Current Issue

May 2012

Print Article     Email Article

  Page 1 of 3   >>

Production Overview: Lighting First at Calvary Chapel Melbourne, Viera, Fla.

All-LED house lighting system exceeds building code compliance while maintaining quality

by Shellie Arnold

While designing the architectural plans for their new worship facility on Florida’s east coast, at Viera, Fla., the Calvary Chapel Melbourne production staff quickly realized the impact that new electrical power consumption codes can have on a worship environment. Since code compliance required 1.8 watts per square foot, a hybrid house lighting system combining incandescent down lights and dimmable fluorescent lights appeared to be the only option.

But the hybrid system had many glaring flaws: a less than desirable blend of color temperatures and dimming curves, incompatible fixtures styles and placement, maintenance issues and limited foot candle coverage.

Calvary Chapel Melbourne is a single congregation that worships in multiple locations, relying on video for the teaching portion of the service. Since a quality video image is paramount to the distributed church model, color temperature and dimming properties of this system were of utmost concern to the production staff.

Calvary Chapel Melbourne turned to the Candela Controls Worship Lighting Division for their lighting systems design and integration expertise. “The timing on this project was just about perfect. We were brought in to meet with the architects and engineers during the design phase, so there was time to make major adjustments,” says Steve Arnold, director of systems design and development for Candela. “We had already been working with manufacturer Affineon Lighting on their new DMX dimmable DL-1500 LED house light fixture. When we learned of the power restrictions that Calvary Chapel’s architect was dealing with, we knew that this new DL fixture was the best option for providing the church with proper house lighting while meeting the code requirements.”

Christina Jessup, director of video production at Calvary Chapel Melbourne says, “Steve Arnold was the catalyst behind our LED decision. Steve's ability to combine his ministry background with secular world knowledge and experience has been a huge asset to our church environment and in making the church vision a reality. Because he understands our priorities, he was able to find a solution to what has been a big issue for us, integrating video lighting and house lighting.”

There are many benefits to LED lighting fixtures. They consume significantly less power than a traditional incandescent fixture. They produce less heat, are long-lasting, and maintain color temperature while dimming.

“One of the first things we did was remove the 48-space dimmer rack and the electrical service to it, which were originally designed to power the house lights,” Arnold says. “We determined that we would need 80 DL-1500 LED fixtures to provide an average of 35 foot candles (fc) across the sanctuary (the church wanted 30fc average) and over 40fc in the seating areas. Since the DL fixtures only required five 20-amp circuits, there was a significant power savings.”

  Page 1 of 3   next page >>