Nothing can inspire community worship quite like a service at sunrise. Eight years ago, Gordon Godfrey, Jr., the senior pastor at Marcus Pointe Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., accepted an invitation from the management of Pensacola’s popular Blue Wahoos AA baseball team to host an Easter service in the team’s new stadium. While church leaders invited the community, christening the event as the church’s “SonRise Service,” it wasn’t clear that the event would reach the magnitude of a typical stadium event.
“Much of what we do technically at the stadium turns out to be a compromise. That’s just reality. When a sunrise is involved, you can’t test.” Robbie Harvey, Media Director, Marcus Pointe Baptist Church, Pensacola, FL
“We had no clue about who or how many might attend--maybe 500, some guessed,” recalls Robbie Harvey, Marcus Pointe’s media director. Harvey estimates that the actual attendance of that first SonRise service to be nearer the 2,500-3,000 mark. “It was a huge success and has just grown each year,” he says. “It’s become the Pensacola community’s annual Easter service.”
Church, baseball,and logistics
Located at Pensacola’s Admiral Fetterman Field, a modern multi-use park that also includes commercial buildings and a waterfront public park, Blue Wahoos Stadium seats just over 5,000, with all seating on the same level. With no upper-deck seating, the stadium is an ideal place for a large audience to take in a baseball game and still feel close to the action. That design, along with its location in a community space with an orientation to Pensacola’s scenic Inner Harbor, makes the stadium an ideal setting for a sunrise service. Marcus Pointe church leadership has built strong bonds with Blue Wahoos management, team and fans over the years. “We have had a good relationship with the team and the stadium from the very beginning, having ministered to and fed the construction workers as the building was being built,” recalls Harvey.
“We consider ourselves to be good friends and partner with the team on many other projects throughout the year.” In addition to the many challenges of producing an off-site event for thousands of worshippers on an especially busy weekend, partnering with a baseball team presents additional challenges for the technical teams. For the Easter event they had to consider how the service will be clearly seen and heard at some distance, how sightlines to the sunrise must be preserved, and what special attention must be paid to preserving the condition of the turf playing surface while equipment is transported on and off the field. In addition, the team’s calendar this year has a night game the day before, so all set-up for the service must be done in the hours just before the Easter sunrise.
“We’ve had a good relationship with the team and the stadium from the very beginning, having ministered to and fed the construction workers as the building was being built.” Robbie Harvey, Media Director, Marcus Pointe Baptist Church, Pensacola, FL
And if that wasn’t challenge enough, on Saturday, Pensacola families have come to look forward to Marcus Pointe’s epic egg hunt event outside of the stadium, called Egga-Wahooza. Over 10,000 are expected to attend. The church will also be providing regular Easter services on the Marcus Pointe campus. Between the three events on this busy weekend, close to 20,000 people are expected to attend--all within 24 hours.
Planning and coordination
Obviously, with so much going on in one 24-hour period, an event like Marcus Pointe’s SonRise Service wouldn’t be successful without careful planning. “Our planning really starts as soon as the previous year’s event finishes, but we officially began last September,” says Harvey. “We arrange quarterly planning meetings to develop comprehensive checklists and develop plans for promotional materials, everything from yard signs to radio and television and online advertising. Every pastor is in charge of ministry for the event.” For assignments leading up to the event, nine pastors will help manage 3-400 volunteers who handle tasks that include managing greeters, maintenance, bussing transportation, and traffic control. Every position, from police liaisons to seat dryers handling the inevitable effects of early morning high-humidity on 5,000+ stadium seats, are dedicated to supporting the event.
… to protect the view of the sunrise, audio arrays consisting of eight Electro-Voice XLC127DVX 120-degree horizontal, three‑way compact line array elements per side will be configured from positions on the ground.
The Easter morning service at the stadium presents the greatest technical challenges to Harvey and his technical teams. To deliver all the production equipment necessary for the event and coordinate delivery, setup, and operation, Marcus Pointe engages production specialist, Larry Ward, owner of Event Production and Management Inc. in Milton, Fla. With over 40 years of experience in outdoor event production, many in baseball stadiums, Ward is an ideal partner for the challenging Easter Sunday event. “This year, because of the night game, the schedule is not optimal,” Ward notes, “but it’s not that much out of the ordinary. We’ll make it work.” Ward will bring a crew of nine production professionals to augment Harvey’s experienced church volunteers, including video expert, Bill Wyatt and professional audio engineer Dave Guiler. “The church teams are very knowledgeable and professional,” says Ward. “They are great to work with and know what to do.”
Setting the stage
At the conclusion of Saturday night’s game, Ward is expected to have access to the stadium around 11 p.m. As a first important step to the load-in and set-up, most of the first hour onsite will be devoted to laying out plywood paths from stadium entrances to and around the infield stage area. This critical effort will prevent damage to the turf. To expedite entry to the stage area, Ward planned for audio equipment and video trailers to use separate stadium entrances. Two 60kw generators used for the production will remain on the stadium’s warning track to minimize any generator noise.
Ward’s team and church volunteers will assemble a 25-foot by 32-foot stage that will be flanked by 9-foot by 13-foot LED walls with a 6mm pixel pitch. LED installation for the event is facilitated by their installation on video trailers that will be put into place by the stadium’s ‘golf cart’ transports. Placement is critical to meet viewing expectations of an audience of more than 180 degrees around an infield stage. A dramatic 10-foot by 25-foot LED wall with a 5mm pixel pitch is located to fill the upstage area. Once video trailers are placed, hydraulic components lift the video walls into place. While the walls’ heights can reach as high as 22 feet on their custom-built trailers and are configured to be above the performers on stage, careful attention is paid to the LED walls not blocking sightlines to the harbor’s horizon.
“The sunrise needs to be the star of the show,” Harvey reminds his teams. To minimize any rigging that could block the view of the sunrise, traditional stage lighting systems were not considered in favor of existing stadium lighting, which is designed to cover the infield area from multiple angles. In addition, to protect the view of the sunrise, audio arrays consisting of eight Electro-Voice XLC127DVX 120-degree horizontal, three‑way compact line array elements per side will be configured from positions on the ground. The compact size and wide dispersion of these XLC series arrays are a good fit for the stadium configuration. Eight Electro-Voice Xsub dual 18-inch subwoofer elements per side reinforce the low end. Twelve Powersoft K3 2-channel power amplifiers support the mains, and eight Electro-Voice P3000 power amplifiers are dedicated to the subs.
To reach such a large audience, clear audio is critical, both to the spoken word and Marcus Pointe’s powerful musical presentations. Audio expert Guiler will use a Soundcraft Si1+ with 48 mic inputs mapped on 16 faders to mix the service at FOH with a Soundcraft Si Performer console installed at the stage monitor mix position. Performers will use a variety of microphones with featured performers relying on Shure QLXD QLX-D digital wireless microphone systems that feature 24-bit digital audio. Sennheiser’s G3 in-ear monitor systems with reliable stereo diversity receivers will allow performers to hear themselves in the mix.
“The SonRise Easter service was a huge successand has just grown each year. It’s become the Pensacola community’s annual Easter service.”Gordon Godfrey, Jr., Senior Pastor, Marcus Pointe Baptist Church, Pensacola, FL
To engage worshippers seated at a distance, video expert Wyatt will employ a Roland 800DH multi-format video switcher to mix inputs for the LED video walls, including IMAG from images captured by Canon XL2 3CCD MiniDV camcorders on stage, prepared graphics and lyrics. Processing of video signals for the three video walls is handled by Novastar display processors.
One of the show’s challenges will be to manage IMAG as the sun is rising. “Much of what we do technically at the stadium turns out to be a compromise,” says Harvey. “That’s just reality. When a sunrise is involved, you can’t test. You get one shot, and you do your best.” He notes that the energy in the stadium at sunrise is amazing. “It’s so powerful when the sun rises. If a wash behind the pastor makes IMAG hard to see, well, maybe that’s okay at that moment.”
Reaching the lost
Far from any compromise, Marcus Pointe’s effectiveness in reaching the Pensacola community continues to develop over the years. “Our No. 1 goal for these Easter events is to reach lost people,” says Harvey. To that end, guests at the events are presented with an information card. “Almost everyone turns in a card,” says Harvey, “so we can find out how they heard about the service, what worked, what didn’t, and how we can improve. We learn a lot this way.” Harvey is emphatic that everyone who attends one of the Easter events will be touched in some way. If they are not already affiliated with a church, within two days of the event attendees will get a personal visit at home. “Someone will ‘drop by’ their house,” he says, “with a gift.”
Last year before the sunrise, Ward was checking out the generators on the warning track when two homeless gentlemen stopped him. “They had heard the music,” he recalls, “and asked what was going on. I told them it’s a church service at sunrise.” When one of the homeless men asked if it was okay to stand at the gate and listen, Ward brought them in and found them the best seats available. “I told them that this is why we’re here.”
