Grace Bible Church re-opens with Chauvet
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For years, the dynamic church had been looking to build a new facility to house its growing congregation in this area just to the southeast of the city.
If all went well, the congregation could expect to worship in their new building “by spring 2020”. But, as it has with so many other things around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the church’s plans to a halt in March.
As the construction crew continued to work on completing the campus, worshippers waited patiently for the restrictions on public gatherings to be eased. Then on Sunday 2 August, more than two years after viewing the architect’s plans, the congregation entered the new church for services, following social distance guidelines.
What greeted them was an elegant, modern, and harmoniously balanced worship space with a semi-circular thrust stage, expansive windows, gently curved walls with attractive stone facades, and an advanced LED lighting system capable of rendering a rainbow of colours, while also provide smooth, even key lighting for even the most sensitive cameras.
Developed around an extensive collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures, the lighting rig, along with the rest of the AVL system, was installed by the CSD Group. This collection of fixtures includes 10 Ovation E-160 WW ellipsoidals on the front bar. The placement of these fixtures was determined with the idea of providing camera-friendly key lighting for the pastor as well as bands and other people who appear on stage.
A collection of 12 COLORado 1 Quad fixtures was positioned on the second bar for face light upstage, and on a grid for preacher position back lighting. CSD selected the RGBW COLORado units for their color rendering capabilities, as well as their output, which is great enough to stand up against the two large video walls that flank the stage.
Also included in the rig are seven COLORdash Batten-Quad 12 uplights for the upstage wall washes and 10 Rogue R2X Wash units, eight of which are flown over the stage in a grid, while two are hung on the front bar. A Net-x II node is also used at the church to control inputs.
“The church had an eye toward the future when they talked to us about plans for the lighting system,” said David McCauley, Principal of the CSD Group. “They understand how important broadcasts and streaming have become, so they wanted to get more into colour on stage here than they are at their two other campuses.
“None of us could have planned for COVID-19,” said McCauley. “The team at the church, as well as the construction team of architects and builders really came together and kept the project moving safely forward. As with most projects there is give and take - and as always budget makes you rethink everything to make ensure that you can achieve the overall vision in a practical way.”
