Alabama church upgrades ADJ lighting and video
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This included a large video wall, constructed from ADJ AV6X LED panels, along with a comprehensive lighting setup of LED-powered fixtures from ADJ as well as sister company Elation Professional.
Founded by Bishop Patrick M. Schatzline and Lady Deborah Schatzline, with a congregation of just 50 people, today Daystar Family Church in Tuscaloosa, AL, has a congregation of over 1,300. Now pastored by Patrick and Deborah’s son Scott and his wife Kristi, it is multi-cultural, multi-generational, non-denominational church with praise and worship that is energetic and passionate. However, this had begun to be hindered by a lighting system that was outdated and costly. For this reason, Nick Campfield of Narrow Road Pro was brought in to advise on a possible solution.
“Coming from both the professional world and the church world puts me in a unique position to take professional practices and bring them into the church,” states Nick. “I started the company primarily to help churches be good stewards of God’s money, to help them work out what they need and then put in the right tools for the job. That’s my passion and our company definitely values serving the church over making money.
At the heart of Daystar’s new video system is a 19’ wide video wall that provides the centrepiece of the church’s current stage set. It is constructed from ADJ’s popular AV6X LED video panels that offer a 6.0mm (0.25”) pixel pitch and a brightness of 1200NITS. The full screen gives the church over 360,000 LED pixels which they use to display song words, video content and ambient graphics.
“I had used the AV6X in the past on a couple of other installs and really like the way it looks as well as its price point and performance,” enthuses Nick. “I also like the design of the panel – the way it is rigid all the way around – so I knew it would be a good fit for this project. The installation went very well, everything worked great right out of the box with no issues. The volunteer team also picked up on it very quickly, it was easy to teach them how to assemble the wall.”
The flexibility and ease of use of the panels is particularly important, as this won’t be a static installation. The church plans to have a major set change twice each year, which will involve moving around the LED panels. As the team was new to LED video, Nick chose to start them off with a simple rectangular screen, but expects them to get more creative with the deployment of the panels in the future.
In addition to supplying and installing the LED video wall, Nick and his team also put in a full new lighting package that relies fully on LED sources. The signature moving head of the new rig is ADJ’s Vizi BSW 300 hybrid fixture, which is powered by a 300W LED engine and offers an extensive collection of beam-shaping features. For Daystar’s current set, four of the fixtures are mounted on the truss above the LED wall, while two additional units hang lower down at the sides and a final pair sit directly on the stage. This means that the fixtures surround the screen and frame the central area of the stage.
The hybrid moving heads are complemented by a variety of different LED wash fixtures. Six Elation Professional SIXPAR 300 units alternate with the Vizi BSW 300s on the rear truss above the LED wall and a further nine of these fixtures wash the stage from a front truss, while eight of ADJ’s 12PX HEX fixtures are mounted to a second truss in the middle of the stage.
In addition, six of ADJ’s Ultra Hex Bar 6 LED battens are positioned on the floor at the back of the stage, projecting upwards at a 45-degree angle to create a ‘wall of light’ behind the pastor when he preaches. Three of the larger Ultra Hex Bar 12 LED battens are then used to light up set design pieces positioned under the video wall. Finally, the church has also invested in eight of ADJ’s 280W Vizi Q Wash7 RGBW LED moving head wash fixtures.
