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Michigan's Mount Pleasant Community Church has a young congregation of 19-25 year olds, many from Central Michigan University – one of the state's largest universities. “As a result, they are always exceptionally diligent in looking for ways to make the worship experience more inclusive and inviting,” says Mike Mrozinski, Project Development Manager at LiveSpace. “They have a very contemporary worship experience each weekend so we stressed the ability to create a more immersive and engaging environment.”
Mrozinski was tasked with upgrading the church's outdated lighting system and was excited to use an LED solution featuring new Elation Professional Colour Pendant color-changing LED luminaires. He says the Colour Pendants add a dynamic element to the space that mirrors the congregation itself.
“We have been looking for an opportunity to install house lights with RGBW capabilities on the last few projects we have designed,” Mrozinski says. “In each instance that they were specified, they ended up getting swapped with a less expensive fixture due to budgetary constraints. Church leadership liked the idea that they could have the ability to create a similar lighting look as what was being created on stage.”
"Church leadership liked the idea that they could have the ability to create a similar lighting look as what was being created on stage."
Mike Mrozinski
Project Development Manager, LiveSpace.
When the worship space was added 10-12 years ago, church leaders installed inefficient sodium halide fixtures, but they quickly realized the lights were not the most conducive to a worship setting. Later they installed par cans in the ceiling. “While this did give them a greater degree of control, the coverage was not as smooth as they had hoped,” Mrozinski says. “The par cans got them halfway to the look and feel that they were going for, but still seemed like they were putting a Band-Aid over a broken leg. They lived with this Band-Aid solution for several years until they decided to devote the resources necessary to find a house light solution that was more in line with their high production standards that they brought to every other aspect of their service.”
That house light solution was the installation of 32 Colour Pendants attached to ceiling purlins in the main worship space. Four Colour Pendants hang over the stage with the rest in four rows of eight over the audience. Completed in June 2016, the new fixtures are used to create an immersive and inclusive worship experience each weekend and are also used for community events, as well as a popular Vacation Bible School program. LiveSpace designed, specified and installed the Colour Pendants, as well as a lighting console.
The Colour Pendant is proving to be a favorite in houses of worship across the country, according to the manufacturer. The company press release describes it as, “A flexible RGBW color unit that also projects variable shades of white, the energy-efficient downlight is an excellent color matching unit with a uniform flat-field output.” Mrozinski says its color capability allows the church to complement and color match what is happening on stage whether it's a church service, musical performance or special event, and a lack of fans makes the fixture even more ideal for noise sensitive environments like HOW installations.
“Beyond the color abilities, the coverage and dimming curve has proven to be the most even and consistent of any fixture we have worked with in the past. We were excited to finally have the opportunity to utilize these fixtures and the client could not be more happy with the end result.”
Product information and support on the project was provided by Elation manufacturer rep firm Five Lakes Marketing, who Mrozinski was more than happy to work with. “We have worked with Rob Ludwig at Five Lakes for several years now and have called upon him many times for recommendations, sales calls and product demonstrations. He has always proven to be an invaluable resource to us,” concludes Mrozinski.
