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“We wanted to create a setting that would rock people’s worlds for Christ, and God has blessed us with that ability.” - Shawn Mitchell, Pastor, New Venture Christian Fellowship, Oceanside, CA
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ETC Paradigm architectural controls give easy access to lighting presets for when full console control is not necessary, and allows lighting to be easily activated from primary entryways into the room.
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“God placed a burden on me to reach my neighbors. I thought, ‘What if people could go to a church that doesn’t feel like a church, where it wasn’t stuffy or rigid?’” Shawn Mitchell, Pastor, New Venture Christian Fellowship, Oceanside, CA
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New Venture Christian Fellowship (NVCF), located in Oceanside, Calif., is creating an enveloping environment with its recent audio, video and lighting upgrade to a 20-year-old auditorium.
Imagine actually being on Mount Olivet as you listen to your pastor preach from the Sermon on the Mount. Or being on the shore of the Sea of Galilee as you consider Jesus walking on the water. That's the type of environment New Venture Christian Fellowship (NVCF), located in Oceanside, Calif., is creating with its recent audio, video and lighting upgrade to a 20-year-old auditorium. And enveloping those attending the service with a supportive environment has proved to be an excellent approach in engaging the very people New Venture was planted to reach.
“We've been a church for 24 years now,” says Pastor Shawn Mitchell. “One Sunday, I didn't need to go to the church where I served, and I noticed many in my neighborhood were recreating while I was normally at church worshipping. God placed a burden on me to reach my neighbors. I thought, ‘What if people could go to a church that doesn't feel like a church, where it wasn't stuffy or rigid?' That grew into a vision, [a] passion, and eventually a calling on my life.”
Diving in head first
NVCF started with seven people; by the end of the first year it had grown to 400; then 1,000 the following; and 2,000 the year after that. The rapid growth necessitated a change of locations 22 times before settling into a permanent facility. By 1996 NVCF was on the fifty fastest-growing churches list. There are now almost 3,000 who call it home, with an average total weekly attendance of 2,000.
About 20 years ago NVCF built its current auditorium, and over the years the equipment started showing its age. “We used our media systems to the point of failure,” adds Mitchell. With random issues popping up frequently during services, it wasn't difficult to convince the congregation that a complete overhaul was necessary.
The church looked at many AV companies, including firms that handled AV design and installation for some of the major hotels in Las Vegas. After careful evaluation, NVCF chose CCI Solutions based in Olympia, Wash. “CCI's experience was in large churches,” states Mitchell, “and they clearly have a heart for the things of God. They presented options, and they are passionate about what they do.”
“When we met with the senior pastor, it was clear that he was a very example- and sermon-illustration type of teacher,” says Rick Boring, senior systems consultant at CCI Solutions. “He desired to envelop the congregation in the story being told, and of the worship experience being created.” CCI set out to renovate the room in a way that would best facilitate this goal.
“Formerly the church had [an] inadequate front of house [sound system], air conditioning wasn't sufficient, equipment wasn't accessible,” states Boring, “and equipment was falling apart. During the installation part of the project, both of their existing projectors died.”
The project included redoing the stage area, creating a production room for video control, and redesigning the front-of-house (FOH) position.
CCI worked with the architect on the project, creating 3D models of the new space and brainstorming ideas for creating this new, immersive space. “In our conversations with Pastor Mitchell, he described a vision for putting a large video backdrop behind him. Text can be placed on the screens where it's readable, and when he's talking about Jerusalem, he can actually be standing in front of images of Jerusalem. With the 100-foot width of the stage, the screens will take up most of the attendees' entire field of vision,” Boring elaborates.
The team drafted the idea, and CCI proceeded on this tack.
The video plunge
“God placed a burden on me to reach my neighbors. I thought, ‘What if people could go to a church that doesn’t feel like a church, where it wasn’t stuffy or rigid?’”
Shawn Mitchell
Pastor, New Venture Christian Fellowship, Oceanside, CA
The backdrop video implementation consists of three StageScreens from Draper: a center screen and two side screens taking up the entire width and height of the back of the stage. Next, 75,000 lumens of projection, provided through five 240-volt, 15,000-lumen Christie projectors provide the video image on the screens. The two side screens each have two projectors edge-blended together to produce one extra-wide, seamless image.
A Vista Systems Spyder presentation switcher manages content to the screens. The Vista provides an eight-input, eight-output video matrix—enabling any input to be routed to any output—and makes it easy to configure the video options to match the church's needs. Typically they route the input with lyrics or sermon notes to the inner projectors of the side screens, and use the outer projectors for image magnification (IMAG). The center screen may contain additional text, or simply remain a backdrop for the band or teaching pastor. The Vista also handles the edge-blending processing.
A Sony 2/3-inch three-chip camera gets the centerline shot for the message, and Sony H900 ½-inch PTZ cameras are used for other camera angles to keep the room less cluttered. The entire video system runs in 1080i HD.
A Panasonic AV-HS410 switcher is used for switching the camera inputs, and a Ross Video NK-3D34 34x34 matrix switcher is used for master video input routing to make it easy to change how the video system is connected to accommodate any type of event.
Mac computers are used to provide graphics overlays and video backgrounds.
For video capture, a SR-HD2500US Blu-ray recorder from JVC are connected to the video system through HD-SDI cabling, and three Blackmagic Design Hyperdeck Studio Pros are used to capture Iso feeds from each camera to enable post-production editing. “We like the Hyperdecks because the Thunderbolt interface allows for direct connection to the Macs for editing,” Boring says.
Lighting immersion
The immersive concept is carried through into the lighting system as well. Lighting in the room is almost entirely ETC Selador Desire LED lighting, with some SourceFour and SourceFour PAR fixtures providing warm, front white lighting on the stage.
ETC D60 LED fixtures are used for all house lighting, which fully enables setting lighting in the room to match the mood on stage. Approximately 80 of the Desire D60 fixtures are used for house lighting, with D40s providing much of the stage lighting. The system is run with an ETC Gio lighting console.
“What's cool about the Gio and the Seladors is that video clips can be imported into the console and then mapped onto the LED fixtures for playback,” describes Boring. “So, when the pastor is talking about Jesus on the Sea of Galilee, a video backdrop of the shoreline could be put on the video screens, and a blue-toned motion-graphic [can] be imported into the Gio console and mapped onto the house lights so that the attendees feel like they are out on the lake. The side walls are also washed with Desire fixtures, as well as some ETC Source Four ellipsoidal fixtures with dichroic glass gobos, further enhancing the enveloping effect.”
Boring adds, “We also like the Gio console for the built-in touch screens, and ETC training and support can't be beat.”
ETC Paradigm architectural controls give easy access to lighting presets for when full console control is not necessary, and allows lighting to be easily activated from primary entryways into the room. ETC's new DMX Emergency Bypass Controller provides emergency power to select house lighting fixtures, eliminating the need to implement a separate emergency lighting system.
“With all the LED lighting, we can completely wash the room with color,” Boring notes
Audio maneuvers
While video and lighting adds great support for the services, no one would question that audio is fundamentally the most important—people need to hear the message of the Gospel communicated.
“While we would have been interested in line arrays for the size room that NVCF has, line arrays would have dropped into the sight lines to the screens and taken away from their impact,” Boring reports. “Instead, we went with large-format, high-power speakers with delay fills at the back of the room.”
Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers were chosen as the primary cabinets, with four three-way ST9 cabinets covering the four main seating areas from the front. ST7 cabinets are used for delays further back in the room.
For the low end, six Renkus-Heinz subwoofers are flown over the front of the stage, with four firing forward and two firing rearward to create the desired pattern control.
One of the reasons Renkus-Heinz was chosen was for its digital input capability. All audio signals are delivered digitally from FOH to the loudspeakers through a dual redundant Cobranet digital audio network.
Meyer MM-4XP miniature loudspeakers are arranged across the front of the apron as front-fills. “We used Meyers for the front fills because their tiny profile enabled us to simply sit them on the front edge of the stage,” explains Boring. “They make a great little powered front fill that met our specific needs.”
On the input side, analog audio signals are converted to digital and delivered via a Dante digital audio network. “Dante is an open standard with low latency, and because it's an open standard, the cost of implementing hardware around it for manufacturers is much lower,” says Boring. Dante is also compatible with Avid ProTools, and provides for a convenient distribution protocol to all areas that need access to the individual audio signals.
Digital signal processing and loudspeaker management is implemented through BSS London processors. Monitoring for the musicians is implemented through an Aviom personal monitoring system, and Sennheiser wireless microphones were added to the church's inventory.
Transformation …
The new room opened in October of 2012 with resounding success, the church reports. “The response was far beyond anything we hoped to obtain,” Mitchell says. “People are talking about it, and we have been getting calls from renowned musical groups wanting to have an opportunity to use the room. We wanted to create a setting that would rock people's worlds for Christ, and God has blessed us with that ability.”
“I call ministry the hardest job you'll ever love,” adds Mitchell. “The blessing is in seeing lives transformed for the purposes of God.”
