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Integrated lighting solutions grace El Paso’s Abundant Living Faith Center
Middleton, WI (15 July 2008) – When it comes to planning a new worship facility, some of the most important people in the process are the technical consultants, whose job it is to make sure all the building systems work together, that the end product is aesthetically pleasing, and that the church’s needs are met without creating added costs. During a major renovation and expansion project at the Abundant Living Faith Center (ALFC) in El Paso, Texas, Paul Luntsford at PLA Designs, Inc., of Aloha, Oregon – a consultant for design/build systems integrator and ETC dealer Michael Garrison Associates (MGA) of Fresno, California – accomplished this challenge, in part through lighting solutions provided by ETC. Luntsford and PLA staff, working with MGA and the architectural team, helped design everything from catwalks and seating, to lighting and distribution for the church’s new 3,620-seat main auditorium, along with the lighting systems and controls for the church’s new youth worship area and game room.
In ALFC’s main worship space, an ETC Eos® console controls the stage lighting and an Ion® – the newest console in the ETC control line – is used in the youth room. The houselights throughout the church are controlled by an ETC Unison® architectural system.
“ETC provided the best solution for a lighting control infrastructure. Their modular SmartBars® offered affordable distributed dimming for ALFC’s conventional stage fixtures,” says Luntsford. “By using the SmartBars, there was a lot less costly wiring, conduit and labor needed to get a lot of channels of stage lighting control. This helped ALFC pay for more lighting gear.”
The lighting system designed by PLA includes (24) NEMA L21-20R outlets as well as ETCNet2™ Nodes, and 20A non-dim circuits near the catwalks, in order to provide proper support for lighting effects, power supplies and the Source Four Revolution® moving lights. The circuits for house lighting are controlled via ETC Sensor®+ and Unison DR dimming racks, while the worklights and associated non-dim circuits are controlled via several ETC SmartSwitch™ panels. The system is controlled over the ETCNet2 system using four DMX universes.
Luntsford recommends churches put an emphasis on installing the right number of lighting fixtures. For ALFC, this meant ETC fixtures: “Source Four® ellipsoidals provided a full range of beam angles and good definition. OceanOptics SeaChangers could also be placed on each one. Since the SeaChangers come in spot and flood versions, we can have great ellipsoidal performance and also simulate Fresnel functionality, but with dichroic color changing. This allows me to keep all my basic wash and spot lighting within the same color gamut,” says Luntsford. “We were able to use fewer units and have excellent lighting coverage and flexibility. And by using the Source Four Revolution moving-lights for specials [unique effects not part of the usual rig lighting], the circuit and fixture density was also reduced.”
The fact that ALFC tapes some of its services for television broadcast added another level of challenge for the lighting system. “We had to make sure the stage and house lighting were balanced properly for color, uniformity and intensity,” says Luntsford.
Richard Allen Designs (RAD) of Portland, Oregon was, at Luntsford’s recommendation, commissioned by ALFC to design a stage backdrop and scenic effects for the main auditorium’s stage. PLA specified some LED and automated lighting fixtures, including ETC’s Source Four Revolutions and several Vari-Lite units to enhance stage lighting, in conjunction with RAD’s use of (40) PixelRange LED RGB flood fixtures. The LED fixtures provide backlighting for set pieces, adding another dimension to the church’s lighting. They work seamlessly with the rest of the system via an ETCNet2 network.
The orchestrated efforts of architect Rod Kroeger (Moore, Nordell, Kroeger Architects), Robert Borunda (PE, Electrical Engineering), MGA, and PLA Designs’ expert staff, were critical to the success of ALFC’s new facility. Luntsford also credits the church for the smooth installation: “We really want to commend the pastors and their staff for having the courage to stick to their vision and demand the best value for money spent. They believed in what this facility could be, and now it is bearing fruit beyond even their original vision.”
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