Blue Hat Design is a business unit of Technical Innovation that specializes in audio, video, and lighting design and integration for worship facilities. They serve churches of all sizes. Portable churches face technical challenges in creating a consistent worship experience in different temporary locations each week with no permanent infrastructure. TI Mobile Pro is a turnkey mobile church system package from Blue Hat Design that aims to offer high-end equipment and an easy setup process to help portable churches overcome these challenges. The extensive equipment package includes professional-grade audio, video, lighting and staging gear housed in custom road cases.

1. 1.What is Blue Hat Design?
Blue Hat Design is a business unit of Technical Innovation, oneof the
nation’s largest A/V and broadcastsystems integrators. Blue Hat Design
specializes in audio, video and lighting design and integration for worship
facilities.
We servechurches with congregations from300 to 30,000 –fromsmaller
churches like FirstBaptist in Albany, GA to giants like 12Stonein Atlanta,
FirstBaptist in Orlando and Hope Church in Memphis.
Our staff has decades of experience in church facility design and operation.
Most of us are actively involved in the technology and music ministries in
our own churches, so weshareour clients’ passion for delivering
compelling worship experiences.
2.The Portable churchmovement continues togrow. What are some of
the challenges they face?
There are huge technical challenges that make it difficult to create
consistency and excellence in a mobile worship environment. Here’s a
scenario that plays out every week in communities all over the country.
A couple of dozen volunteers arrive at an empty schoolgym at 5 AM on
Sunday morning. They mustcreate fromscratch, an inviting environment
that is comparable to that of the main campus.
The building was never intended to be a church. The acoustics are poor,
there is no sound systemand the lighting is terrible. They’ll have to bring in
everything needed to create an inviting atmosphere– audio, video, lighting
and staging.
Soon, 600 people will arrivefor worship services. They’ll bring their
families and friends and will join others who want to experience worship.
They’ll also bring an expectation of a presentation that is excellent with no
technical problems to hinder their worship.

2. Two services later, the whole setup must be dismantled and removed so
that there is no trace of what justhappened.
This would be a challenging job for professionals, butchurches do it every
week with the help of talented and dedicated volunteers.
3. Tell us about TI Mobile Pro – how can this package be beneficial tothe
portable church.
Our customers like the convenience of the packaged mobile church systems
currently on the market. However, they tell us that the typical compliment
of production equipment is not quite sufficient. That’s music to our ears
since we specialize in upscale projects. So, wecreated TI Mobile Pro with
two main goals.
Our firstgoal is to offer great equipment. There’s no getting around the
fact that it’s impossible to achieve high-end results with low-end
equipment. So, we’veincluded gear that is used in our broadcastand
performanceaudio installations. This equipment packagehas almost all of
the functionality of our permanently installed systems. Thereare very few
compromises justbecausethe crew is working out of road cases.
The second goal is to make it easy. Nobody likes extra work, so wedecided
to make technology work in our favor. We’vereduced cable counts by
making extensive useof networked audio. Mature technology allowed us to
go wireless for DMX lighting control, in ear monitors and of course,
microphones.
The usual bulky, heavy, copper snakes havebeen replaced with a 200’, 5-
pound tactical fiber cable that carries 72 channels of audio, Ethernet and 4
channels of HD-SDI video.
We’ve addressed dozens of other details that make the makethe system
very reliable and setup fast and easy. Oncevolunteers are familiar with the
system, it can be set up and operational in approximately one hour.

3. 4.What gear is includedin this package?
TI Mobile Pro is a turnkey solution and the packageis quite extensive, so
here is a greatly abbreviated equipment list:
Audio includes a mixer fromYamaha with Dante I/O, JBL speakers and sub,
Crown amps, wireless mics and IEMfromShureand wired mics from
Sennheiser. Mic and instrument cables are included.
Video is all HD-SDI and includes a For-A switcher, Digital Projection video
projector and 2 ProPresenter workstations.
Lighting includes wireless DMX, LED fixtures fromChauvet and Martin
(including movers) and GrandMA on PC to controlit all.
Staging and supportincludes a large Intellistage stage, front and rear
trusses, background drapes and crankstands for trusses and lights.
Everything is housed in customdesigned, heavy-duty road cases. The
audio, video and lighting cases double as workstations with integrated rack
spaceand storagedrawers.
5.What is the best piece of advice you can offer portable churches?
Opening a portable location requires an enormous commitment. Outside
of the monetary investment, you must be prepared to recruit and train
volunteers who will make it all work every week. The “new” will wear off
soon after launch. It’s importantto think about how you’ll handle the
management and encouragement of the dozens of people who will drive
this venture in the coming months.
It’s also important to contact a qualified advisor early in your planning who
can guide you in making the technology decisions you’ll need to carry out
your mission.
And finally, don’t cheap out! Good tools are a pleasure to useand provide
the capabilities to do your work without compromise- and you won’t have
to replace them tomorrow.