Advice on possibilities of LEDs for "warm" church setup

[innervibe3]

To start I am a newbie to lighting but have a good amount of experience in audio. We are looking to add some color and white lighting for our contemporary services, kids musicals, etc at the church I work at. We have a pretty significant amount of parameters (constraints) we have to deal with though. I have been working on a setup that will allow us to get started then add more units down the road as funding allows, etc. I will list the good and bad below as well as what i have been looking at light-wise. I realize getting some demo units in my hands and testing in the facility is the ideal starting point and I am game to do that, but i am concerned about how the colors will react with our rather "warm" colored building and current lighting and if the distances i have to contend with can be overcome without high-end units as the cost will probably be prohibitive.

Goals:
add "white/flesh" color tones so leaders and band members can be seen without a fog over their faces
add some coloring for mood setting for songs
add some coloring and white light for kids musicals

The good:
3 independent 20 amp circuits with clean power
No old gear to try and work with
well, that might be about it

The bad:
Not a lot of funding at the moment though its in the plans
No allowance for lighting truss, or really much visibility of lighting units (traditional service people wont be a fan)
Distance from ceiling to "stage" area is about 35-40'
Building is almost all wood with stained glass windows allowing interesting amounts and colors of ambient light in at times
2nd possible mounting points are on the sides of the building about 12-14' high and 30-40' from stage

I have been looking at the Blizzard Puck lights and Rocklites based on suggestions from reading the forums. Also, looking at the Chauvet RGBAW cans and Elation EPAR QA series based on another reccomendation. I am thinking i might need to also consider some just white cans and then some RGBA or RGB for coloring. I am still learning how to figure the math on how far certain units will send light, so any suggestions from experience or calculation advice will be greatly appreciated.

I am attaching pics of the stage area and a pic from the command and control down the building towards the stage area. The lighting in the pictures is full church lights on maximum and the full length pic is during worship at about 920am

Thanks!
Jon

 

[JD]

Well, the good news is that with LEDs, you are not going to have to run a lot of heavy cable up there. Surface wireway (if allowed) will allow you to hide the wiring behind the beams and low profile LED fixtures can probably be tucked out of view for the most part.

Now the bad news. At that elevation, I would not mess around with inexpensive fixtures. The last thing you want to do is get involved with repeated trips to the ceiling to chase after things that go wrong. Therefore, your fixtures are going to cost you the lion's share of whatever budget you have. Color-wise, RGBAW will give you something that actually resembles white. No fixture is going to give you the full spectrum of an incandescent, but I think you will do ok.

I would suspect there will be many suggestions for fixtures, but go with a solid "theater" name as compared to some of the imports or semi-DJ products. The cost of accessing them may exceed the cost of a good fixture. I know at the church I am at, high access is a $1400 a pop bill.

Side lighting is less desirable as it is hard on the eyes of the performers due to the low elevation. Long term professionals know how to deal with lights in their faces (still complain sometimes) but those new to the profession complain quite a bit.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Run one circuit to each of three locations - left wall, right wall, and nigh center I'd guess. The wall locations should give you a angle of 30 degrees or so off the horizon Put 3 or 4 white ETC source 4's with 575s and with the Source 4 dimmer at each point, run data or invest in wireless DMX if you want to save wire for cost. The "wall" positions could be like pigeons on the windowsills - just a simple flange screwed down. High center behind one of the beams. But get white with white cords and all.With low budget and wanting it to look warmer, you really want balcony rail light and that is what I'm trying to get. Flattering and soft jewel lighting. Wide angles so there is lost of overlap from many directions to minimize shadow overlap. If you could add some LED top/back/high back side, the color washes would serve you well - but get light in the eye sockets and under the chins first.

 

[BillESC]

You might want to consider the ToughStick RGBAW from Blizzard. These could be "tucked" behind the beam about half way to the peak. With 60 three watt diodes you'll have considerable power to play with.

Here's a picture of a church concert I lit with a similar fixture using one watt diodes.

 

[innervibe3]

Thanks guys!

I appreciate the advice and the direction. I had a feeling we might need a hybrid system to really the the job done. Its not ever going to be a full production quality deal since we dont really have the right building or parameters for it, but i think your advice is spot on and very helpful. I appreciate it! Going to do some real measurements on heights and angles this weekend and will report back.

Regards,
jon