written case analysis, use the figures provided in the tables to discuss

I t’s a universal issue that transcends any type

of business or project. Let’s say you’re put-

ting in a raised patio deck on your house.

Doing this will probably entail sinking a lot of

holes in the ground for support posts. If your

yard just happens to have soft, loamy soil,

you could simply dig them manually, but if

the earth is rocky or you have a lot of posts to

sink, laying down $50 for a half-day rental of a

power auger will get the job off to a quick start

— and probably save your back as well. Now

you could just plunk down $1,500 and buy and

auger, but honestly, when are you going to use

something like that again? And where will you

store this beast before your next “need an au-

ger” project?

Ironically, the same applies to church

sound. And with the upcoming Lent and Easter

seasons approaching, a common issue for the

church technical director is deciding whether

to buy or rent equipment for special services.

When you’re in need of additional equipment

for a special set of services, should you rent the

equipment you need, should you buy it out-

right, or should you do a bit of each? My first

inclination has always been to “buy, buy, buy,”

but when you take a step back, buying is not

always the best option in the long term. Carry-

ing an inventory of expensive technical equip-

ment costs money in maintenance and limits

your long-term flexibility.

You must consider the duration of any po-

tential rentals. Do you simply need gear for

Easter weekend, or do you need it the entire

week leading up to Easter, and maybe even

the weekend before? How long will it take to

integrate rental equipment into your existing

systems? The longer your rental duration, the

higher your rental costs, which might tip the

scales in favor of buying.

›› First, Check Your Budget

The decision of whether to buy or rent

comes down to your church’s individual finan-

cial situation. If your budget is structured as a

capital budget, where the money is earmarked

for purchasing new equipment, buying might

be your best (or only) option. However, if your

budget is structured as an operating budget,

equipment rentals might be more attractive.

My own experience at churches is that the tech

budget’s intended usage is not always clear. If

you query five people about how your budget

should to be used, you’ll get five different an-

swers. Clarifying how your budget is the first

step to making these types of decisions. Let’s

look at some areas where churches struggle

with the question of whether to rent or buy.

Here we’re focused on audio gear, but video

and lighting have similar considerations.

›› The Wireless Issue

Thankfully, we’re past the 600/700 MHz FCC

issues, but the reality is that churches typical-

ly, need to augment their available wireless

mics and in-ear monitors for special services.

Integrating additional wireless is always a chal-

lenge because you need the audio I/O capaci-

ty, the antenna distribution, and the ability to

have the additional systems coordinated with

any existing wireless on your campus. Unless

you are absolutely certain that you’ll be using

new wireless systems on a regular basis, this is

probably better rented than purchased. You

don’t want to be sitting on a large inventory of

unused wireless systems, and putting off ma-

jor RF purchasing decisions until it’s absolutely

necessary may be a good idea.

One issue that may affect you is mics for

wireless. I have a large inventory of headsets

and lavaliers that lie dormant for much of the

year. In the summer, we typically do a theat-

rical production that uses every last headset

and lav we have available. During Lent and

Advent, half of our inventory might be in use

across multiple venues, but the rest of the year,

they sit in plastic storage bins. These types of

mics also happen to have high maintenance

costs and are difficult to manage. Meanwhile,

little pieces like wireless adapters that are ex-

pensive and easily lost or broken. The moral of

the story is, unless you’ve got a use for a bunch

of bodypacks, headsets and lavs (and the bud-

get to maintain and repair them), rent these as

much as possible for special events.

›› More Inputs, Please

Some of us have the luxury of scaling our

digital console’s I/O up and down depending

on our needs at any given time. I can remem-

ber several years of submixing orchestra in-

puts on a second console and busing stems

into my main console for Christmas concerts.

Thankfully those days are gone. Even modest

digital consoles can add remote I/O via Cat-

5e, coax or fiber. This is where things can get

tricky, because the cost of renting stage racks

is rather high. If you find yourself needing to

rent additional I/O two or three times a year,

it is probably smart to consider buying. If you

have the means, buy a card-based modular I/O

rack. That way, as your needs grow, you can

add input or output cards to your system, usu-

ally in increments of eight channels per card.

›› Comunications

Larger productions require more intercom

in more locations, and sometimes require

wireless intercom that you may not already

own. The first consideration is to look at your

existing intercom inventory. Is your intercom

system a party line system or a matrix? Do you

need party line or point-to-point communica-

tion? I’d venture to guess that the vast majority

of churches use party line intercom systems,

with only the largest, most high-tech churches

using an intercom matrix. If you have a party

line system, it would be advisable to stay in the

party line world and add additional beltpacks

or user stations as needed. If you’ve got an

intercom matrix, renting keypanels is a viable

solution if you have the wiring infrastructure

to support them. And in either case, if you

need to add wireless intercom, it can be inte-

grated easily into a party line or matrix system

if you have the capacity to do so.

›› The Decision

I’ve always been the type of person that

wants to buy everything, and always viewed

renting as a “waste of money.” However, when

you consider the cost of ownership for the

gear we use, things aren’t quite as clear. Take a

close look at your church’s needs before mak-

ing these types of decisions for your big pro-

ductions.

Vince Lepore is the director of event technical

operations at Full Sail University. Contact him at

[email protected].

42 FEBRUARY 2019 • fohonline.com

ADVERTISER’S INDEX

COMPANY PAGE ON THE WEB COMPANY PAGE ON THE WEB COMPANY PAGE ON THE WEB

By VinceLepore

Buying or Renting? That is the Question…

» Adamson Systems Engineering C4 adamsonsystems.com

» Allen & Heath C1, C3 allen-heath.com

» Applied Electronics 4 appliednn.com

» Brown Note Productions 2, 40 brownnote.com

» Countryman Associates, Inc. 10 countryman.com

» d&b audiotechnik Corporation 13 dbaudio.com

» DAS Audio of America 33 dasaudio.com

» DirectOut GmbH 12 directout.eu

» DiGiCo/Group One LTD. 21 digico.biz

» eAcoustics Inc. 17 eacoustics.com

» Hemphill Brothers Coach Company 25 hemphillbrothers.com

» Hi-Tech Audio Systems Inc. 43 hi-techaudio.com

» L-Acoustics C2 l-acoustics.com

» Lawo AG 35 lawo.com

» Lectrosonics, Inc. 8 lectrosonics.com

» National Association of Broadcasters 38 nab.org

» NAMM 15 namm.org/ns-attend

» Neutrik USA, Inc. 6 neutrik.com

» Pro X Cases 43 proxdirect.com

» Rat Sound 43 ratsound.com

» RCF USA Inc. 9 rcf-usa.com

» Shure Incorporated 7 shure.com

» Sound Productions 16 soundpro.com

» Spider Ranch Productions 11 spiderp.com

» Sweetwater Sound 3 sweetwater.com

» VUE Audiotechnik 27 vueaudio.com

» Waves Audio Ltd. 19 waves.com

» Whirlwind Music 22, 23 whirlwindusa.com

» Yamaha Corporation of America 1 yamahaca.com

Large or small, every church needs to decide how to provide audio for seasonal events.

SOUNDSANCTUARY

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