Orangewood Church in Maitland, Florida is a Presbyterian church in Orange County and is affiliated with Orangewood Christian School. Both church and school share a number of facilities, including a gymnasium, which on Sundays, doubles as a sanctuary. The space housed an older system of incandescent lights originally designed to light sports and other school activities, a setup that proved increasingly unsatisfactory for the church’s needs.
Michael Pagan, an independent lighting designer, who also works at the church part time programming lighting for Sunday services and events, designed and specified a new house lighting rig using Elation’s energy-efficient Colour Pendant downlight to improve light quality while opening up a number of new creative options.
Pagan says, “The coverage from the incandescent lights was really dark and blotchy throughout the house,” Pagan says. “Our Technical Director, Chris Russell, was approached by the team about what could be done and Chris and I worked on what solutions were available. Once we saw how much power we would save with LED, we knew that was the way to go!”
Thanks to their myriad of design possibilities, color-changing and white-light-tunable pendant lights have modernized house and area lighting. They have particular benefits for a contemporary house of worship, especially when music is a key element of the service. “I wanted the worship experience for the congregation to feel more immersive and bring people into what is happening on stage,” Pagan says.
The lighting designer researched possible solutions and visited churches in the area with dynamic house lighting systems to see the impact first hand. He then contacted PRG and talked with company sales rep Martee Nuruddin. “He helped us look at solutions and demo products. We also did a comparative shootout and, in the end, the Colour Pendant came out on top.” Nuruddin, who unexpectedly passed away in April, was a great help throughout the whole process, Pagan says.
Colour Pendant
Thirty Colour Pendant units were installed in the Orangewood Church sanctuary and although the LD was initially concerned that the seat risers might look blotchy with hotspots, the unit’s uniform flat-field output and 41° beam spread (66° field angle) allayed any worries. “I like how smooth the beam is and there is no hotspot whatsoever. It worked out perfectly. I also like the saturation of the colors,” Pagan adds while referencing the fixture’s RGBW color system. “Usually, red is the weakest point on a fixture but the Colour Pendant produces a really nice red. The variable white also looks great for traditional house lighting.”
The color system also allows the church to complement and color match what is happening on stage whether it is a church service, musical performance or special event. “I’ve been able to match the house lights to all my other pre-existing color palettes,” Pagan confirms. “The lighting rig isn’t large so this was also a way to add more color changing lighting to the show and gives me more options to play with.” When a dedicated lighting person is not available, church or school personnel can bring up a variety of color and color temperature looks on a preset panel.
Orangewood Christian School also benefits from the system when putting on plays and other shows. Technical Director Russell oversaw the install and according to Pagan is pleased with how power efficient the Colour Pendant’s are, a low 110W max power consumption per fixture.
Like night and day
Installed last November, the new dynamic house lighting system at Orangewood Church was used in white light only until Christmas services when color was introduced as an evocative sign of the magic of the season. “Everybody loves them,” Pagan concludes. “The color really adds to the services and the overall impact has been great. The seating area where the congregation sits was always the darkest and poorest lit area, but now they can see their notes and books. The change has literally been night and day.”
