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ETC Source Four Revolution—Available standard in black or white; custom colors optional. (Robe Lighting)
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New Vision Church, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, has several Elation moving heads. (Photo courtesy of Elation)
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The arena tour of the Joel Osteen Ministry was lit by Tom Stanziano, who not only designs for the services at Lakewood Church, but also recreates much of his designs for the arena tours that Joel Osteen conducts around the country. (Mike Overlin, Yamaha Corp)
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A recent project lit by C. Andrew Dunning for The Potter’s House. The event was For Ladies Only, a three-day women’s conference made up of music/worship and teaching/speaking. (C. Andrew Dunning)
Automating lighting fixtures had been the dream of designers for years, where one light would be capable of many attributes—the ability to remotely move the light—panning it side to side or tilting up and down; as well as control the shutters; ability to change colors and gobos; and to be able to change the size of the beam. These lights were originally created for the touring music market, where there was money for the development of this technology—as well as the sound levels to cover the mechanical noises produced by early models. As the technology was refined and improved, automated lighting got quieter, smaller, and more flexible and today has expanded into television, theatre, and churches.
If you are now thinking of adding automated lighting to your church productions there are a lot of factors to think about when considering this technology. They are mechanical devices—they need maintenance and service, they do produce some noise, and are generally large, black, and don’t blend well with most church décor, although many now come in white and custom colors. Some people refer to them as intelligent lights, but you still have to program them and tell them what to do; you don’t just throw a switch and have an amazing light show. You will need a control console that can handle the added DMX control channels that automated lights require—many have at least a dozen channels; most are in the 20- to 30-channel range; and some climb even higher with more features—or attributes as they are referred to in automated lighting.
In speaking with automated lighting manufacturers and vendors, they all see the worship market as a growing segment of their business. Peter Maurelli, systems integrator with Barbizon Light of the Rockies in Denver, Colorado, absolutely sees the trend of putting more automated lights into churches. “Churches are all over moving lights. I have many churches with 20 or more moving lights,” he says. Companies have been making an effort to reach the worship market, which makes it easier for you to get information about their products. Automated lighting is a large investment of both money and time so it is important to get demonstrations of the equipment, preferably in your facility. Speak with your local vendors; they can be your best ally. Visit with the manufacturers at tradeshows like WFX and LDI, where the manufacturers demonstrate their products. Do your homework—it will pay off.
Spotlight on the Experts
A number of designers, consultants, and a systems integrator spoke to Church Production Magazine for this article, all with an expertise in designing for worship facilities. They all use automated lighting extensively in their work, so perhaps their thoughts can help in the decision making process. Here are some of their considerations when choosing automated lighting. “As a lighting consultant for the worship market there are several very important considerations when specifying moving lights,” comments lighting designer David Martin Jacques, head of stage design at California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, California. “First, one must ascertain if the church really needs moving lights to serve their programmatic needs. I always attend several services to see what type of aesthetic the church has, and [whether or not] moving lights will support this aesthetic. Another consideration is if the church has staff to maintain the equipment. This is very important as this equipment requires periodic maintenance by a trained technician. The church needs to find a dependable person who is willing to do this.” Often local dealerships offer service contracts as well.
C. Andrew Dunning, owner of Nashville, Tennessee-based Landru Designs discusses his list of considerations. “Dependability; lamp color temperature; experience level of those who will be programming, operating, and maintaining the fixtures; cost; and the desired end result. In terms of the specific fixtures chosen, I would suggest whatever the church can get more of easily. What does a local, reputable vendor stock? If a church buys eight of a particular brand and/or model, it is important that they have access to more of the same model in a timely manner? Churches may not be able to afford the quantities of the fixtures they’d like to have year-round, but do have special events [that warrant] renting more fixtures to beef up an existing system. Also, these things have lots of moving parts; have to withstand lots of heat; they DO break. Renting more of what you already have is important—both in terms of learning curve and in terms of maintaining visual unity.”
When designing systems for a church, Maurelli says his first consideration “is the customer and their technical ability. If they are a hands-on person with some technical ability, then I feel more comfortable recommending a more complex fixture. If they are just getting into moving lights I might recommend a less complex fixture. Secondly, I consider warranty and service. I do not want my customer to have a bad experience if they have a problem. We want them to receive the customer support they need to keep their fixtures running consistently. Then I look at the throw distance and the size of the fixture according to lamp type. After that, I determine how the customer will be using the fixture and what features they will benefit from in their application.”
Here are some of the key features that the designers and specifiers look for in automated lighting: “Coming from a theatrical background, I especially like shutters in my moving lights,” says Jacques. “This offers beam shaping flexibility that is unavailable in most models. I also like multiple rotating gobo wheels and good zooms with stable optics throughout the zoom range. Also, CMY [cyan, magenta, and yellow] color mixing is a must so that you can fade from color to color without snapping through color wheels.”
Dunning breaks his feature wish list by type of fixture. “For a spot unit, I look for even color mixing. (This is true for both fixture types, but is particularly problematic for a lot of spot fixtures); clear optics to enable sharp gobo focus; and multiple wheels of rotating and indexable gobos. For a wash light, I look at effective beam shaping and variable diffusion/frost—with even transition from open to full. For both styles, I look for accurate repositioning; size, and weight—as small and as light as possible; consistent color mixing from fixture-to-fixture; a broad color mixing range—especially in the warm colors; and a wide zoom range with decent intensity at the extremes.”
“Once again it is important to consider the customer’s application,” says Maurelli. “Wash fixtures are always less expensive. So if the client is only trying to add color they can get more fixtures if they can use only wash units. I prefer the spot fixtures—so I look for features that allow my customers to use the spot fixtures to perform both functions. So besides the obvious features of a spot fixture, like gobo and iris, I like to see color mixing instead of color wheels; I like to see some form of variable diffusion or frost; and I like fixtures with CTO [color temperature orange] correction so they can be used as specials if needed. I also feel that because moving lights are becoming very mainstream, it is nice to look for new features which provide new methods of visual interest. The animation wheel is a great example. Because they look different than a simple overlay of two rotating gobos, the effect appears new and interesting to the observer. A good designer will change the pattern in the animation wheel from time to time in order to get different effects.”
In addition to looking at the features of the automated light itself, there are some other things to think about when considering adding these fixtures to your facility. “Power consumption and lamp life, both important considerations when figuring the true cost of moving lights,” says Jacques. For Maurelli, he works with his clients to narrow down the focus of what is important for their needs. “I like to take my customers through the available features and encourage them to identify two or three that are very important to them—then I can help to select fixtures with those features. The ones we always discuss are gobos (rotating or static); animation wheel; color wheel; color mixing; frost; iris; framing shutters; zoom; and beam shaping—in wash lights.”
Automated lights are complicated machines that take some training to work and to get the most out of to support the lighting design. Maurelli notes that training is an important key in getting the most of a fixture. “Training depends on the customer. For customers with little or no moving light experience we usually cover all of the features and how to access them via DMX as a prelude to the console.
Michael S. Eddy writes about design and technology. He can be reached at mseddy2900@hotmail.com. Email Michael S.
