Church of the Highlands recently updated their main Birmingham facility with a complete lighting package by HARMAN Professional Solutions, comprised entirely of Martin fixtures.
Church leaders wanted to ensure high production standards for the video simulcast. As the picture quality of the video feed relies heavily on key lighting, Lighting Director Patrick Hentz made the decision to upgrade the church’s ageing lighting system with a state-of-the-art lighting solution.
Patrick selected an extensive range of Martin fixtures to ensure premium image quality for the video simulcast, in addition to providing immersive lighting for high-energy worship events. Patrick explained: “There were many reasons behind the upgrade, but the greatest benefits we gained from the new Martin fixtures are brightness, reliability and versatility.
“The Martin fixtures give us a great deal of balance and control over accenting and highlighting the most important aspects of our weekly services without going over the top or blinding our guests. On the other hand, when we host youth group events and special concerts, the lighting rig enables us to deliver a stunning visual show which enhances the live music experience with excitement and intensity.”
The church’s new lighting rig features an array of 12 MAC Encore Wash fixtures which provides excellent key light across the entire stage, resulting in rich colour and highly accurate white light on camera. The Encore Wash’s unparalleled 6000k daylight temperature is critical for overcoming challenges posed by the large LED video wall behind the church’s stage. The soft-edge moving head fixtures also enable Hentz and his staff to make quick adjustments when a guest speaker steps off the stage or when an event goes off script.
Patrick added: “A few years ago, we added a 60-feet-by-40-feet LED video wall and that introduced a significant challenge, the video panels have a native colour temperature of 56k, and our previous rig just wasn’t bright enough to compete. The new Martin fixtures allowed us to increase our maximum levels from 65 foot-candles to 80 foot-candles, yielding a much greater depth of field and improved colour accuracy.
“Another huge benefit is the flexibility to make lighting changes on the fly. If a guest speaker wanders too far to the side or goes off script and moves from the stage and onto the floor, we can take advantage of the Martin fixtures’ incredible range of motion to follow them.”
Church of the Highlands’ new rig consists of Viper Profile, Quantum Wash and Quantum Profile fixtures for front wash and spot applications. MAC Aura and RUSH MH6CT fixtures enhance the general wash by adding textural backlight from upstage, and Hentz utilises MAC 101 fixtures when an engaging crowd wash is desired.
Patrick concluded: “Martin’s build quality is second to none—their fixtures tend to last five times as long as other manufacturers’ products when we invest in equipment, we want it to work properly and look great.
“Before acquiring the Martin rig, we had to run our older fixtures at 100% brightness to achieve the desired output and that was causing a lot of maintenance issues—we were replacing at least five lamps a week! We don’t want to be constantly buying replacements and conducting extensive repairs, so it’s a huge benefit to know our new Martin rig will perform just as well ten years from now. And the Martin team has been extremely helpful when it comes to providing training resources and educating our team about preventative maintenance.”
