Rock Steady Sound: Worship and Social Outreach at House on the Rock

House on the Rock cathedral in Lagos, Nigeria, is one of West Africa’s most influential and technologically advanced worship centres, also staging The Experience Lagos, one of the largest gospel music events in the world. Yamaha RIVAGE PM10 and DM series digital mixing systems lead a powerful audio ecosystem which delivers pristine sound for services, concerts and community events.

Founded in 1994 by Pastor Paul Adefarasin, House on the Rock is a vibrant, multi-ethnic church with branches across Nigeria and beyond, hosting outreach initiatives which include free healthcare, educational support and reintegration programs. Its headquarters is House on the Rock Cathedral in Lagos where, with a local congregation of up to 10,000, it serves as a spiritual, cultural and social hub.

The cathedral’s expansive structure and complex acoustics needed a sound solution capable of delivering precision, scalability and consistency across multiple halls, auditoriums, and performance zones. The cathedral’s Head of Technical and Chief Sound Engineer is Mr. Ebenezer Odunlami, aka ‘Mr. Eben’.

"With diverse musical expression, multiple worship spaces and increasingly sophisticated production requirements, the technical team needed an audio solution that could excel in three core areas,” he says.

“First was exceptional sonic performance with the headroom, warmth and tonal depth required to authentically reproduce energetic African praise sessions. Secondly, flexible, independent source distribution across several consoles - supporting both professional engineers and volunteer teams - was essential, plus seamless integration with third party systems such as lighting, timecode and macro automation.”

Headed by Technical Project Lead Patrick Edem, systems integrator GOMAC Ventures Nigeria Ltd. was appointed to evaluate potential systems, with the Yamaha RIVAGE PM10 digital mixing system emerging as the ideal Front of House solution and heart of the system.

The RIVAGE PM10’s superior sound quality, advanced networking capabilities and streamlined workflow met every operational requirement for the cathedral, while a Yamaha DM7 digital mixing console was adopted for monitor mixes at 96kHz, plus regularly serving as a supporting console for some of the auxiliary halls, in combination with an existing CL5 digital mixing console. This ensured a consistent user experience and unified system control throughout the complex.

Full Dante integration for inter-console routing and audio transport was implemented, with peripheral systems for in-ear monitoring and Yamaha StageMix/Editor tools across a unified control network. It’s an ecosystem which provides a future-ready, scalable audio environment capable of supporting both weekly services and global-scale productions with ease.

“What stands out with Yamaha is the ability to seamlessly network multiple consoles, microphones, IEMs and apps. The workflow is fast and fluid - exactly what’s needed for our live worship broadcasts and complex event setups,” says Mr. Eben.

The RIVAGE PM10’s TWINLANe architecture and Rupert Neve Designs SILK processing deliver remarkable headroom, warmth and musicality, enhancing both spoken word and dynamic live music. From weekly worship to the massive, dusk-til-dawn The Experience concert, the Yamaha systems consistently provide clean, powerful and reliable audio.

“Even without engaging plug-ins, the RIVAGE PM10 brings an immediate warmth to the house sound,” Mr. Eben notes. “Once SILK is activated, the texture becomes richer and more musical, like listening to a professionally-mastered track live.”

The cathedral’s audio team routinely mixes up to 64 input channels, managing multiple stage zones and separate broadcast outputs for different streams. The Dante backbone ensures low-latency audio transport across the campus, linking main and overflow halls for simultaneous worship experiences.

Beyond the production excellence of worship events, the Yamaha systems play a part in the commitment of House on the Rock to drive social impact through initiatives providing healthcare, educational tools, prison reform initiatives and reintegration programmes for marginalized individuals. This blend of technical excellence and community service underscores the church’s mission to influence lives both spiritually and socially.

“For me, Yamaha is a quality brand and the systems make every service sound like a mastered mix,” reflects Mr. Eben. “But more than that, our sound system supports everything we do - from worship to community outreach. The RIVAGE PM10 and DM7 have become central to our expression.”