NASHVILLE — Pastor Mark Marshall may not be able to physically be in two places at one time, but thanks to a fiber optic system linking a new 450-seat chapel and main church on its 50-acre suburban Nashville campus, he’s able to appear before groups of worshippers at the two houses of worship simultaneously. Along with the possibility of streaming video images from the original worship center to the new chapel 300 yards away, the technology enables Pastor Marshall to preside over a more traditional worship service and one with a more contemporary style. The video images can also be saved on an HD digital video recorder for delayed broadcast.
The new chapel’s utility doesn’t end there. Like all ClearView’s facilities, it will perform versatile functions — from serving as a formal venue for weddings and funerals, to hosting meetings and conferences. The chapel doesn’t have any fixed pews — only chairs. As Pastor Marshall said, “The overriding principle for building anything at ClearView is flexibility and functionality.”
With its Nashville area location, ClearView also aspires to high production standards for its services, in sound, lighting and video production. For the lighting system for the new chapel, AV designer/installer Springtree Media Group, LLC (Franklin, TN) relied on Elation Professional.
It wasn’t the first time Springtree relied on Elation gear. Springtree had previously helped ClearView solve a challenge posed with a renovation to the church’s original worship center.
ClearView had wanted to upgrade its lighting for video production, but was operating on very limited electrical capacity. Church officials didn’t want to go to the expense of installing a new transformer, so Peter Vaque of Springtree came up with the solution of using Elation’s energy-saving ELED Tri-64B RGB color mixing LED par can to light the stage.
Each Elation Tri-64B unit emits an output comparable to a 500W halogen Par 64 can, yet draws only 70W of power, allowing the church to obtain video-quality brightness while remaining within its small electrical load capacity.
“You can put 28 of these fixtures on one 20-amp circuit,” said Vaque. What’s more, the Tri-64B has other features that make it perfect for video, such as a warm, even white light and flicker-free operation.
In the new chapel, Vaque once again went with the Tri-64B, installing 28 of the units to light the stage and ceilings. Another benefit of the Tri-64B, says Vaque, is that it features Elation’s advanced Tri-Color LED Technology.
Each of the Tri-64B’s 18 LEDs is actually a 3-in-1 lamp consisting of one red, one green and one blue diode, allowing color mixing to be done within each lamp. This eliminates the multicolor shadows that sometimes appear around objects illuminated by LED fixtures with one-color lamps.
The Tri-64B’s color quality and versatility have helped give the room the flexibility that ClearView requires, Vaque says. For example, during Sunday services when Pastor Marshall’s broadcast sermon comes on, the lights are dialed down. A large Da-Lite Ascendor screen rises up from the stage floor, and the sermon is delivered via a Sanyo PLV-HD150 High Definition DLP projector. The Tri-64Bs are used to create “a soft colored glow on the ceiling” during the sermon, said Vaque. “We usually go with a blue or mauve. The lights create a nice, warm atmosphere.”
To accommodate the different types of events held in the room, Vaque also outfitted it with Elation 575-watt and 250-watt moving heads for spot and visual effects. Two Design Spot 575Es with CMY color mixing are permanently installed on the ceiling, while two Design Spot 250s are used as “floaters,” positioned wherever needed.
Vaque said he chose Elation’s Design Spot 575 and 250 because they’re “the best moving light for the price overall.” Both have variable frost filters that help them convert the beam from hard-edge spot to soft-edge wash by applying the frost. The Design Spot 250 also offers a full-functioning iris, not always found on fixtures its size.
The Design Spot 575s and 250s were in full force during a recent weekend youth conference, attended by 250 high school students. “It was a rock ’n roll worship, and we had the hazers and moving lights going,” said Vaque. Trussing from Elation’s sister company, Global Truss, was set up across the back of the stage and “we lit it up with the Design Spot 250s and put more of the LED par cans on it.”
During the event, Elation’s Opto Branch 4 DMX distributor was used to split the DMX signal, eliminating the crossing of wires on stage, and providing greater flexibility in the positioning of lights. “We actually used two Opto Branches, one on each side of the stage,” explained Vaque. “So when we hooked up the Design Spots and Tri-64Bs on the floor, we were able to tap in on both sides of the stage.”
Springtree did all of the lighting, video and audio for the new chapel. In addition to the large center screen that displays the sermons, there are two side screens with Hitachi CP-X807 projectors, which will be used mainly for lyrics and scripture readings.
For more information, please visit www.elationlighting.com.
