In 2013, in an on-going effort to reach out to more people and at different levels, Ward began to offer four different worship styles in three different venues, all on the same campus. When a contemporary service was launched, Bryan Guelzo was brought in as part of a full A/V renovation.
"When the current building was built about 15 years ago, no one had dreamed that Ward would be holding a contemporary service, let alone shoot HD video, Imag and stream services online," stated Bryan, who has worked as Ward's full-time AVL engineer since July of 2014, working alongside Austin Germain (director of production for worship), Billy Petty (director of worship) and Gerry Kropf (broadcast coordinator).
"The Sanctuary was built for traditional services. Audio and video systems were adequate for the needs Ward had at the time but stage lighting was virtually non-existent."
"I have some experience with lighting, but it certainly wasn't my forte so I called Elation," continues Bryan, who asked who in the area would be good to partner with for design work, products, support and especially training. "Elation put me in touch with integrator Fantasee Lighting in Belleville, Michigan . Fantasee came in and took a look at our existing equipment, learned a lot about what we do here and our unique circumstances."
In late October, Fantasee installed 12 Platinum Spot LED Pro II color and pattern lights and 12 Rayzor Q12 Zoom compact LED wash luminaires, as well as a new lighting console, control software, hazers and wireless DMX. All of the lighting fixtures are located on three overhead beams in the main Sanctuary.
To finish off the project, Fantasee also refurbished and re-focused all of the Church's existing conventional fixtures to be used as stage wash, leaving the new movers to be used for effect lighting.
(Jim Evans)
