The Allen & Heath SQ-5’s scene and show file system represents one of its most powerful features for church environments. Where traditional analog mixers require you to manually reconstruct your mix every Sunday, the SQ-5 remembers everything—fader positions, muting patterns, processing settings, routing assignments—and recalls it with the press of a button. Understanding this system transforms your Sunday service from a potential technical stress into a reliable, repeatable workflow that your entire volunteer team can manage confidently.
Understanding Shows and Scenes
The SQ-5 organizes data in a hierarchy: Shows contain Scenes, and Scenes contain all the information needed to recreate a specific mix state. Think of a Show as a particular Sunday service or event type—say, “Sunday 9am Worship” or “Wednesday Midweek Service.” Within that Show, you might have multiple Scenes: “Beginning of Service,” “Sermon,” “Communion,” and “Closing Song.” Each Scene captures the mixer’s complete state at that moment.
This structure allows remarkable flexibility. You can quickly transition between different parts of your service by recalling the appropriate Scene, and you can even duplicate a Show from last week and use it as the foundation for this week’s service, making only small adjustments for different speakers or musicians.
Creating Your First Scene
Start with a Show file for your typical Sunday service. On the SQ-5’s touchscreen, navigate to the Show section—you’ll see this as a clear button or menu option. If no Show exists yet, create a new one by pressing “New Show” and naming it something clear like “Sunday Service - Main.” The mixer will create a default Scene within this Show called “Scene 1.”
Position your faders, mute buttons, and processing settings to your desired starting mix. This might be your typical setup just before the service begins—all microphones unmuted, music running at appropriate levels, and effects engaged as needed. When you’re satisfied with this state, touch “Scene 1” and press “Save Scene.” The SQ-5 records everything: every fader position, every button state, every processing setting on every channel.
Building Multiple Scenes for Sunday Service
Most churches benefit from creating separate scenes for different portions of their service. Create a “Sermon Scene” where everything except the lead microphone is either unmuted or faded down, with processing optimized for clear speech. Then create a “Worship Scene” where instrumental channels are brought up, music effects are engaged, and vocals are featured.
To create a new Scene within your existing Show, press “New Scene” while still in your Show file. Give it a meaningful name like “Sermon - Start” or “Worship - Song 2.” Adjust your mix settings to match the desired state, then save. Each time you create a new Scene, you’re building a playlist of mix states that you can recall in order throughout your service.
During an actual service, transitioning between Scenes becomes seamless. Your sound operator presses the Scene recall button at the appropriate moment—perhaps when the pastor steps to the pulpit—and instantly the mixer recalls all settings associated with the Sermon Scene. This eliminates manual fader adjustments during worship and dramatically reduces the chance of accidentally leaving a channel unmuted or processing enabled.
Protecting Settings from Volunteer Mistakes
As wonderful as volunteers are, they sometimes accidentally change important settings. The SQ-5 provides protection through the Scene Protect feature. Once you’ve created your baseline service scenes, access the Scene Protect menu and select which parameters should be locked against modification.
You might protect all fader positions, all mute button states, and all channel routing to prevent accidental changes. However, you might leave EQ unprotected if you want your sound operator to make real-time tone adjustments. Or you might protect output levels while allowing input gain adjustment.
This granular protection system lets you customize the level of autonomy your volunteers have. A very experienced operator might have almost nothing protected, while a newer volunteer might have everything locked except for a few clearly marked backup controls.
Backing Up and Transferring Shows
The SQ-5 stores Show files internally, but smart church AV teams back them up regularly. Connect a USB drive to the SQ-5’s USB port and navigate to File Management in the System Settings. You’ll see an option to export your Show files to the USB drive. Do this monthly or whenever you make significant changes to your service structure.
Transferring Shows between SQ-5 consoles—say, if you’re adding a second SQ-5 to a new worship space—is equally straightforward. Simply save your Show to a USB drive on the original mixer, then plug that USB drive into the new mixer and import the Show. All your scenes, processing, and settings transfer perfectly, saving you hours of recreation work.
Working with Multiple Services and Events
If your church runs multiple Sunday services with different musicians or styles, create separate Shows for each. “Sunday Service - Contemporary” might have different channel configurations and effects chains than “Sunday Service - Traditional.” Keep these Shows organized in your USB backup system, and you have instant access to the right configuration for any service.
For special events like conferences, baptism services, or seasonal celebrations, consider creating dedicated Shows for those events. Build them well in advance, test them during rehearsal, and save them. When the actual event occurs, you simply recall your prepared Show and focus on real-time mixing rather than worrying about getting the configuration right.
Real-Time Scene Adjustments
Sometimes a Scene recalls perfectly but the vocalist in that particular service needs slightly different levels than the previous week’s vocalist. The SQ-5 allows you to make adjustments to a Scene even after recalling it, and then save those adjustments back to the original Scene—or save them to a new Scene for future reference.
This flexibility keeps your workflow natural and responsive. You’re not locked into rigid playback mode; you can make the human adjustments your situation requires while maintaining the structure that Scenes provide.
Collaborative Workflow with Multiple Operators
If multiple volunteers operate the SQ-5, clear documentation of your Scene structure is essential. Create a simple cheat sheet for Sunday service: list each Scene in order, note what portion of the service it covers, and describe any special instructions (like “Mute drums for announcements” or “Bring up ambient room mic”).
Some churches even take photographs of their fader layout at key moments and print them as reference cards. A new operator can match the visual pattern they see on the mixer to a printed reference, building their confidence in recalling the right Scene at the right time.
Version Control and Service Changes
Over time, your service structure might evolve. You might add a new band, change your music style, or modify your sanctuary layout. Rather than overwriting your existing Scenes, consider creating new versions: “Sermon Scene v1” and “Sermon Scene v2,” keeping the original as a fallback reference.
This version control approach has saved many churches from mixing disasters. If a new Scene isn’t working well, you can instantly revert to a proven previous version instead of trying to reconstruct settings from memory.
Your Allen & Heath SQ-5’s Show and Scene system transforms mixing from a nerve-wracking manual process into a reliable, repeatable workflow. With proper organization and regular backups, you’ll have a solid foundation for consistent, professional audio every single Sunday.