LEHIGH ACRES, FL – Like many Houses of Worship, the First Baptist Church of Lehigh Acres Florida has been providing an ever-expanding variety of events to meet the needs of today's congregation members. In addition to conducting a traditional service, the church holds a contemporary service, hosts live concerts and does video production – all in its 9,000 square foot, 650-seat main sanctuary.
So when First Baptist Lehigh set out to revamp its lighting, the church wanted a versatile system that could illuminate the many different types of activities that took place in the room. But as with many churches, budget was also a big concern.
Thanks to a package supplied by Creative Lighting Solutions, LLC (Cape Coral, FL), utilizing products from Elation Professional and its sister companies Acclaim Lighting and American DJ, the Florida church was able to obtain a lighting system with bigtime multi-tasking capabilities for a relatively small price tag.
According to Russell Byas of Creative Lighting Solution, his company got on the bid list for the project through its acquaintance with the church's sound engineer. It eventually won the bid, thanks in large part to the dollar value that Elation provided for a retrofit of this magnitude. “The entire lighting and A/V system had been removed, so we had to start from scratch,” said Byas. “The old system was based off traditional dimmers and old par cans and ellipsoidals.” Clearly newer lighting technologies, such as LEDs, were called for. “With Elation we were able to provide more high quality fixtures for the same budget, where most of our competitors could not,” Byas said.
The package put together by Creative Lighting Solutions consisted of: 8 Elation Opti Tri Par tri-color RGB LED par cans; 10 Elation Opti Par W ETL white low profile par cans; 3 Elation Design Spot 250 hybrid spot/wash 250-watt moving heads; 6 American DJ Mega Bar Pro color-changing LED wash bars; and 8 American DJ Pro Par 56CWWW warm/cool white LED par cans with variable white temperature control.
“Energy efficient LED technology was a big consideration in reducing the church's carbon footprint,” explained Byas. “(Long life) LEDs also add the value of less maintenance. Many churches don't take into consideration the cost and amount of work that goes into changing bulbs.” What's more, as part of the overhaul a new high-definition A/V system was being installed with a 22' foot video screen over the stage. Flicker-free LED lighting gave the advantage of “providing sufficient output and an even field of light for shadow-free video production,” said Byas.
The Mega Bar Pro LED bars are used to wash the back wall of the 20'x80' stage to “create layers and give the stage depth,” said Byas. “They can also produce patterns and movement if needed.” Also chosen for its versatility was the Design Spot 250, which can function either as a spot or wash, thanks to its Variable Frost feature, and comes loaded with colors, gobos and other effects. The Design Spot 250s are positioned “so they can serve multi purposes,” Byas explained. “In addition to being stage spots, they can project gobos and patterns almost anywhere in the sanctuary, and they can also wash the ceiling with different colors for different moods.” As an added bonus, the Design Spot 250 comes in a version with a white case that blends seamlessly into the church's design.
First Baptist Lehigh's front of house lighting pairs traditional Opti Par W ETL par cans with the newer LED technology provided by the RGB-mixing Opti Tri Pars and variable white temperature Pro Par 56CWWWs. With this blend of the conventional and the cutting-edge, the church can “create almost any color, temperature and wash for the whole stage and the areas in front of it.”
Elation's Compu 1024 PC-based software is used to control the system, along with an Elation RMD-1220 dimmer and two Acclaim AL Control wall-mount single-channel DMX controllers for operating the house lights. With a volunteer staff handling the church's lighting and production, the Compu software makes it easy to perform programming for both the moving heads and LED lighting, explained Byas.
The church is extremely pleased with the versatility of the lighting system, Byas reported. “They have the ability to light up all types of services – traditional and contemporary – as well as concerts. And it meets their video requirements as well, without the need for any additional production.”
For more information, call Elation Professional toll-free at 866-245-6726 or visit www.elationlighting.com
American DJ can be reached at 800-322-6337, or visit www.americandj.com
Acclaim Lighting can be reached at 323-213-4626 or visit www.acclaimlighting.com
Creative Lighting Solutions can be reached at 239-458-3408 or visit www.creativelightingsolution.com