We recently had a discussion in our ChurchSoundcheck group about what goes on backstage, both during a typical worship service and especially during major presentations like a pageant or dramatic presentation. Of course each church has varying needs, but I believe you will find their comments and ideas very helpful. Take a look:

Wireless World at Prestonwood Baptist • Dallas, TX
Shared by Curt Taipale

I mixed Front-of-House for the Dallas Christmas Festival at Prestonwood Baptist for three years in a row. The show drew people from all over north Texas, neighboring states, and even from across the country. In fact attendance each year at the show was reported at around 60,000 people over the course of twelve presentations. As you might imagine, the production efforts to bring this presentation to life are considerable, involving a cast and crew of literally hundreds of talented individuals.

Getting microphones on those actors and singers is a significant task in itself. There are typically three or four individuals whose primary job is to make certain that the right actor and singer has the right microphone on them at the right time, that the batteries are in good shape, and so on. Even with 26 wireless mic systems available, a serious amount of juggling takes place, which often involves changing frequencies on transmitters so that the right mic shows up on the correct input channel of the mixing consoles out at FOH.

Ideally, each actor or singer is responsible for stopping by "Wireless World" at the appropriate time. But sometimes people forget, or maybe they have to do a costume change between scenes and don't have time to make the stop by Wireless World. So the wireless mic team includes one or two individuals who will make the run – and I do mean run – to track down the missing microphone and get it back to where it's supposed to be.

I managed to grab a couple of photos from backstage before a show, and thought you might like to get a glimpse of what is involved. You'll notice that the handheld mic transmitters are attached to the workbench with standard mic clips, all placed in order. And on the workbench below, the location for each beltpack transmitter is identified with white tape.

Sitting below the workbench is an old sound mixing console, allowing the team to hear the output of each wireless system to know that the signal is clean. If we call them on production intercom from FOH to let them know that we're hearing a problem with a mic, they can easily cue up the output of that mic to listen for such issues. The equipment rack standing innocently in the left of the photo houses all of the wireless mic receivers. Status of all wireless systems is tracked using the Shure wireless mic management software.

All of the wireless mics at the time were Shure UHF series mics, with Beta 87A transmitters. The only lapel mic in use was for the senior pastor. All speaking parts were done on Countryman E6's. The equipment rack standing innocently in the left of the photo houses all of the wireless mic receivers. Status of all wireless systems is tracked using the Shure wireless mic management software.

By the way, if you look at the first photo, off to the right you'll notice the charging station for all of the handheld radios used for production intercom by those who needed to have the liberty to move around during the production (e.g., stage managers, audio techs, lighting techs, and so on). I don't remember exactly how many radios were involved, but I want to say that it was around fifteen. And that of course was in addition to the cabled production intercom systems in use.

Do you have a backstage story from your church that you would like to share with our readers across the world!?! If so, please send us photos and a description. We would love to post your ideas here! Send them to jeanna@churchsoundcheck.com.