The dynamic church's forward-looking sound and lighting systems are in keeping with the history of New Stanton. Tucked away in southwestern Pennsylvania, this picturesque community of 2000 has seen its share of trend-setting developments. Over 200 years ago it was the site of some of America's earliest commercial grain mills. In 1978, when Volkswagen opened a facility outside of town, it became home of the first mass production foreign automobile plant in the US. Today companies making a variety of high-tech products like energy storing sodium batteries have set up shop in New Stanton.
The church's vision team interviewed three candidates before selecting Good Sounds. "There was an excellent connection between the vision team and our team on the way to go forward once they saw our design for the new sanctuary," said Dwight Brown, owner of Good Sounds. "We not only wanted to give the church a very advanced lighting solution, we were also committed to making sure that our system reflected its needs. New Stanton UMC conducts a contemporary service with a large praise and worship team, so we felt that theatrical lighting would help with the overall presentation."
Brown installed an extensive collection of Chauvet Professional LED fixtures to achieve this goal while still holding down costs and energy consumption. His system includes six COLORdash Par-Quad 18 par-style fixtures, four Rogue R2 Washes and four COLORado Batten 72 Tours. The coverage area of these fixtures, combined with their affordable prices, was critical to keeping this project within a reasonable budget.
"We placed all of the Par-Quads and all of the Rogues on a rigging pipe, flown from the ceiling about three quarters of the way back in the house," said Brown. "The primary reason for this was due to a main support beam that could handle the load of the light rig.
"This arrangement also presented a good position relative to the stage that allowed nice, even coverage across the area. The Batten 72 Tours were put on the upstage floor, where they're used to uplight a beautiful cherry wood accent feature that includes backlit stained glass. They were extremely easy to set up and control."
In addition to the lighting fixtures, Brown and his team installed a PTZOptics remote controlled HD camera, with plans to add two more units. "Video recording is not a priority at the moment because of all the tech investment in audio and lighting, but it's in the future for this church and it was a factor in our design," said Brown. "The church vision team was planning ahead as we did this design."
(Jim Evans)
