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High End Systems Enhances TV Broadcasts at Living Word Christian Center
Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota is a progressive congregation of 12,000 people. The church recently updated the technical infrastructure in their 3,000-seat main sanctuary in preparation for broadcasting their worship services live on a local network affiliate. The church also televises segments of its services for use by its 4 satellite locations around the region, a national religious network and on the Internet.
In addition to major upgrades in the audio and video systems, an intelligent lighting system was designed and installed by Crescent Moon Productions. Crescent’s owner Grant Ashling has been working with LWCC for several years as a visual designer and stage manager. Minneapolis-based Ruehling Associates, Inc. (RAI) has been providing rental packages of High End Systems (HES) equipment to Crescent Moon and Living Word for years.
“For several years, Living Word has been renting High End equipment from Ruehling Associates for special events like their Christmas production,” says Ashling. “The church wanted their weekly services to have the same visual excitement and variety as the Christmas show. Since the worship and special music segments are being broadcast live, we needed a system that could be flexible and create a variety of colors and textures rapidly.”
Crescent Moon Productions installed 12 x.Spot Xtremes, 12 Studio Command 700s and 25 Color Merges. Living Word also purchased a Hog iPC console, which controls both the moving lights and conventional television lights. All of the High End System equipment was purchased from Ruehling Associates, Inc. who also supplied technical support and training. “Because of the busy event schedule at LWCC, we needed dependable equipment and reliable tech support,” states Ashling “High End products are very solid and RAI has provided great service and support.”
Ashling has been very pleased with the performance of the new system. “The color range of the Studio Commands is very impressive and the x.Spots have a great variety of patterns,” comments Ashling. “We’re using the Color Merges to wash the band, choir and vocalists and it’s great to have such a wide, rich color pallet to choose from. The Hog iPC console has been a great desk. I can quickly program moving light looks and assign them to a separate cuelist while still running normal presets on another fader for my conventional lights. I can then turn playback over to operators of various skill levels and they can get comfortable with the console very quickly.”
Living Word’s staff and congregation has also been pleased with the new lighting system. “I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on the lighting from pastors, musicians and audience members, says Ashling “Now that the staff has seen how the lights can enhance the atmosphere, they never want to go back to traditional lighting.”
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