Brooklyn Tabernacle upgrades with ChamSys
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Today, after being rescued from disrepair by the church, the building resonates with the uplifting energy of Pastor Jim Cymbala’s Sunday services, special events throughout the week, and performances by the six-time Grammy winning Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, which is directed by the pastor’s wife, Carol. Supporting these activities are immersive lighting and video displays that would have been impossible to imagine back in the building’s vaudeville theatre days.
Running the lighting and video system is a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium, installed in early 2019 by lighting designer Abner Torres of Out of Darkness Designs. Torres, who has done extensive work with gospel groups and clubs throughout the New York area, became involved with Brooklyn Tabernacle through his work lighting the Christian Hip-Hop Kingdom Choice Awards.
“I met Raynard James, the very talented audio engineer from Brooklyn Tabernacle, when I was working on the awards show,” says Torres. “This led to me being invited by the church to light a large-scale musical production, The Story of Love, for Easter. Talking to the tech team, we developed a plan for upgrading the church’s lighting system, beginning with their aging desk. It would have been virtually impossible to run the kind of Easter production they envisioned with all its special effects, projection video and mapping without a new console.”
Based on his own experience, Torres recommended the MQ500 for the 4,000-seat church.
“ChamSys was the clear choice,” he says. “For starters, it’s a very intuitive user-friendly desk, so this makes it easier for me to train the tech team. The MQ500 also has the capacity to support 200 universes, which is essential for some of the church’s bigger productions.
“Another feature that was very important in this particular situation was the wireless control via an iPhone, so programming could be done walking around in the room,” continues Torres. “This space is quite large, and many fixtures are located in places not easy to see from the FOH position, so this wireless capability was invaluable.”
Once his Easter show was completed, and after fully integrating the ChamSys desk, Torres programmed a wide variety of pages for different uses, such as Sunday services, Tuesday Night Prayer, choir recitals and meetings. He also teaches the staff and volunteers how to make basic changes and updates to cues.
(Jim Evans)
