CHICAGO – Chicago Tabernacle set out to remodel its main sanctuary with new lighting and a video system. However, the challenge was adding infrastructure to anchor all the new gear. CCI Solutions designed and installed the system, selecting medium-duty box truss supplied by Dura Truss from Global Truss America. The ceiling was painted a dark color and black truss was used to make the rigging disappear from view.
More details from Global Truss America (http://www.globaltrussamerica.com):
CHICAGO – When a house of worship wants to upgrade its lighting and video systems, it’s not enough simply to buy state-of-the-art fixtures, screens and projectors — the church must also make sure it has the necessary infrastructure in place to support the new gear. Chicago Tabernacle faced this challenge recently when it set out to remodel its 300-seat main sanctuary.
The congregation uses its auditorium for different purposes, so its new lighting setup had to provide the versatility to handle a wide range of lighting needs.
“The church had a lot of ideas,” said Duke DeJong, church relations director for CCI Solutions (Olympia, WA), which designed and installed the new lighting/video system. “They wanted to go low-power – meaning LED – for their house lighting, LED stage lights, lots of color for the stage and plenty of effects lighting for their productions.”
While the church’s lighting needs for its Sunday services are basic, other special events had higher demands. Yet the church had “almost nowhere to hang all the new house lights, stage lights and projectors they wanted,” said DeJong. Also, church officials wanted the rigging structure to be discreet and unobtrusive.
CCI met these requirements by creating a nearly 50 ft long and 30.5 ft wide ceiling-mounted infrastructure out of medium-duty box truss supplied by Dura Truss from Global Truss America. Before deciding to build the overhead truss structure, “we looked at a number of options,” said DeJong, “but there was limited placement of rigging support so we knew whatever we used would have to work over long distances with minimal rigging points.” The church officials also liked the way it looked.
To make the truss “disappear,” the ceiling was painted a dark color and black truss as chosen. Although it extends nearly the length of the room, the grid-like Dura Truss structure is subtle and inconspicuous, yet it provides an ample number of flexible mounting positions for house lights, stage lights, special effects and video projectors.
DeJong turned to Dura Truss because he was familiar with the brand. “I have worked with the company for years and found their products to be highly functional and reliable. When the project looked like it was going to call for medium duty truss, Dura Truss was the first truss we looked at.” While lightweight and affordable, the company’s products are also strong and rugged, having earned TÜV certification, thereby assuring their safety and high standard of quality.
The truss structure is anchored by two nearly 50 ft. parallel truss segments that run almost the length of the room from the stage on back. Each of these segments consists of three 5-meter truss pieces. “Basically each of the room’s two seating sections is split in two by a long, overhanging segment of truss,” explained DeJong. “Not only did these two truss segments provide rigging points from down stage to back of house, but because of their positioning they additionally provided ideal rigging locations for the LED house lights.”
Running perpendicular to the two length-wise truss sections are three 30 ft cross sections of truss to provide down stage lighting positions, mid-house lighting and projector positions, and back of house lighting positions. They hold weight loads of 650 lbs., 800 lbs., and 289 lbs. respectively, easily supporting the church’s lighting/video gear.
While Dura Truss box trussing provided the answer to Chicago Tabernacle’s rigging needs, lighting from the truss supplier’s sister company Elation Professional was key in helping the church meet its lighting needs. A primary lighting fixture chosen was Elation’s Platinum Spot 5R Pro, a hybrid spot/wash moving head that uses the Philips MSD Platinum 5R lamp. Compact and energy efficient, the Platinum Spot 5R Pro includes a CMY color mixing system, variable 11°-42° zoom, 8 dichroic colors, 22 gobos, 3-facet rotating prism, motorized iris, variable frost filter (for hybrid wash effect), dimming, strobe and more.
“The Elation Platinum Spot 5R Pro has a fantastic combination of features at a great price,” said DeJong. “As a lighting designer my top features are color mixing, zoom and having plenty of gobos available. The Platinum Spot 5R Pro has those key features plus all of the other standard features at a price that’s hard to beat. Add to that the fact that it’s a quiet fixture and power efficient, and you can’t lose.”
For more details on Elation Professional, visit www.elationlighting.com
For more details on CCI Solutions, visit www.ccisolutions.com
