On the road to a conventional lighting update, you could say Mark Sepulveda took an “intelligent” detour. Sepulveda, who is global technical director for the six campuses of the Houston-based, 40,000-member Second Baptist Church, had a big task ahead of him in re-lighting the main sanctuary at the Woodway Campus. The system had originally been installed in the 1970s and updated in the mid-1980s, but with the increasing demand for video production and new high-definition cameras coming into the picture, the lighting needed to be updated.
“We started off by hiring Richard Cadena, who was basically the lead designer of the project,” Sepulveda explains. “We commissioned him to design a conventional lighting system, and then as kind of an addendum, we also wanted to put together a basic plot for a television lighting system.”
Then Christmas came (perhaps in more ways than one).
For the many special events the church produces, as they have for many years, Sepulveda and his team started the annual tradition of renting a lot of extra lighting and support, particularly automated lighting. He paused, realized that he was about to throw a bunch of money at a temporary solution and started wondering aloud if this was not a good time to consider changing plans. It turns out that it was.
“The goal was to add intelligent lighting to be used for some of the more contemporary services, so the services could look on par with how they sounded,” he says. “We didn’t have a single intelligent fixture in the room.” No one in the organization had ever opposed the idea of buying automated lighting in the past. The money was always slated for other things that were higher on the priority list. But now the budget had some room.
“Intelligent lighting is becoming almost an economic choice because you have to think about more than just the individual price of the fixture,” Sepulveda says. The cost to operate the light, the amount of energy used, dimming, electrical installation and HVAC requirements, all add up. (See “By The Numbers,” below.) “Take into account the cost over a five year period and it’s significant.”
At this point, the Second Baptist team turned to Nashville-based Maxx Technology, with whom they had worked in the past.
“We’ve been a provider for them for a while” says Neal Watson, president of Maxx Technology. “We were brought in to be the integrator originally, and when they changed course a bit we got more involved in the project.”
For the first phase of the project, Watson says the system consists entirely of automated lighting and a new controller, specifically, an MA Lighting grandMA and 30 moving lights. “The layout and approach was put together based on a lot of conversations about what they needed and what they were trying to achieve,” Watson explains. “We had to figure out what instruments were needed in the long term. We worked with Mark Sepulveda and Tim Honea, the lighting director, to determine the best use of the dollars available.”
Robe ended up getting the call with 24 ColorSpot 700E ATs and six ColorWash 700E ATs. “We looked at Martin and Robe in large part because both offered products that had the functions we wanted,” he says. Watson says they often work with Robe and the company has a long relationship with them. Both products were deemed to be of excellent quality , and so it came down to cost. Also, the clients just preferred the look and feel of the Robe for the church’s needs.
The biggest challenge to the team was rigging these relatively large lights (compared to conventionals) and at the same time preserving the architectural splendor of church. The building was constructed in the early 1970s and installing modern automated lighting and rigging among the stately columns and 60-foot domed stained glass ceiling might have spelled architectural disaster. But a relatively simple modification to the ceiling was enough to get the job done. The octagonal sanctuary has a massive catwalk above the ceiling and rows of ports in three concentric octagons allow the platform lighting to be rigged above the ceiling from the catwalk and still focus on the platform below. But the lights didn’t quite fit in the ports.
“We needed more space in the ceiling ports for the intelligent lights,” says Watson. “So we took out every other divider in the upper row and the upstage row. The congregation didn’t even notice or make comments because of how small a change it was.”
Ultimately this was a retrofit, and the team had to be sensitive to that. In addition to minimizing the cosmetic changes in the sanctuary, costs had to be minimized too, especially since this was phase one and another was anticipated soon afterwards. The electrical power distribution system had to be redesigned, and they had to find ways to pull from existing power as much as possible. Despite these and other challenges, Watson reports that the project went down according to schedule.
“It’s a beautiful room,” Watson says. “We all just tried to accent the church as it was, particularly the arches. A lot of the design was put together with Tim and Mark, who did a great job in finding ways to utilize the lights.”
Along with the addition of automated lighting, the upgrade included a replacement for the conventional lights that backlit the stained glass windows. There are two very large windows, approximately 50 feet high and 40 feet wide, only one of which is open to the outside. The other was lit from the rear by rows upon rows of 1000-watt cyc lights. The lights did an excellent job of lighting the window, but they were terribly inefficient, gobbling electricity and producing lots of heat that had to be removed by the HVAC system.
“We went through 12 different designs before we settled on one,” Sepulveda says. There were trial runs of alternative sources including T5 fluorescent fixtures and a variety of LEDs. The fluorescents might have worked except they can only dim to 10 percent or 1 percent, depending on which ballast is used. The challenge with the LEDs was finding a bright enough source without exceeding the budget.
The cyc lights were designed to project away from the stained glass and bounce off of a white wall in order to create a very uniform backlight. But the LEDs, lacking the horsepower of a 1000-watt cyc light, didn’t have enough punch to do that. So they were focused directly into the stained glass.
“We get this full, rich result from it,” says a very pleased Sepulveda. In addition to backlighting the windows, they now have the ability to enhance and change the colors as well.
“The intention was to add intense color to the stain glass window,” Watson added. “So by using the LEDs it provided more options, less heat, and used less energy … yet the intensity these Chauvet lights provided really came through the glass, giving them the ability to bring out the blues and reds.”
They ended up with about 80 LED fixtures, and Sepulveda says that they want to put in more in the future.
Meanwhile, in the choir loft there was a huge amount of space that is rarely used. Sepulveda came up with the idea of stretching fabric over it and using it as a projection surface for lighting and (eventually) video. The fabric takes light very well and provides the opportunity to project color and gobos, and it’s used to great effect in a variety of settings.
“Now everyone is very excited about the new look we have,” Sepulveda says. “We really didn’t have anywhere to shine the lights that would give us any kind of structure. I’m not a huge fan of over-the-top gobos and things like that, so I wanted a very elegant look. Basically, I didn’t want it to look like a circus.” He’s pleased with the automated lighting now, but it took some effort to work it all out. “That was very challenging, getting the lighting how we wanted it to be,” he sighed. “That took time and was tedious. But it looks great now and works tremendously well.”
Watson added: “It’s another canvas for these very creative people to have and to use.”
The team eased gently into using the lights in the church, and for the first service they just “tip-toed” into it, Watson says. They had finished the bulk of the install in a mere five days, but there wasn’t any time to do extensive programming for that first Sunday. Once the job was finished and the lights were fired up for the first time, there were few surprises for Watson. Because of the modeling, the investigation, and time spent in development, it was pretty much exactly what he and the others were expecting, he says.
Once the creative team found its footing in the services following, they had to do a lot of listening. Sepulveda points out that like many similar-sized organizations, Second Baptist is made up of many leaders with different opinions. “We have a paradigm here and were trying to meet collective needs and not force people into things,” he explains. “We’re always learning what the congregation and elders want, but we’re not going an “a la carte” route for every person, of course.
“With all that in mind, we have a very conservative approach to the 9:30 a.m. service and there we use what we have in very subtle ways. Then there’s the 11:11 a.m. service, and for that it’s very different. It has a rock band and it’s almost an all-out rock show. Still, I like it to be tasteful and classic.”
Today, the congregation is reportedly very pleased with the results.
“I think it’s enhanced the worship experience,” Sepulveda says. Today’s worshipers are used to technology enhancing their secular experiences. Most importantly, of course, is not making the lighting and media the show. “We’re not doing the things that Hollywood is doing, and I think that’s the right way to go. But we’re trying to make lighting a non-factor.
“You don’t leave a Sting concert and say, ‘that was the greatest lighting show ever.’ You say, ‘That was a great show.’ These new elements we’ve brought in are a contributing factor and a good investment for the church. This is where lighting is going anyway.”
Sepulveda keeps it all in perspective, though: “Whatever we do for any service or event, needs to accent and augment the worship service. I think a lot of churches take the lighting too seriously. Ultimately, God is the draw.”
BY THE NUMBERS:
Stained glass window before LEDs:
102 1000-watt cyc lights
102,000 number of watts used to power lights
106,080 number of kilowatt-hours to keep lights on 20 hours per week, 52 weeks per year
348,038 number of BTUs generated by lights
$3,569 estimated cost to run HVAC to remove heat generated by lights annually
(assuming a S.E.E.R. of 10)
$10,460 estimated cost to run lights annually (not including lamp changes)
Stained glass window after LEDs:
80 324-watt LED fixtures
25,920 number of watts used to power LEDs
26,957 number of kilowatt-hours to keep LEDs on 20 hours per week, 52 weeks per year
88,443 number of BTUs generated by LEDs
$907 estimated cost to run HVAC to remove heat generated by LEDs annually (assuming a S.E.E.R. of 10)
$2,658 estimated cost to run LEDs annually
Savings provided by LEDs:
$2,662 estimated savings in HVAC operation
$7,802 estimated savings in cost of electricity
$10,464 estimated total savings in operation cost
119 tons amount of coal saved annually
218 tons amount of CO2 saved annually
