Like many houses of worship, Radiant Bible Church in Indianapolis, Indiana “went heavily into livestreaming” during the COVID lockdown according to Technical Director Wes Harris. Although the pandemic has subsided, the steps taken during that period have left their impression on the church’s approach to lighting services, not just in terms of video and broadcasting, but also in the way it shaped the design team’s approach to building looks on stage.
“We focused on livestream services to stay connected to our community,” says Harris. “To do this effectively, we spent a lot of time building the stage looks through the eyes of the cameras to make sure that the live experience was being captured as best we could through the livestream. The flexibility to manage intensity and staging the fixtures allowed us to match the live room to the livestream. As a result, it led us to develop some new ideas to how we light services.”
As a part of this development, the Radiant Bible team began placing more emphasis on creating what Harris calls “a stage picture” that embraces those on stage, supporting them as they move from one position to another.
“Previously for our services we went pretty heavily into a technological feel with LED screens and moving lights,” says Harris. “This year the intent was to focus more on the people. We wanted to cover our stage with color with fewer fixtures and still have the flexibility when we needed it to zoom them in and cut through to highlight individuals. When we used more saturated colors, the intensity was able to support the look. When we needed to dial back the intensity, we were able to that as well.”
To support his new approach to lighting, Harris has incorporated more Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures into the church’s rig. This was very evident during Easter services when eight Rogue R3X Washes, rented from City Circle Audio, joined the eight Rogue R2X Spots, purchased from Force.Tech, that were already part of the church’s permanent lighting system.
“This is not a big church by any means, so you might wonder why it has 16 such powerful moving LED fixtures,” says Harris, noting that the church seats 475 and welcomes roughly 1,200 for its three Sunday services. “But the output and coverage we get from these is very helpful in creating the sort of experience we want to offer worshippers.”
Half of the rented R3X Wash units were flown on upstage pipe, replacing eight static LED fixtures, and providing an intense color wash for the stage. The remaining four R3X Wash units were arranged deck risers, and were often zoomed in tight to punch through the light from the R2X Spot fixtures.
“The color from the R2X and R3X fixtures complement one another beautifully,” Harris exclaims. “With the R2X Spots we were looking for a fixture that could add the dynamics mix of gobos and color to our current mix of static LED lighting.
“We typically keep two of the spots on our upstage pipe, and move the remaining ones around, based on the stage design,” he continues. “Our approach is to think in layers so there are normally a couple of spots on the stage, a couple slightly elevated, and a couple on towers. This gives us the ability to create a lot of flexibility in creating our stage looks.”
For Radiant Bible, adding the R2X Spot to its rig during the pandemic was “the first step in enhancing our design,” Harris explains. “Based on the way the way these fixtures blended with their R3X Wash stablemates, it likely won’t be the last.”
