Church Lighting Advice

[jchristiansen]

OK, I have done my searching on here (and on the web), now I want to get some input. I help at a church of about 400 with lights/sound. I helped design the system, and so I am pretty familiar with it. This is a contemporary service, with electric guitars, drums, keyboard etc. The sanctuary was built about 7 years ago. We have about 40 overhead lights, both pars and ellipsoidals. The dimmer packs are NSI 2408, 8 channels each X 4 packs, all DMX controlled. We also have 2 Martin MAC250's. The original idea was to use these for spots or special effects when needed. All auditorium (cans and florescents) lighting is done with the NSI packs.

We would like to add some LED colored lights to have the flexibility to add some color to the stage when needed. For those that have experience, would you replace current Par 64's with LED. Do they have enough light? WE only have about 20 channels wired into the catwalk area, and we run 2 lights per channel. So there is not really room to add, only replace.

To control this we have a Melange Pro, with 24 faders, that we use to program the scenes. I have to say I am happy with the setup, but...

We don't use the MAC250, because, well I found out how hard they are to control from a standard lighting board. So my question is, if you could put in a new lighting control board or software, what would it be. We want simple for Sunday. The current process of hitting "Go" to jump to the next scene is perfect. But was also want some more control especially the MAC250's. I have played around with Elation software, but found it cumbersome and I think it would be hard to use for everyday lighting. So I am looking for something as simple as the Melange Pro, but has the ability to also control inteligent lights and LED color lights if we add them.

Feel free to offer any advice you have. I am totally open for any ideas!

Thanks!

 

[tayklor]

Some thoughts. A community theatre company I've been working with for a while just got some RGB LED fixtures. Specifically TyLEDs, which CB usual BillESC sells. They're decent. They're bright compared to TH units with saturated gel. They produce less than exceptional whites and pastels. Fortunately, it sounds like you're looking so supplement your conventional rig with LEDs. There has been a lot of debate of LED units on here before, both recently and more distantly. The short of it is either buy the least expensive units you can with intent to replace them often or sink the money into something like ETC's Selador line, which are both very expensive and very powerful (I had a chance to work with some in a TV studio about a year ago—they really are all they're lived up to be).

It sounds like providing non-dim power to the LEDs could be a problem. Do you have any standard 120vac outlets on the mounting position? It sounds like you have enough to run the MAC250s. It is inadvisable to run LEDs from a dimmer, even when set to 100%. Again, this was discussed at length about a week ago.

You might look into a replacement to your console, especially if you are already having problems controlling your existing inventory. The ETC Element (or Ion) or competing Strand product might be worth looking at.

 

[Esoteric]

We specialize in working with churches. We have worked with churches of all sizes from 4000+ to 50.

We have done a ton of LED renovations and although some RGB units do an acceptable job of ambers (ColorKey is the one I sell), I really prefer the Rocklite RGBAW units from Blizzard (unless you can afford Selecon or Selador).

We install a lot of Chamsys systems as well. This allows you to go from a $250 software single, to a $3k pc wing, to a $10k full desk. It is very full featured, but you can program it so that a volunteer can just hit "go".

 

[AhClem]

I'm the manufactuer and distributor for the BlueLite X1 control system so be aware I have some bias .
Our BlueLite X1 (and X1-Mini) is a very popular DMX controller among churches, small theaters, DJ's and others since the single universe X1-Mini is only $399 and the 4 universe X1 is just $999, although it's also been installed in larger venues both here in Southern California but also in Las Vegas (controlling the Fremont Street Experience).

Both the X1 and X1-Mini offer a DMX Input (plus SMPTE timecode In/Out) so you can still use simple external console for control, while using the BlueLite's ability to control everything from PAR cans to the most complicated moving fixtures and even will let you control such things as Media Servers should you ever have the need. The software includes a Template Editor so you can add new fixtures (or we'll build them for you) and each fixture template that uses a Pan/Tilt control (such as the MAC 250) has a built in effects generator that will allow you to have your MAC250's running automated circles, arc, line, spiral, figure-8, ..., inside a cue, just by selecting from a dropdown menu.

I glanced at the Melange Pro User Manual and I'm not that familiar with it but it looks like you could use it as an external console with no problem.

You can download the BlueLite Software from our website to become familiar with it's operation and functionality. Farther down that same page we have Windows and Mac versions of iPanel, our upcoming mobile release to control the BlueLite Live Panel using a mobile phone or tablet, as well our other Sample Apps.

If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them, so feel free to contact me at your leisure.

Craig Spredeman