Church plant gear plans

How the plans work

• Start where your budget is. Buy the plan you can afford now, and add the next one when you can.
• Spend in this order. Reliability and safety first, then clarity of the word, then the team's experience, then growth. Each row shows its place in that order. Two growth steps come early, because every plan after them builds on them: the main desk (R150 000) and the stage box (R200 000).
• Nothing is thrown away. The main desk changes once, in the R150 000 plan: the first desk becomes the spare, and later the children's church desk. Everything else stays, and the plans add to it.
• Your own tablet and laptop. The first desk has no faders: you mix on a tablet, phone or laptop. Until the Mac mini in the R250 000 plan, the song words run on a laptop too. The plans assume your church has a tablet and a laptop. With no tablet yet, mix from a phone at first (the first desk works in a phone's web browser) until the main desk, with its own faders, in the R150 000 plan. With no laptop, borrow one for the words until the Mac mini. When the first desk moves to the children's room (R500 000), your tablet goes with it, and the plan's iPad takes over at the main desk.
• Tracks at every budget. If your band plays with tracks, the R50 000 plan has the cables: the music director's own iPad or iPhone, with Prime or Playback, into two DI boxes, one for each side: the click on the left to the in-ears only, and the tracks on the right. From the R400 000 plan, an audio interface gives a laptop four outputs, so the click and the cues stay in the in-ears and the tracks reach the room in stereo. The iPad stays as the spare.
• Screens and cameras aren't sound. A new church needs the song words early, so the screen comes in the R100 000 plan, before some sound. The cameras come later.
• Where the speakers go. Main speakers on their own stands at the front corners, in front of the mics, as high as the stand safely goes. Subwoofers on the floor, together in the middle at the front. Chapter 10 explains why.
• Ask before you buy wireless. Ask the shop whether ICASA allows a mic's or in-ear system's frequencies where you are, and to plan all your wireless together.
• Ask one shop for a package price. Many music shops will give a better price on a whole list than on each item one by one. Take the plan you need to one shop, or a local sound installer, and ask for a price on all of it. We can't promise a discount.

The main speakers, and the step up

The EVIVA 12P in every plan is Electro-Voice's entry speaker: it's the one these budgets have room for. If you can spend more, the step up is the Electro-Voice ZLX-12P G2, about R4 700 more for each speaker, or the dB Technologies Opera 12, about R6 300 more (if the shop's price includes VAT). If you choose another speaker, ask the shop which subwoofer it works with.

Not in these plans

• Your church's own tablet, phone and laptop, and the music director's iPad or iPhone for tracks (above).
• The songs' tracks: each costs extra, from the app's maker (Software and internet, above).
• Cases. If you set up and pack away every week, ask your shop for cases that fit your desk, stage box and wireless.
• The band's instruments, and stands for them. If your church owns a keyboard or guitars, Hercules makes stands for both.
• Acoustic panels and a drum screen: Build panels and a drum screen (free) says when they help and what the parts cost.
• Lighting.
• Fitting: mounting the projector, cameras and speakers, and the building's power. Ask an installer for a quote.

Analogue or digital?

Every desk in the plans is digital: it saves your settings, helps with feedback, and lets the band set their own in-ears from their phones. If you're buying new, compare an analogue desk at the same price. A small digital mixer can cost about the same, but it may need a tablet, so count that too, and the comfort of real faders for a nervous volunteer. Chapter 14 says what to look for.

Where the prices come from

Each price was read on the shop's own page on the date beside it. These are plain links: we earn nothing from them. Many shops show a higher crossed-out price beside today's: the plans count today's price, so a plan can cost more if a price goes back up. Prices and stock change often, and delivery depends on where you are. Found a price that has changed? Tell us at support@sanctuarymix.com.

• Bothners. Delivers across South Africa: free over R500, R99 under (Bothners' Shipping and Returns page).
• Marshall Music. Delivers across South Africa: free over R1 000 (in Gauteng over R500), or collect at its Woodmead shop.
• Takealot. Delivers across South Africa. "Ships in" means a seller sends it to Takealot first.
• iStore. Free delivery across South Africa, or collect free in an iStore.
• Outdoorphoto. Delivers across South Africa: free over R650 (the shop's own banner). Shops in Pretoria and Johannesburg.
• Bounce. Delivers across South Africa: free from R1 801, R100 to R125 below; large, heavy items may cost more (Bounce's Delivery and Returns page).