Antioch Bible Baptist is not the largest church in the world, but it is making a difference in every corner of the globe. Each fall the suburban Kansas City house of worship hosts a “Go Global Missions Conference,” at which its members are asked to make a promise to support one of its 75 global missions, which stretch from Uruguay to the Philippines to Tanzania. The church doesn't confine its work to overseas either; operating under the motto, “Not in the city but for the city,” it also does a great deal of outreach work closer to home.
Wanting to devote its resources to these missions, the church is careful not to overspend on its main campus north of Kansas City. However, music plays an important role in its two Sunday services, and its sermons are featured on live podcasts, so quality sound and lighting systems are important. Recently, church leaders moved forward on an upgraded with Stark Raving Solutions. The Lenexa, Kansas, company provided the church with a cost-efficient audio system and a new broadcast and live audience-friendly lighting rig that features Chauvet Professional ColorAdo fixtures.
“We were involved in expanding a new youth rig for the church, so when they wanted to upgrade their sanctuary they turned to us,” says Stephen Ellison, lighting and stage designer at Stark Raving Solutions. “From a lighting standpoint, we didn't have the budget for a big rig, but we wanted to get a lot of color on stage to support the church's dynamic services, which feature a lot of upbeat music. The ColorAdos, with their color rendering capabilities, were an excellent fit.”
The Stark Raving team installed 10 ColorAdo 2-Quad Zoom Tour and 5 ColorAdo 1-Quad Zoom Tour fixtures to replace the track lights it had been using. “We created a great transformation with the ColorAdos,” says Ellison. “The variety and richness of the colors we were able to get made every aspect of the service seem more alive.
“Also, the output and zoom features of the ColorAdos added a new dimension to the church's lighting,” he continues. “Changing the coverage area during services makes it much easier to reflect different moods.”
Ellison flew the 10 ColorAdo 2-Quad Zoom Tour fixtures on a 70' pipe for front light and positioned the 5 ColorAdo 1-Quad Zoom Tours on upstage pipe for back lighting. These worked with ColorAdo batten fixtures already in the church's rig to provide complete coverage of the stage.
“It was a wide stage, so we needed to run a long pipe for front light,” says Ellison. “The output and zoom range of the ColorAdos allowed us to get the coverage we wanted without investing in a large number of fixtures. When people see the way this stage was transformed, they have a hard time believing all this was done with so few fixtures.”
