ABOUT THE OPP Group Inc.
The OPP Group Inc mission is to provide all of our clients with the highest quality of service and technology solutions at the best price.
We at The OPP Group Inc believe there is an inherent deficiency in the spirit of customer service, and our priority is to educate our customers in today's production world. We're on the path to doing just that with the creation of one of the most forward-thinking and aggressive Integration companies.
We believe that with the assistance of our training development program, we can help young people expand their potential and become knowledgeable in the media platform so that they may find employment in the area of production that they desire.
Our Services
With over 30 years of experience, The OPP Group Inc is committed to providing our clients with the highest quality of service and support combined with the latest technology, custom designs, and quality installations. Offering our clients services at the best price that is suitable for their needs, both now and as they grow.
We specialize in:
For worship centers, government, corporate, residential, and entertainment venues.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Alfred L. Williams, known as AL-Tee, is the proud founder and CEO of the Atlanta based OPP Company Inc. Alfred started mixing and producing music and videos as a teenager in his friend's basement. He has gone on to become one of the world's top engineers. He has 30 years of experience in the world of productions, working on TV shows including Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres. He's toured with groups such as Kool and the Gang and Ludacris, just to name a few.
AL-Tee has brought his love for music, video, and production to the forefront of the business, which encourages everyone on the team to work their hardest and provide the best services for our clients.
Premier Music and Clarity of Message at Fairfield Baptist Church
The worlds of house of worship and music are closely linked, with an enormous amount of work going into making a church the kind of environment suitable for music while delivering the message. These were the primary concerns of Alfred "Al-Tee" Williams, a leading...
Premier Music and Clarity of Message at Fairfield Baptist Church
The worlds of house of worship and music are closely linked, with an enormous amount of work going into making a church the kind of environment suitable for music while delivering the message. These were the primary concerns of Alfred "Al-Tee" Williams, a leading live-sound engineer whose front-of-house and monitor mixing credits include Jay Sean, Kool & the Gang, Fantasia, and most recently, Ludacris.
It was while mixing front-of-house for Ludacris last year at premier music venue Park City Live during the annual Sundance Film Festival that Al-Tee first encountered the RoomMatch loudspeaker system from Bose Professional. As soon as he experienced it, he knew it was the right solution for his church, the 129-year-old Fairfield Baptist Church in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia, where music is an integral part of the worship service led by Pastor Micheal Benton. "We were having a lot of trouble getting good coverage to all the seats, and the low-frequency response we were getting from the existing system was just not what we needed," Al-Tee explains.
At the Park City Live shows he did with Ludacris, Al-Tee was consistently impressed. "During sound check, I walked all around the main floor and then up to the balcony VIP sections. I was amazed at how good the coverage was in all areas, very smooth everywhere. But the real test came when I played some tracks for sound check that contained some really deep bass parts. The Ludacris song How Low' has a drop-tone that goes below 30 Hz, and many subwoofers just cannot handle this at the sound levels we need. I was blown away by the low-bass depth and impact that the RoomMatch subwoofers provided. I wanted the church to sound like this."
Al-Tee traveled to Bose headquarters in Framingham, MA, where, working with Bose engineers, he was able to put the RoomMatch system through its paces, plugging in a huge variety of program material ranging from Ludacris and a wide range of hip-hop tracks to hard rock and classical. "I wanted to see how far I could push the system," he says. "Once we had gone through all that, I knew the system would work for our church."
The system was designed and installed by Al-Tee (and his company, Omny Pro Productions), and it is composed of two L/R arrays, each using three symmetrical and three asymmetrical modules. Four RMS218 subwoofers deliver strong enough bass to serve a hip-hop show. In addition, two RoomMatch loudspeaker modules are used for side fills on the outside of the left and right clusters, while four RoomMatch Utility RMU208 loudspeakers are employed for front fills. The system is powered by 10 Bose PowerMatch PM8500N amplifiers fitted with 10 ESP Link Cards. Finally, the system is managed via a Bose ControlSpace ESP-880-engineered sound processor. The church was able to take the system a step further by using an Audinate Dante Card for the ESP-880, putting it on a Dante digital audio network.
The outcome, says Al-Tee, is nothing short of spectacular. "The room is filled with music; the coverage is consistent and comprehensive," he says. "The coverage was impeccable. And the sound is great right out of the box. The EQ has hardly been touched. And with the Dante card, we can control the system from anywhere. Last Sunday, I was able to mix the vocals on an iPad from the second row; the week before, I was able to control the system from Pittsburgh."
Al-Tee says everyone in the church loves the sound now, including church media director Cleon D. Frazier. "Our previous sound system presented us with dead spots in the sanctuary, and we were underpowered in our sound requirements for our church services," Frazier stated. "We would constantly get complaints from the congregation that certain areas were loud and in other areas you couldn't hear anything. The system has solved those problems, and now the congregation can definitely tell the difference in the clarity of the spoken message as well as music."
Deacon David Rollins, church financial officer, agreed: "Overall, the entire project has benefited Fairfield as a whole and presented a better sound to our congregation and visitors."
Al-Tee is In the Mix with StudioLive
Atlanta is a busy town for live music, and Alfred "AL-Tee" Williams is one of Atlanta's busiest live sound mixers. The veteran engineer has run the mix for a wide range of artists, including Kool and the Gang, The SOS Band, Rachelle Farrell, Angie Stone, Bobby Brown, and a host of others.
Needless to say, AL-Tee has had his fingers on more than a few sets of faders over the years. And with no shortage of high-end mixing consoles to choose from, his desk of choice these days is the PreSonus StudioLive™ 16.4.2.
"I discovered the StudioLive completely by accident," he says. "A friend of mine had purchased a StudioLive console, and he was raving about it. Now, normally, I'm not impressed when people go on and on about a piece of gear. But I was intrigued by some of the stuff he was telling me, and I felt like I really wanted to check it out."
As AL-Tee explains, he got his hands on a StudioLive 16.4.2 console just a few days before mixing the annual Legendary Awards Show, which featured performances by five different bands and appearances by the likes of Tina Turner, (ex-Atlanta Hawks basketball star) Dominique Wilkins, Ted Turner, and numerous other Atlanta legends. "Normally, I'd be pretty reluctant to mix a major show like that on a console I hadn't had time to learn my way around yet," he says. "But honestly, it took me no time at all to get up to speed. Everything was just seamless."
Beyond the easy learning curve, AL-Tee was impressed with StudioLive's feature set. "I was just blown away by what the StudioLive can do," he says. "I could see right away it had more features and more flexibility than some of the most expensive live consoles. I was able to record the entire show live to Capture and save the performances for mixing later on."
AL-Tee put StudioLive's snapshot automation to use almost immediately. "A lot of the shows I do feature multiple sets from different bands and musicians," he explains. "I've used the StudioLive for a number of other shows over the past few weeks, and I've been able to move easily from one show to another, save and recall scenes quickly, fine-tune effects settings, and do anything I can do with a more expensive console."
He also wasted no time getting into StudioLive's remote mixing capability. "I got up from the front-of-house and went into the audience with my iPad®," he says. "I love that I can move around the hall and control the mix from anywhere. It takes the guesswork out of what things sound like on the other side of the auditorium, and that helps me build a better mix. And the musicians love it too; we had a couple of guys up on stage controlling their monitor mixes with their iPhones®."
Of course, the bottom line is what it sounds like, and AL-Tee reports that StudioLive delivers. "The sound quality is just amazing," he says. "It’s hands-down better-sounding and more powerful than a lot of the more expensive digital consoles. The mic preamps are so much better than anything else out there.
AL-Tee’s enthusiasm is clearly contagious. “The club I used it at last week, the owner wants to buy one,” he reports. “And I’ve been talking about it to a bunch of people I know, and now two different churches here in Atlanta want to install them.”
“The StudioLive was obviously designed by people who come from old-school engineering backgrounds,” he continues. “It’s a digital console, but you don’t have to use it that way. You can run it just like an analog console, but you get all the benefits and features of a digital console. That’s the best thing about it: You can work in the box or out of the box.”
AL-Tee concludes, “Other manufacturers haven’t kept up with the technology. Their routing schemes aren’t nearly as flexible, and their sound is nowhere near as good. The features PreSonus has put into this console are amazing to me. At this price point, they’re going to change the entire industry.”
Founded in 1995, PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. is a leading designer and manufacturer of audio-recording software, hardware, and related accessories. PreSonus software, microphone preamps, signal processors, digital audio interfaces, mixers, control surfaces, and other products are used worldwide for recording, sound reinforcement, broadcast, sound design, and Internet audio.
Ready to Get Started?
