Advances in LED Technology Create New Opportunities to Engage Worshippers
Churches have long recognized that lighting can help engage their congregations in a number of different ways, from reflecting the varying moods of services to creating a more visually appealing presentation on stage. Adding new dynamic visual elements to their services will also help churches attract and keep the attention of younger people.
Because of the advancements of LED technology, churches have overcome four barriers that have limited their opportunities to take advantage of lighting’s engagement benefits in the past. First there was the issue of cost. The new generation of LED fixtures are much more affordable. Plus, since they are LEDs, they continue to save money with lower operational costs.
Because LED fixtures consume less energy and produce less heat, they create ongoing savings. Also, since there are no lamp replacements, there is less service needed on the fixtures themselves. And since LED fixtures are typically lighter weight than their conventional counterparts, they are easier to install. Not only are they simpler to set up, they’re also more compact and can fit in tight places.
A third advantage is the fact that they are easy to use. They have been designed with the user in mind so that volunteers can be easily trained on the new fixtures. Finally, the new generations of LED products are more versatile than their conventional counterparts so they can often be used for multi-purposes in churches
Video Panels as Virtual Scenery
Video walls have become a major part of the house of worship market. Having the ability to provide a way to not only show live video and graphic messages to the congregation, but also having the ability to cut through the ambient light that is often part of a church service, the Chauvet Professional VIP video product series has been providing video walls to churches all over the country for several years. For example, the Hope Lutheran Church in Fargo, NC installed a 16’x10’ video wall made up of 60 units of Chauvet Professional PVPS5 video panels. This wall was hung over the altar, to replace a video projector system that was yielding disappointing results. After viewing content the first time, the staff of the church knew it was the right product. The PVP S5 exceeded the client’s expectations.
City Church in New Orleans is another example of a video wall installation that has served to liven up the service. Replacing the previous backdrop on City Church’s main stage that consisted of some blinders and up-lights, the 6 by 30 foot (HxW) Chauvet Professional PVP S7 is used to show videos, text and images during services along with dynamic chase scenes and graphics during a variety of other events. By making the change to the video wall, the staff is easily able to make quick changes to graphics and messages that they could not do before.
Multi-Purpose Moving Heads
LED moving head fixtures have also become a big part of the service experience for many houses of worship. This is mainly due to the fact that these dynamic lighting instruments are more readily available than ever before. Because they have the ability to either be used as static spot or wash lights or as effects fixtures, they can be used to replace conventional fixtures and increase the quality of the congregation’s worship experiences. Combine all of this with the fact that LEDs fixtures do not require re-lamping every few thousand hours, these low-maintenance moving head spots and washes have become a mainstay in the house of worship market.
At the River of Life Church in Elk River MN, Chauvet Professional’s Rogue R2 Spot fixtures are typically used as fixed position spotlights with color, dimming, and position; at other services they serve as traditional movers with gobos and movement. They use gobos from the Rogue R2 Spot as breakup patterns on floors and walls. The goal was to provide more even illumination, color wash, and energy, while providing maximum value per dollar. The church also needed extreme flexibility, meaning they can put any light fixture anywhere over the congregation or stage, to highlight each sermon series. With the four R2 spots, they can put color and gobos on any surface in the room or on stage.
New Faith Church in Houston is also using moving LED lights to preform multi-task functions. In their application, the Rogue R2 Spot is used to light the front of the stage for the Invocation, the Lord’s Supper and the induction of new members. Then it’s also used to spotlight the choir and band with a little extra punch. At the same time, it’s counted on to add texture to events and services with various gobos. In addition to all of this, it provides moving eye candy for the church’s many concert and theatrical productions. The four Rogue R1 Washes also multi-task at New Faith Church. The design calls for these fixtures to be used to wash the stage and choir, as well as spot the baptismal and band.
Static LED Spots and Washes Fill the Spaces
Because of the flexibility of static LED spots and washes, the house of worship market has found that they can create amazingly beautiful wall washes and spotlight their speakers with LED fixtures that consume much less power and create much less heat than their older halogen counterparts. At the Baptist Temple of McAllen, Texas, they are using 16 LED powered Ovation E-190WW Ellipsoidal and six Ovation F-165WW Fresnels as the foundation of their design for shooting video of their events. The E-190WW fixtures are used as keylight and the F-165WW are used for fill for videotaping services. The Ovation fixtures were chosen for their consistent and even warm white output, reliability and low power consumption.
At the Milwood Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, they have used some selections from the COLORado series to renovate their 29-year old building. By using just eight of the COLORado 2 Quad Zoom VW Tours and 12 COLORado 1 Tri-Tours, they were able to achieve their goal of giving their facility a contemporary look without breaking the bank. Since they were looking for something that was going to create excellent colors and be easy to control, the COLORado fixtures were a perfect choice. The COLORado 2 Quad Zoom VW Tours were used for stage washes, while the COLORado 1 Tri-Tours were used for creating effects and color washes throughout the rest of the space to create a mode that reflects different parts of the service.
LED Transformation Continues
As the house of worship market continues to become more LED technology savvy and the youth membership moves into leadership roles, entertainment LED lighting will become even more important to services. LED fixtures ranging from video walls, to moving heads, to static wash and spot fixtures are now and will continue to be a major part of the market for the foreseeable future. For their part, manufacturers like Chauvet will continue to gain more experience in supplying the products that meet the very specific needs of this growing market.
Michael Graham, product development manager for Chauvet Professional, has also designed and installed stage and architectural lighting systems.
