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May 2012

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Lighting for the Portable Church

Options for portable are on the rise. Manufacturers respond with innovative new products to meet the rising demand.

by Greg Persinger

With some church planning experts predicting the demise of the mega-church and the rise of the multi campus church format, the number of portable churches seem to be on the rise.

The rooms that these portable churches meet in can be very diverse, ranging from a school gym, theater, or cafeteria, to the local YMCA, a movie theater, a convention center, or a hotel ballroom.

While some portable churches have the luxury of sound and lighting systems already in the room, most do not and have to bring their own technical systems in wherever they meet every Sunday.

If this is your situation there are five main technical components and two primary logistical considerations to portable church lighting.

The five main technical components are that lighting requires power, something to hang the lights on, fixtures that create the light, dimming, and some way to control the dimming.

The two logistical issues are marking all of the components for easy setup and packaging the lighting rig in an efficient manner.

Power

Lighting equipment requires a good bit of power to run.
One of the first things you should look for is how much power there is available in the room. This doesn't just mean how many outlets the room contains, but how many circuits are controlled by separate circuit breakers. Keep in mind that several outlets can be connected on the same circuit.

This may take a little bit of detective work to find all of the circuits, but a circuit finder from your favorite hardware store or electrical supply house can speed up the process.

Plug in the circuit tester and find which outlets are connected to each breaker in the room. Be sure to make a drawing that shows where each outlet is and what breaker it is connected to so that you have record of your findings. This will also help you determine where everything should plug in and how much cable you are going to need. Also make note of what amperage each breaker is. You won't be able to run as many lights off a 15 amp breaker as you can a 20 amp breaker.

Once you figure up how much power there is to work with in the room you need to assign that power to different tasks. If you have a PA system and video projection system, those systems are going to need power as well. Allocate power to these systems first and see what you have left over for lighting.

If you are not going to have enough power for the lighting system then you may need to look to other rooms to pull power from or look at having a larger electrical feed installed in the room and then use a portable distribution system to break the power out to individual dimmers and lights.

Hang Positions

What you hang your fixtures on will depend, somewhat, on the type of space and how much room you have to set up the lighting system.

One of the simplest ways to hang the lights is by using Ultimate Support type tripod stands. They are cost effective and easy to carry and set up, but they are not able to get the lights very high in the air. This means that the lighting angles are very flat and will be shining directly in the eyes of the people on stage.

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Greg Persinger is the owner of Vivid Illumination. He can be reached at greg@vividillumination.com.