"This is a very contemporary and dynamic house of worship," said Doug Hood, president of Custom Sound Designs (Fort Wayne, IN), which designed and installed the church's all-Chauvet lighting rig. "There's a lot happening on the stage at this church, such as line array speakers, environmental projection, and video projection - so we had to work the lighting plan around this activity level. Moving heads work great in this type of church because of the dynamic visual element they bring to services. We needed a cost-effective moving light that was still a "real" mover. The Rogue fit the bill perfectly."
According to Hood, the key to integrating moving fixtures successfully into a house of worship design is to understand the character of the church. "You have to know your church, its style of worship and its congregation, then take all of that into consideration when programming. Can moving lights be a distraction? YES! Can they be used as an effective tool to create an environment for worship? YES! It all hinges on the person creating the vision for the visual worship space. You must know your congregation and you must plan visuals that are appropriate to speak to that congregation."
As important as the Rogue moving heads are, however, the foundation of Hood's design is the warm white light from 16 Ovation fixtures. "We love the Ovation fixtures for key light; they give us an excellent natural white light at a great price point, and the motorized zoom on the Fresnel version is an added plus," he said. "We started our design with them, and since that was our foundation it made sense to supplement the warm white light from the Ovations with other Chauvet fixtures for colour and movement."
Hood used six Ovation F-165WW Fresnel's for warm wash lighting and 10 Ovation E-190WW ellipsoidal fixtures for beam lighting. His design also included six COLORdash Accent compact washes, which he positioned in some of the church's tight spaces, and six Legend 412 beams to coordinate with the Rogue R1 Spot fixtures, as well as two Chauvet DJ products: SlimPAR Pro Tri LED wash lights and COLORband PIX RGB linear fixtures.
"The fixtures work well together to give the church a complete lighting package," said Hood. "For example, the new Ovations give the church great key lighting; plus we work the Ovations with the RGB lighting to create some very attractive back lighting for video services. Ideas about what church lighting should do have come a long way. Churches want it to do more today, and with the right design and products we're able to meet these expectations."
(Jim Evans)
