PHILADELPHIA — With its four services, Calvary Chapel attracts close to 10,000 people each week, bringing together a diverse group of people. “We have little old ladies raising their hands next to bikers,” said Matt Friedman, audio/video director, “and ex-druggies worshiping next to businessmen in suits. Sometimes it reminds me of the cantina scene from the first Star Wars movie.”
Church officials had been relying upon a hodgepodge of lighting gear in their sanctuary, but a recent opportunity led them to undergo a long-needed overhaul — with a new lighting system dominated by fixtures and control from ETC.
“Joel Rosenberg released his documentary film Inside the Revolution at our venue this Sept. 11,” Friedman said. “We had a television media crew on site, as well as a live Webcast to 600 churches worldwide. It was high time to rip out our Home Depot track lighting and PAR 64s and make a clean start.”
Grant Gatlin, owner of Illumination Concepts LLC was selected for the design of this new system. “They needed exceptional video-quality lighting,” Gatlin said, “with bullet-proof one-touch system-wide control and a lighting console that handles theatrical fixtures, movers and LEDs.”
To meet these requirements, Gatlin turned to ETC. Source Four ellipsoidals and PARNels to handle Calvary’s basic stage plot, and two 21-inch ETC Selador Series Vivid LED fixtures are used as backdrop color wash.
Two 11-inch Vivids are on mobile stands to add special looks to the stage. Meanwhile, ETC’s Paradigm system provides architectural lighting control, with button-station panels at doorways and a touchscreen unit at front-of-house (FOH).
For the production-lighting control during services and events, Gatlin chose ETC’s latest console — the Element — with dual 19-inch touchscreens.
“Paradigm is powerful and simple to operate,” Gatlin said. “Selador Vivid LEDs provide vibrant colors and intense output. Element combines power and value.”
One of the challenges the venue presented was a large skylight over the platform, with mirrors placed to spread daylight across the stage.
“This gave the stage massive and unpredictable amounts of daylight,” Gatlin said, “but the cameras hated it. However, the mirrors gave the back wall some great looks as the sunlight would shatter and throw beams of light down the rock wall backdrop.
“My solution was to black out the skylight and install the two 21-inch Vivid LED fixtures and two Source Fours with shattered-ray breakups,” Gatlin said. “Now we can mimic every color in the spectrum on the upstage wall, and with the Source Fours we can simulate the sun’s rays — under our control.”
“The Source Four ellipsoidals and PARNels have revolutionized my thinking of stage lighting,” said Friedman. “What used to take numerous inefficient fixtures can now be lit with four 575-watt PARNels. The Element console was easy to jump into even though I had no previous experience with ETC’s console style. The ETC Selador Vivids were the biggest surprise of the install — they could instantly fill large areas with any color.”
For more information, please visit www.etcconnect.com.
