Christian City Church at Oxford Falls held their “Awakening” Conference for young adults in the first week of February, and Mandylights was there to design the lighting and visuals. Richard Neville came up with a design that used a mixture of lighting, projection and the new Martin LC Panels to create a spectacular backdrop to the three day event.
Ten LC Panels were hung ‘randomly’ around the church’s stage, with eight Vari*Lite VL2500 washes behind them to take advantage of the transparent panels. The lighting and vision was programmed and operated on a full size MA Lighting grandMA console which was networked to an ArKaos media server. Also in the rig were four Martin MAC700 wash, four MAC300 and two Look Solutions Unique Hazers. During programming, equal attention was given to both lighting and audio so that each visual medium complimented the other. The result was a phenomenal, unique, integrated look that went above and beyond the expectations of the church.
Richard was blown away by the LC Panels, especially how good they looked on camera, and can’t wait to use them on a number of projects in upcoming months.
”The client was initially thinking of using multiple projection screens,” explained Richard. “They’re really into the whole idea of integrating video; last year we used ColorWeb and we used a wall of SoftLED for their last DVD shoot. The LC Panels were something new and different that they hadn’t seen before and that hasn’t been used by any of the churches yet. They’re also a brighter and better alternative to projection.”
The original creative concept for the church was to use side by side screens in a conventional configuration but Richard proposed the idea of hanging the LC Panels in a random manner.
“It looks like they’ve been thrown around the stage at random but there was a little bit of thought behind it!” he revealed. “Some sat straight on the stage, others were suspended from pipes and some were hung from trusses. Basically we ended up with five panels either side of the stage placed around the central projection screen.”
Richard was astounded at how easy the LC Panels were to maneuver, particularly as they are so lightweight, and he loved the fact that the LC Panels allow him flexibility with his design.
“With a traditional LED wall it has to be configured as it is on the plan whereas with the LC Panels you can change their positioning at will,” he said. “You’re not reconfiguring hundreds of kilos of LED wall or anything like that. They’re incredibly versatile when you’re on site and allow for easy last minute design changes. Putting the LC Panels together is so simple and quick; you just need an allen key to bang them all together.”
The back wall of the church is usually white but was draped in black for this event. Normally the church’s head pastor doesn’t like black backdrops because the event is shot for television and broadcast around the world. However the LC Panels acted as set pieces and according to Richard, read really well on camera whilst not being distracting. There was no ‘moire’ effect that can happen with LED walls.
“The theory behind the LC Panels and how they operate is really sensible,” commented Richard. “I’m not a video person but I could patch them up if I needed to. The addressing system is good; it’s straight DVI in so there’s not the hassle you have with video splitting up a source.”
The content, fed via ArKaos, included material from the church and also Richard’s own stock video. Many LED products such as ColorWeb and SoftLED are pixel mapped whereas the LC Panels are fed by a direct DVI feed and this effects the response time.
“With the LC Panels the response time is as quick as a monitor,” stressed Richard. “There’s always a bit of a lag with ColorWeb or SoftLED but with the LC Panels it’s an instant response time. We had a DVI cable run of nearly 80 metres and the response time from the LC Panels was just fantastic.”
Richard was astounded by the brightness of the LC Panels stating that he had to run them at 40 – 50% if he wanted to make the content match the projection screen.
”However it’s fantastic for the big moments – it’s the equivalent of putting all your moving lights to white and throwing the light out to the audience,” he said. “It’s an incredible impact. The colours are also really good. Even when you run the LC Panels at a low intensity they hold their colour really well which is great from a lighting point of view. It’s good to have a video source that can compete and work at the same intensity as the lighting. We could have all our washes at full and all the LC Panels at full to create a huge impact.”
Equipment was supplied by Cairellie Showcraft
For more photos and the full story go to www.mandylights.com
www.showtech.com.au
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