SVC Podcast – Show Notes – Show 162-1
In this edition of the SVC Podcast, SVC Contributing Editor Bennett Liles talks with Bryan Cole of Axia Concepts in San Jose, California about the lighting system upgrade project done for Hawaii’s Inspire Church. Bryan outlines what the church needed in a new lighting system and discusses the elektraLite instruments and control used for the project. Bryan goes into how the church uses the various control settings for Sunday services and other events.
For Past 2
Links of interest:
- Axia Concepts – Guiding Houses of Worship through their technology needs
- electraLite 1018AI LED stage lights
- ML602 90-Watt LED moving profile spots
- LOS-1 LightStream 6x12w QUAD LEDs
Download Podcast Here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/nb-svc/public/public/Inspire_Church_Bryan_Cole_…
From Sound & Video Contractor Magazine, this is the SVC Podcast with Bryan Cole of Axia Concepts. Show notes and equipment links for the podcast are on the web site of Sound & Video Contractor Magazine at svconline.com.
Hawaii’s Inspire Church is really jumping when the music starts up and they needed a lighting system that could keep up with the upbeat congregation and their sound system. They called Axia Concepts of San Jose, California to come up with a system that could meet their budget and add to the atmosphere. Bryan Cole has joined us to talk about how he made all of that happen. That’s coming right up on the SVC Podcast.
Welcome to the SVC Podcast Bryan, from Axia Concepts in San Jose. Just back from Hawaii where you put in a new church lighting system there. Is there a particular type of project you specialize in?
Thanks. Glad to be here. Yeah, there is and it’s taken a while to formulate that niche but we really do that that interesting niche of servicing the church, the house of worship market, and it’s usually via referral; pastor to pastor. We sort of go wherever the referrals go. And because we like to work with the talent and the abilities and the skill sets at the local church and help them to build their own systems and own it, it works real well. So we can actually travel just about anywhere and we do. [Timestamp: 1:28]
You were working in Hawaii very recently. Tell me about the church you were working on.
That was Inspire Church. They were the first church that invited us to Hawaii and that’s now branched to quite a few more churches on the Islands – on several islands. They are real cutting-edge contemporary. If you’re familiar with the church market a very Hillsong-esque kind of style. We love working with them and we’ve been working with them now for about three and a half years. [Timestamp: 1:55]
And that’s Inspire Waikele Church?
Yes. Waipahu is the actual town that it’s in. The city next door is called Waikele and it has a shopping mall which is where they’re in. It’s called the Waikele Outlet Center. [Timestamp: 2:07]
What sort of church is this? Are they a fairly modern congregation?
Very modern. Very modern. If you’re not familiar with church and you walk in and it wasn’t on a Sunday you’d think you were in a nightclub. [Timestamp: 2:18]
Alright, so lots of live music.
Lots of live music, rock-and-roll style lights – everything – video, the whole bit.
Okay, so the lighting for this has got to be fairly involved, I mean they’re not just lighting a Sunday sermon. They’re doing live music with all that it brings along.
Correct. Yeah, there’s over 20 motion lighting fixtures in this installation. [Timestamp: 2:38]
So what were they doing previously for a lighting system? Why did they need a lighting upgrade at this point?
They had a traditional dimmer rack installed when they took over the facility about eight years ago. And of course it’s all incandescent. I’ve been working with them for a while and encouraging them not to spend any money upgrading the incandescent lighting infrastructure. I mean just wait until they had the budget to move to LED. And we finally did that, but in that period of tie the quality they were looking for was growing and they were becoming more and more frustrated with the lack of lighting control and the lack of even lighting on the stage. [Timestamp: 3:12]
And this would certainly enhance the worship experience but they also have other things, some youth camps going on there?
They do. They have I believe four conferences every year that they invite speakers from around the globe. You know, it’s mostly pastors and leaders from churches on the Island, but there’s a fair amount of people that come from the Mainland as well. It’s a big production. They do it real, real well so they have a high level of production standard and whenever they do any technical infrastructure improvement they’re always thinking about it being a driving tool for conference. [Timestamp: 3:45]
And so the crew there probably has some presets all programed so they can just punch them up for the normal events.
Yeah. Most of the worship songs that they perform are using a backing track so they’re very consistent speed and tempo. Most of the lighting cues are designed specifically to each worship song and so it’s not quite push-button, but it’s pretty close in that a normal volunteer can actually run 20 motion lights with ease on a Sunday morning. [Timestamp: 4:12]
Yeah, I would think they have largely volunteers, kids working on this getting their first experience.
Yep.
Yeah and with the lighting it’s got to be fairly simple for them to push a button and at least get into the neighborhood of what they want to do.
Exactly. And then they have a couple of folks that really are passionate about it and they actually take the time to design the lighting cues to the songs for the occasion.
And you selected elektraLite for this.
Yes.
And I believe one of the ones you used the most is the 1018-AI stage light.
Yes, that’s correct.
A 12-Watt, six-in-one LED. So what color LEDs do they have in this one?
Okay, so rather than being just a traditional red, green and blue LED fixture these also have white, amber and indigo. So they can do a pure white without projecting color out of the fixture to blend together to make white. And also with the RGB color palette it tends to be somewhat deficient in ambers and the deep purples and so that’s where the indigo and the amber LED come in. So it gives a really, really full spectrum of color not only for color, but also it allows them to have pretty infinite control over the color temperature of the white. [Timestamp: 5:25]
So when you get into the colors on this, that might be simple enough but you’re not the only one looking at it. Apparently they have streaming video so you’re also lighting for a camera.
That’s correct. And that was really the driving force behind the upgrade because they were sort on lighting for their stage because they had added the video component at a later date since their initial system was installed eight years ago. And the lighting was uneven so when you’re pointing a camera and panning across a stage, if the lighting level isn’t consistent it’s very noticeable. The camera operator has to adjust the iris on the camera to make sure that it looks consistent on the live stream as well. So they were having challenges with that. [Timestamp: 6:05]
So I would think the video people liked the 1018’s then.
They absolutely loved it. Yes, they sure did. They were quite impressed that we were able to get the color that even. And because it’s a wash fixture, meaning it doesn’t have a very defined edge, it works very, very well to point a bunch of them at a stage and evenly space them and maybe put some shutters on them to make some minor adjustments. But the end result was very even. [Timestamp: 6:25]
Okay. I figure they stay pretty tame with the lighting on the sermons but when things really get going in there they use the ML-602 moving profile spots?
That’s correct, yes. For the most part the ML-602’s are used for worship affect. Every once in a while if they have a drama or a stage act it will be used as a moving head spot where it can be programmed for a particular artist on the stage to be in a certain spot and maybe give them a spotlight. But for the most part it’s just motion. They do haze the room out for the worship part of the service. So really what they’re looking for is a moving head fixture is lighting the haze more than actually pointing at something. [Timestamp: 7:01]
And you’ve got a couple of LOS-1 Lightstream Quad LEDs?
That’s a fun one and I’ve kind of taught them to use it carefully because it’s a very powerful affect. But many times you go to a concert and you’ll see a laser that emanates from the back of the stage up over the crowd. This is a very, very similar affect to that. It’s not the pinpoint light of a laser, but it’s the same kind of scanning affect that you can do with a very basic laser in addition to having color. They get a very, very powerful affect out of that. [Timestamp: 7:29]
How did you mount those?
They’re not actually officially mounted. They’re just ground stacked on the very back of the stage, kind of behind the musicians. And generally they scan upward from crowd height up into the ceiling. [Timestamp: 7:40]
I’m sure that was very interesting getting the people together and training them on this lighting system and we’ll get into that when we get back together.
Sure.
We’ve been talking to Brian Cole of Axia Concepts, doing a new lighting system for Hawaii’s Inspire Church. Thanks for the details, Bryan.
Awesome. Look forward to it. Thank you so much.
And it was great having YOU with us. Show notes and equipment links are on the website of Sound & Video Contractor Magazine at svconline.com. Next week Bryan will tell us about the tech people at Inspire Church and how they use their new elektraLite LED lighting system to put power behind their message. That’s on the next SVC Podcast.
