The legendary coach Vince Lombardi once quipped that “football is two things: blocking and tackling.” Although quarterbacks and running backs receive most of the glory, it’s the fundamentals, believed Lombardi, that actually win football games. The team at Morris Integration followed a similar philosophy when they stepped into Shiloh Church for the first time in early 2018.
A dynamic house of worship in the heart of Oakland, Shiloh was looking to improve the technical production of its services for worshippers at the church, as well as for those streaming services online. Ultimately, Morris Integration was able to provide the church with more dynamic stage lighting by installing CHAUVET Professional fixtures. However, as their team pointed out to the church, before they did that, they should also address something more fundamental: the quality of its house lighting.
“When we first visited the church, it became apparent very quickly that we needed to address the house lighting of the room,” said Paul Holst, Morris Integration’s Lighting Designer. “We took an FC reading of the room with the houselights at full, and they were only getting 4 FC.”
Fortunately, Morris Integration had a CHAUVET Professional solution for that issue too: the Ovation H-605FC house light. A total of 16 of the RGBA-Lime LED fixtures was installed throughout the sanctuary, providing an even field of light in the room. The new fixtures give the church the flexibility to use white light, or any colour for times when it wants to create a more immersive environment.
“The H-605FC did a great job of bringing the house light levels to a much higher point, all while being more efficient than the old fixtures,” said Paul. “Now, the congregation can finally read their bibles at church. We had to bring the house lighting up to this level before we turned our attention to the stage lighting. It may not be as exciting as stage lighting, but the fundamental house lighting was essential to creating consistent quality throughout the church. With the H-605FC, the church has unlimited colour control of the entire room.”
Once it addressed the basic need of upgrading the church’s house lighting, Morris Integration turned its attention to designing a stage lighting system that could create a wide variety of dynamic looks that engaged live audiences, while also coming across well on camera. The rig the company put together features 10 Rogue R2 Wash, six Rogue R1 Wash and six Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, as well as six Maverick MK1 Spot units and eight Ovation F-265WW Fresnels, four Ovation FD-105WW Fresnels and 14 Ovation E-260WW ellipsoidals.
“We used the R2 washes over the stage to create a nice colour wash for the worship team,” said Paul. “The Mavericks were also used over the stage to create breakup and beam patterns. We placed the R1 Washes and FX-Bs on uprights that we spread out between the worship team for more beam effects and added dimension. The Ovation E-260WW ellipsoidals were used for front lighting the worship team, while the Ovation F-265 Fresnels were used to create a nice even front wash of the lower stage for speaking, with the FD-105 providing backlighting.”
The new system gives the church the flexibility to go from soft subdued lighting to bold fast-moving designs to support music and special moments in services. This has earned rave reviews from the worship pastor, who told Morris Integration, “Thanks for making our church look amazing.”
Vince Lombardi’s approach of building up from the basics won him the first two Super Bowls and resulted in the game’s trophy being named after him. That’s impressive, but for the team at Morris Integration, praise like this from a worship pastor is reward enough in itself.
