Worship Facility Opens with Versatile Lighting, Video System
After 10 years of fundraising, design, and construction, Bonita Valley Community Church (BVCC) opened the doors to its new home of worship July 2014. Building dedication ceremonies took place just last month, on the one-year anniversary of the opening.
Situated in Bonita, CA, on the land the previous church had occupied since its founding in 1950, the new 26,000 square foot facility houses a 13,000 square foot worship space, theater-style seating for 1,400,and a 3,000 square foot performance platform along with such accouterments as dressing rooms, a rehearsal center and state-of-the-art AV center. The church is enhanced by lighting and video systems containing LED fixtures and lighting control, Dicolor video screens and RGBLink video processors. All these products were either manufactured or distributed by Mega Systems, Inc. “It just blows away our members,” states BVCC’s technology director, Richie VanBuren.
A decade may seem like a long time to wait for a church project to reach fruition, but the BVCC congregation could have easily been required to wait even longer. BVCC Senior Pastor Jeff Brawner noted that, partly due to the recession, “we saw a substantial gap in our overall building and AV fund drive when the first proposals were turned in from our list of bidders.”
Enter a Much Needed Partner
Although the shortfall could have easily kept the project at a standstill, BVCC then got a proposal from ministry design and construction specialist Building God’s Way (BGW) that perfectly matched what the church could afford to pay. It “closed the gap completely,” Pastor Brawner confirmed.
BGW, founded by Daniel Cook in 1998, has since worked with more than 600 ministries nationwide. For the BVCC facility, BGW teamed up with Escondido, CA-based Erickson-Hall Construction, the build partner for all BGW projects in Southern California.
While staying within the bounds of BVCC’s overall budget, BGW director of technology Jim Martin and BVCC worship director Gabe Terrado came up with ideas that could give the worship space anything from a theatrical to a rock ‘n’ roll vibe, with the emphasis on multiple uses and versatility.
“From worship services to events, there were a lot of different things we wanted to do with the space,” says Terrado, adding, “The design needed to be as flexible as possible.”
Broad Brush Strokes
The grid for BVCC’s lighting rig is made of 20-inch box truss flown on 16 chain hoists lets the lighting system trim at different heights above the stage. The lower trim height (16 feet) provides an intimate theatrical setting. The truss, supplied by Applied Electronics, contains custom curved pieces to enable the structure to mirror the stage.
For the lighting rig, BGW turned to Mega Systems, Inc., one of its preferred lighting vendors, to fulfill the design specs. “It’s convenient that Mega Systems is located in Texas, near our BGW Tech office, but their inventory is what really satisfies the needs for our projects,” BGW’s Martin says. “We have used them often in the past, always with success,” he adds. “The fact that they are a family owned company really shows through too in the business ethic they exhibit and their good attitude.”
A Versatile Lighting Rig
The lighting rig is comprised of Mega-Lite LED par, ellipsoidal and moving heads. The first fixtures on the BVCC shopping list were 80 Baby Color Q-70 fixtures, each equipped with seven 10W RGBW LEDs. Martin deployed these as truss toners, noting how the square-body fixtures — less than five inches in size — easily fit into the truss system while providing “outstanding” output. Their affordability, Martin adds, was a significant bonus, especially when you consider “the number of fixtures needed to light up the entire truss system.”
At high trim, the rock ‘n’ roll effect takes over. BVCC’s VanBuren created a drop down pipe system to hang from the upstage truss, forming a “wall of light,” as he calls it. “I placed the 40 Evricolor Tri-RGB’s on the pipe grid and interspersed 20 Axis 7D5 moving heads among them,” he says. Fitted with a 15° lens, the fixture can saturate the stage in a solid or rainbow wash. The Axis 7D5 contains an eight-color wheel with open white and seven gobos. This automated LED fixture has motorized focus, dimming and strobe. Dial in the three facet-rotating prisms within its head, and a seemingly endless palette of color and texture is available.
“I design for addition rather than distraction,” VanBuren explains. “To achieve this, I always seek what is appropriate for the song or the moment. I want to enhance the mood, rather than create what I call the ‘Club Jesus’ effect. There is some movement and color change, but it is usually subtle. We try to keep things balanced to reflect the older well known hymns and the contemporary songs.” This seems to be working out, VanBuren says, noting positive feedback from the church’s senior members.
Pastor Brawner has a podium on stage, but he has a very active and dynamic speaking style, using a wide range of movement to engage the audience. To eliminate shadowy areas, Martin chose the Drama LED W fixture with 19° lenses to hang on the front of house truss. They provide the main front lighting for the stage wash. An additional four 20-foot upright towers on bases deployed in various positions enhance design elements. These can be broken down further to become eight 10-foot sticks.
Mega-Lite’s Enlighten One console controls the rig, providing DMX signal through four universes. VanBuren programs the shows, and church volunteers operate the playback. “Having a system that is truly volunteer friendly, yet powerful enough to achieve the looks we have in mind has been a huge benefit,” says VanBuren, who mixes sound while the volunteers take over the lighting controls. (BGW’s Martin, like VanBuren, also has extensive sound mixing experience).
Dynamic Video
Video plays a prominent part in the services as well. Three 16-by-9-foot Dicolor video walls are set on the upstage wall center, left, and right. Comprised of 21-by-21-inch square SMD panels, the U6BH LED display panels have the high contrast, refresh, and resolution needed for a perfect fit in the sanctuary. With 6400 pixels per display panel the pitch is 6.4mm. “We use the two outside screens for I-Mag,” says VanBuren, “and on the third screen, we can pull up song lyrics, words from the message Pastor is speaking about, or any printed word we need.”
“The Dicolor LED Display panels had all the feature sets we were looking for to make an impact in the space,” adds BVCC worship director Terrado. “Most importantly, we knew it was a reliable product and ?t well within our budget.” RGBLink processors, also distributed by Mega-Systems Inc., integrate with existing switchers to control the video content.
Above and Beyond
After crediting the Mega Systems-supplied gear for versatility and reliability as well as affordability, BGW’s Martin also expressed his gratitude for the company’s service and support. “We are very thankful — they go above and beyond,” he says. “The new video and lighting system is a huge upgrade from what the church started with,” he adds. “Now that those elements are in place, the word is delivered on a completely new level.”
VanBuren agrees. “The Mega-systems people were great to work with before, during, and after the installation. They answered all our questions and concerns. Afterward, Rich Anders and his crew were quick to follow up on any issues we ran across, which have been minor. In fact, he just recently paid a personal visit to check on things in general. They really are a good company.”
Like most churches, BVCC puts on seasonal plays, youth oriented pageants and events, along with weekend concerts. Some notable acts have appeared at the church such as the Katina’s, who are four brothers who have sung together since childhood and are a well-known worldwide Christian group. Likewise, singer/songwriter Phil Wickham, who won BMI’s Christian Music Song of the Year Award, has performed as well.
“Ultimately, our goal is to bring the message of Jesus Christ,” says Terrado. “Our new system is helping us to do that, in a new way that wasn’t possible before. And it’s making a huge impact on the congregation’s worship experience, whose response has been outstanding.”
Related links: www.bonitavalley.com; www.bgwservices.com; www.megasystemsinc.com, www.mega-lite.com.
For a video of the BVCC lighting system in action, go to www.plsn.me/BVCC-demo.
Gear List
1 Enlighten ONE lighting console
40 Mega-Lite Evricolor Tri-RGB fixtures
20 Mega-Lite Axis 7D5 fixtures
16 Mega-Lite Drama Spot fixtures
80 Mega-Lite Baby Color Q-70s
3 U6BH 16×9 LED display screens
1 RGBLink video processor
1 Custom truss system w/truss control designed by Applied Electronics
16 CM Lodestar Motors
