Leadership at Covenant Presbyterian Church knew they had lighting problems. They just didn’t know what to do about them. So, they called Monument, Colorado-based AV design/install firm Lambda Audio Visuals.
“Covenant’s dimmer system had completely failed – they had to switch breakers on and off to use their house lights. So they came to us knowing they needed new lights, but didn’t know what they needed,” explains Lambda’s owner Ryan Durbin.
Having previously been told an upgrade would ring in at a prohibitively high price, the church had low expectations. At best, they hoped to replace their “gym-like” house lights with a dimmable system, offering some user-friendly control and color options without breaking the bank.
Ultimately, Durbin says, they got far more…an upgrade of the church’s entire lighting infrastructure that included Chroma-Q house lights and Luminex LumiNodes. The bulk of the system was A.C. Lighting (now AC Americas) gear - 15 Chroma-Q Inspire XTs (with spreader lenses) and 5 2Inspire 300 PoE LED House Lights (with 2Inspire 300 blind-ceiling mount kits and a wide diffusion kit), an Inspire External Control Box, and 2 LumiNode 1 Gigabit network dongles.
“It’s a huge upgrade - they went from a non-functional system to having flexibility and room for growth,” Durbin says. “The XT are easy to set up and use, and the PoE provided a perfect replacement for the aging can lights above the stage, adding color, impact, and use to what were just white down lights. Once they’re up, they're truly reliable and virtually eliminate maintenance.”
The Chroma-Q fixtures can also reduce energy consumption and provide flexibility. “We love how replacing house lights can add so many usable lighting effects, and we have the (wall) sconces tied into a dimmer. So they went from having no lighting looks to having color effects they can play with all across the room, changing (looks up) every week, and having fun with it,” Durbin explains. “They didn’t think about having individual control over every light or that they can integrate that with other effects they’re doing in the room, or that the lights onstage are now full color and more powerful, so the congregation gets a better look at the people on stage, and their live stream looks better.”
While the project wasn’t without challenges, Durbin says the LumiNode 1s mitigated those nicely. “We faced some issues with streaming sACN coming from a lighting board, but the LumiNode corrected and cleaned that up with ease. The LumiNode is an incredible Swiss Army knife,” Durbin adds. “We love having a fully networked lighting system because it allows flexibility and upgrading. The PoE house lights are already network-based sACN lights. With everything on the network, it's easy to reassign, change, and move things around in the lighting universe, and even control those via a single sACN lighting network cable and wall plates so they can walk in, hit a button, and their lights turn on to preset looks.”
Going from where they were to where they are now generated a lot of excitement at Covenant. Not only because of their new system and capabilities, but because they have an ongoing relationship with Lambda, a previously unimagined level of support, and a path forward – something Durbin credits, in part, to the capabilities of products like Luminex and Chroma-Q.
“The clients we work with, especially in the small to mid-sized church and education markets, trust us to handhold them through upgrades. So, as we’re picking equipment, it has to be capable of growing into the future, with high functionality per dollar. It needs to do more than one thing. It needs to do ten things, be affordable, and reliable. We build relationships by providing industry-standard products that have a bit more magic (than expected) because we want them to upgrade and feel like it was the best money they ever spent.”
Beyond adding significant functionality (and putting an end to flipping breakers to bring the lights up), Durbin says they've also started building a tech crew. “One of their young guys – a high school kid – made friends with our lighting guy, Jake, who volunteers running lights at a church in town. Now he’s showing up to those midweek services, learning from Jake, and taking that back to Covenant.”
All of that plays into the educational focus of Lambda’s work: showing clients what’s possible, identifying the tools needed to achieve their goals, and providing ongoing training to expand on their usage of them.
“We’re continuing to educate and work with Covenant. We’ve set up appointments before big events - their vacation bible school and holiday (programming). We’ll ask them what they want to do this year, then we’ll work with them to accomplish that, and advise them on what new pieces they may want to grow into as they continue to add to their lighting system,” Durbin concludes. “We don’t hold anything back when working with our clients. We figure the more we can educate them, the more they can grow, and then the more they'll reach out to us for their next steps.”
