Benchmark Imaging & Display | Chicago Church of Christ | Cook Associates, Inc.

Creative and Technical Producer

I began working with the Chicago Church of Christ as a volunteer member more than 19 years ago when the church met regularly at the Medinah Temple in downtown Chicago. My first volunteer effort was to help with setting up the sound system on Sunday mornings and break down all of the equipment Sunday evenings. At the time I had little experience in Sound electronics and how to setup systems for live audio performances, recording and mixing. The challenge with the room at the Medinah was primarily it’s age. The original building was constructed as a theater for the performing arts, but was made long before electronic sound production existed. So the room had fantastic acoustics for performance, but not for amplified sound. A system was designed by an engineer from Bose and was managed by one of the members of the congregation and was designed primarily for speech, not for bands and music performance, so although the system worked well for the classes and speaking engagements in the venue, it didn’t perform as well when there was a large theatrical performance, especially when they began using a large band and vocal performances.

After helping for several years in the role I decided to dedicate some effort to researching sound production, microphones, amplification and room acoustics. 20 years later I have produced events for church services and large performances for audiences ranging in size from one hundred people to as many as 10,000 in various types of environments from hotel conference rooms to baseball stadiums and outdoor parks.

A few years ago I began teaching other’s within the organization who’s responsibility is to put together sound systems for worship services and have continued to expand my expertise into multimedia, video, lighting design and sound for both live performances as well as recording production and have produced events in Washington DC, New York and Chicago, designing the audio systems, lighting and video production.

My most notable productions have been the Slingshot Musical in Chicago, several productions at the new UIC forum facility in Chicago, a large anniversary service at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, NY and an International Song Leadership Convention in Washington DC. I have couched and trained dozens of people over the years in live audio production, and video production for worship services, theatrical productions and musical productions and have done the sound, lighting and stage designs for dozens of events.

Over the years I have also been involved in producing the graphic design work for many of the conferences events and newsletters for the Chicago Church of Christ as well as Hope World Wide. One of my favorite pieces of creative work for the church was the video production of an AMS (Arts Music and Song) promotional piece which was designed to highlight several of the creative artists within the congregation and inspire others to fully engage their creativity in improving the outreach and appeal of our church services and special events.

I have had the privilege of working with some amazing performers over the years:

• La’Shaun McNicholas youtube web – my beautiful wife – An Amazing Vocalist
• Shawn Christopher Roberts artistdirect wikipedia – you know you’re bad when you have a wikipedia page!
• Ralph Beerhorst facebook – Keyboard Extraordinaire
• Rick Biordi facebook youtube – Mister Rock Guitar – Master Ripper!
• Steve Pederson youtube web – Guitarist Extraordinaire
• Tina Jenkins Crawley facebook – Gospel Singer
• Lara Jenkins facebook – Miss Jazz
• J Brian Craig youtube

I am sure there are many more – if I have worked with you in the past and you would like for me to add you to my listing please send me an email. shaun