NAPLES, FL – In addition to conducting a traditional service, the First Baptist Church of Lehigh Acres Florida holds a contemporary service, hosts live concerts and does video production – all in its 9,000 square foot, 650-seat main sanctuary. So when First Baptist Lehigh set out to revamp its lighting, the church wanted a versatile system that could illuminate the many different types of activities that took place in the room. But as with many churches, budget was also a big concern.
Russell Byas of Creative Lighting Solutions, LLC credited products from Elation Professional, Acclaim Lighting and American DJ for assisting with two goals: to transform the church visually, and to meet the church's budget.
"The entire lighting and A/V system had been removed, so we had to start from scratch," said Byas. "The old system was based off traditional dimmers and old par cans and ellipsoidals. With Elation, we were able to provide more high quality fixtures for the same budget."
The new gear included eight Elation Opti Tri Par tri-color RGB LED par cans, 10 Elation Opti Par W ETL white low profile PAR cans, three Elation Design Spot 250 hybrid spot/wash 250-watt moving heads, six American DJ Mega Bar Pro color-changing LED wash bars and eight American DJ Pro Par 56CWWW warm/cool white LED par cans with variable white temperature control.
"Energy-efficient LED technology was a big consideration," said Byas, with the long life of LEDs another plus. "Many churches don't take into consideration the cost and amount of work that goes into changing bulbs," he noted.
In addition, with a new high-definition AV system and 22-foot video screen over the stage, flicker-free LED lighting gave the advantage of "providing sufficient output and an even field of light for shadow-free video production."
The Mega Bar Pro LED bars are used to wash the back wall of the 20-by-80-foot stage to "create layers and give the stage depth," added Byas. "They can also produce patterns and movement if needed," and the Design Spot 250s were chosen in part for versatility – in addition to the range of colors, gobos and other effects, they can function either as a spot or wash with their Variable Frost feature.
First Baptist Lehigh's front of house lighting pairs traditional Opti Par W ETL par cans with the newer LED technology provided by the RGB-mixing Opti Tri Pars and variable white temperature Pro Par 56CWWWs, allowing for "almost any color, temperature and wash for the whole stage and the areas in front of it," Byas said.
Elation's Compu 1024 PC-based software is used to control the system, along with an Elation RMD-1220 dimmer and two Acclaim AL Control wall-mount single-channel DMX controllers for operating the house lights. With a volunteer staff handling the church's lighting and production, the Compu software makes it easy to perform programming for both the moving heads and LED lighting, Byas noted.
For more information, please visit www.elationlighting.com.
