For E2i Design’s most recent worship design/ install, the company outfitted Northstar Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, with a full suite of AVL components including comprehensive power control.
“It’s becoming a trend for houses of worship to be more forward-looking, and at E2i, that’s something we talk organizations through. We want them to think not only beyond their needs today but also how their AVL budget and equipment can serve them well into the future,” said Josh Holowicki, the founder and CEO of E2i Design. “Northstar’s future vision was unique. They wanted the infrastructure to support touring Christian artists and potential video upgrades.” So scalability in the power support mattered.
For Northstar, E2i installed the LynTec RPC 365 master remote control breaker panel along with the RPS 385 slave panel. Built on the industry-accepted G3 Powerlink hardware platform by Square D, the patented RPC family combines circuit protection and power management, on/off control, and power sequencing for audio, lighting, and video in an affordable, scalable panel. On the audio side, the panel provides customized circuit-level sequencing, eliminating the challenges of properly powering on digital audio systems with a separate sequencer. With customized sequencing step rates built into the system, the church’s volunteer crew doesn’t have to worry about the proper order of turning on and off components; the system allows each circuit to be set with the exact number of seconds — anywhere between 1 and 999 — to allow digital equipment to fully boot up before the next step of the sequence fires.
The panel also protects the church’s stage and house LED lighting. The RPC panel provides remote power control down to the circuit level, providing staff with an easy-to-use system to power on and off its array of LED fixtures. It also supports Northstar’s current and future video requirements. In addition to the church’s two projectors and inventory of video displays, the church is planning to add a video wall to support onstage graphics. The LynTec panel cycles off video equipment when not in use and properly sequences it on, protecting against damage caused by inrush.
Northstar also benefits on the installation side. Using an RPC panel instead of a separate relay panel means that there are fewer points of contact to wire during installation. The labor involved to install a LynTec panel is the same as to wire a standard breaker panel.
