Help with church set up

[AudioNoob]

Church is looking to upgrade current audio with digital if we can afford it. Need to convert 24 mic and line inputs, as well as e-drums, Midi, and others for a total of 32 channels. The goal is to get these inputs on to an off-stage system (with equipment like Presonus Digimax LT). Once here, we need software that can mix and patch back selective channels (up to a total of 8) to a hear back system. This system allows the vocalist to adjust their own in ear monitors to hear themselves or others.

The off-stage system could be used for the total mixed but must be capable of being control from back of house (BOH). So do we (can we) run all 32 channels to the back of house and feed into digital mixer or another computer? If so, how do we do this? ADAT, AES/EBU, SPDIF? Can the digital audio be passed over a Gigabit network?

What hardware / software can be used for the off-stage system to collect, pass to BOH, and selectively output 8-channel ADAT back to the Hearback system?

What is the best way to get the signals to the BOH for mixing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Bops2000]

worked with churches before -no comment -no idea on the concept of
priorities

[AudioNoob]

Bops, can you tell me what you mean by "no concept of priorities"? Is what I am trying to do completly outside what a real audio person would try to do or are you more concerned about the politics of "the church"?

I want to get two computer systems or a computer and remote digital mixing board connected with all 32 channels. Is this even possible?

Thanks

[jmail]

If you're going to try to do it yourself, go to the library and get some books on "sound re-inforcement" or "live sound" or "live audio" and another on midi (perhaps you'll find one that addressess both issues). Get the latest publication dates that you can find. That'll give you some ideas of what and how you want to do it.

From that, you could call an audio consultant to come out to the church and see what they recommend. Most bigger music stores (be careful of chain stores...) have someone on staff for this, or there might be someone in the area (check the yellow pages) that consults. Get some estimates. Then go online yourself and see what you could do it for. Decide if it's worth the effort for you to do it, or if you're better served by having a company do it. I've seen folks do a combination approach where they have a consultant come in and advise them, the establishment makes their own purchases and does the basic set-up, and then the consultant comes back in for final settings and checks...

[AudioNoob]

Jamil, We plan on having a consultant come in and give us recommendations. We will do the grunt work with finishing touches handled by someone that knows more than us. Sometimes pros stick with only what they know about. I don't know if what we would like to do is technically feasible with today's technology. If it is, what are all the gotchas we need to take into consideration (like latency)?

[AudioNoob]

Bad typist.

[Bops2000]

Have you looked at the Yamaha Boards?

http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/products/mixers/m7cl/index.html

http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/products/mixers/pm1d/index.html

[AudioNoob]

Bops, I get scared when you have to call to get a price. :)

One of the "faithful" are telling me you can't pull in 32 channels in digital, mix it and output it with near zero latency, it this true? How much worst is the latency than when analog?

[Bops2000]

To be honest, I would run analog signal from digital to the stage monitors.
I can't understand why you would record a monitor mix, perhaps I am confused.

[itsplayed]

Your running 32 channels in your church setup? I'm not completely sure I understand this. Does the 32 channels consist of mics and instruments? That's some major setup, how many mics and how big is the band that your looking to record? How many sets of monitors are you looking to feed? Boppers is right, you don't want to record your monitor mix.

[Sonic Valley]

Bops, I get scared when you have to call to get a price. :)

Trust me, in order to do what you want to do....you need to have a pro company come to your venue and do an estimate, I bet you're looking at 6 figures for the set up you want.

[JoelMPeters]

6 figures my foot ! from what I understand you want to do you could do that mile cheaper than 6 figures ! i agree with patching back an anologue feed totally ! wouldn't a mackie onyx serve your purpose apart from the midi ?

[itsplayed]

Cheapest way I can see doing it.....Frontiers Montana and Dakota cards and four Behringer ADA8000's for a total of 32 Mic/Line pres I/O via ADAT.

[itsplayed]

.....Scratch the Frontier cards and go with RME's HDSP 9652 and three Behringer ADA8000's instead.