Si Expression 1 is truly a well-rounded console that can be deployed anywhere with minimal set up time. It gives ease-of-use a whole new meaning with controls that are digital, but feel like analog, due to its 1 Control = 1 Function feature.

Michaels added, “There is nothing in the digital realm that is both inexpensive and comfortable to record with. This is the first console I have bought that provides all that plus unbelievable results equivalent to $10,000 counterparts.”

HARMAN (www.HARMAN.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 14,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.3 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013.

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