Launched in 2006, Citizen Heights is a multisite church in the Washington, D.C., area led by pastors Michael and Heather Giroux. It’s a community defined by its passion for the lost and commitment to outreach to the local community.
For the past decade the church has been meeting in a 100-year-old, traditional-style church that was initially condemned by the city--until Citizen Heights restored it to be their permanent home. This type of restoration is a unique, ongoing part of the mission of Citizen Heights, which sees the work as a tangible way to rebuild the community itself.
Post-modern worship in an historic space
To renovate the historic building for 21st century worship, the leadership of Citizen Heights knew it needed to take critical steps to incorporate the kind of video and lighting systems that could meet the needs of the growing community.
“From the beginning I noticed that they were very ministry-driven and wanted to create worship at a very high level,” recalls Pete Guyette, owner of Kingdom Technology Partners (KTP), an audio, video, lighting and broadcast service company located in the D.C. area. “It was very clear that everything they were looking for was to enhance their weekend experience.”
He continues, “It really comes down to building a relationship, and with us that’s all about honesty and integrity. I’ve been involved with church ministry for 30 years, and being someone Citizen Heights could trust was big deal for us. That kind of trust really allowed us to honestly discuss things that were both good and bad. For us, it’s not about selling something nearly as much as it’s about being a resource for them.”
Forging alignment
Unfortunately for Citizen Heights, as they began the process of incorporating LED walls into their main worship space it became increasingly clear that a mismatch was occurring between the new video system and existing lighting system.
“We had previously installed an LED video wall upstage, and our front lighting was not able to adequately light those standing downstage from the video wall,” says Joey Olmo, technical director at Citizen Heights. “Additionally, our lighting console was difficult to use, and without a lighting expert in the congregation, training volunteers to run lighting was becoming problematic.”
Guyette explains, “Originally they had a demo LED wall up … and they were having some real trouble with it. They were led to believe that they’d be getting something that would help them maintain their standard of excellence. Unfortunately, that wasn’t happening.”
So Guyette and team worked to get the process correct from the get-go. “We started the design process by asking the leadership the most important question, which was, ‘Why do you want an LED wall?’ From there we started to evaluate how to best make that happen based on where they were and where they wanted to go.”
Setting the agenda
Once the leadership at Citizen Heights had a clear vision of what success would look like, the team at KTP kicked into action. “We actually went with a very aggressive installation schedule based on what they needed, but we were able to work it all out,” Guyette says. “We got PixelFlex on the phone and walked through how to move forward.”
He continues, “Mike Gold at 4Wall Entertainment was an integral part of working directly with distributors to set the project up for success. They’re also a big part of helping our customers demo the exact fixtures and equipment they’re considering for their project, and they really open up whole worlds to churches like Citizen Heights.”
Once the PixelFlex LED walls were successfully in place, Guyette and his team identified the Datavideo SE 2850-12 switcher as the right tool for controlling video signals. “We looked at the size of their worship center and asked what system could address their needs now, and what could set them up for the future with excellence, especially from a live streaming perspective,” Guyette recalls. “It was just the right switcher for setting up their team and volunteers up for success.”
KTP also installed a Haivision KB Video Encoder for live streaming. “Citizen Heights has a campus in Fairfax, Va., and they needed a way to steam directly from their D.C. campus,” he continues. “So we were able to demo the Haivision for them that we knew could provide cloud-based encoding for DVR distribution and webcasting simultaneously.”
Punching up the light
With the video systems up and running, the team turned its attention to upgrading the lighting system. “Once you get the LED wall up you have to have the kind of front lighting that can balance with the brightness of that wall,” continues Guyette. “You could see that once the LED walls were up we needed to add some good front lighting to balance out the ambient environmental light coming off that wall. With Citizen Heights being in the Hillsong family, we knew having lights and haze working with the LED wall was crucial.”
For lighting fixtures, KTP and the tech team selected ProLights Stark and Eclipse LED instruments. “We had a trusted relationship with ProLights and the functionality was right for what Citizen Heights needed for their mission,” says Guyette. “And for the price point they had and the functionality they needed, we knew these were the right fixtures for their system.”
They also paired the lights with a Chroma-Q Vista 3 lighting console, which the team at Citizen Heights felt comfortable with. “Having the Vista 3 provided some commonality with what they were used to using, while still [providing] some serious upgrades,” adds Guyette.
Service for community
At the end of the day, the combination of new LED video and lighting systems have opened up dramatically improved creativity for the entire tech team at Citizen Heights. “The lighting team programs their cues based on the colors and speed of the video clips,” Olmo shares. “They can then program in complementary colors and match the movement speed of the ProLights fixtures to the speed and mood of the video clips.”
Olmo closes, “The idea is to make a cohesive presentation where all technical elements work together to create a well-coordinated visual environment. The new lighting and control systems have been fantastic and have added so much to our worship experiences”—effort that is not lost on Citizen Heights’ D.C.-area community.
