First Baptist Church of Rogers, Arkansas may be on the traditional side, philosophically speaking, but the 2,000-seat worship center at its newly-opened Pleasant Grove main campus is decidedly modern and tech-forward. Underscoring that point is the fact that First Baptist Rogers recently decided to supercharge its former sanctuary’s two KLANG:vokal immersive in-ear monitor mixing systems with the very latest :vokal+ software upgrade for its new space, which began hosting services in April.
After a quick download and simple installation, the church’s worship band, vocalists, and orchestra members now have access to a greater number of inputs for their IEM mixes—up from :vokal’s initial input count of 24 to 64—connected via a Dante network. And while the singers and instrumentalists onstage are enjoying immersive monitoring, the entire congregation is also experiencing its own panoramic sound via an L-Acoustics L-ISA system installed by MG Systems, which also put a DiGiCo Quantum338 console into place at front of house.
“We’ve been using KLANG:vokal since 2021, starting during the pandemic, and it’s been fantastic,” comments the church’s media manager, David Bullard. “The new :vokal+ upgrade has really expanded the system’s capabilities, allowing our musicians to potentially hear many more sources if they choose, and not limiting their mixes to just 24 inputs.”
Based on a powerful, ultra-low latency FPGA core, the standard KLANG:vokal offers 12 mixes of 24 mono or stereo inputs; but now, First Baptist Rogers is operating a full 64 input channels, regardless of 48 or 96 kHz or the EQ setting. “The nice part about the KLANG:vokal and :vokal+ is the added flexibility of having a more immersive experience,” he says. “Instead of just having mono channels that you’re panning left or right, you can have binaural channels that truly immerse you in your mix,” he explains. “It makes you feel better about what you’re playing. KLANG has absolutely upped the game for those who are on the platform leading worship and playing instruments.”
Bullard describes the church’s musical worship style as hybrid, combining traditional and contemporary, utilizing both a band and an orchestra. Having all of them sharing the same immersive environment has helped elevate the overall experience for them and for worshipers. “I do think that KLANG allows our musicians to connect with the music much more than simply being able to hear themselves,” he says. “They get a nice three-dimensional mix in their ears to where they feel like they’re not just playing to headphones—they’re playing to the environment.”
KLANG even ultimately played a role in extending that experience to the new Pleasant Grove worship space. “Putting in the L-ISA system felt like the natural next move, because spatial audio is increasingly becoming the standard,” he says. “A lot of churches and bigger venues are switching to this more immersive audio experience, and so we wanted to bring that same feeling placement, depth, and engagement that we got from KLANG onstage to everyone in our services.”
First Baptist Rogers can be found online at www.fbcrogers.org.
