by Ricky Perinchief
Church growth and the building projects that follow can be stressful for pastors and leaders alike; but starting a building campaign during the peak of a worldwide pandemic can make you feel like you’re in an enormous pressure cooker.
While I am privileged to work with churches around the globe, no other church holds that special place in my heart like NOW Church in Ocala, Florida. My parents founded it nearly 34 years ago, are still leading stronger than ever, and it has been home since its inception.
At NOW, we love multiple services and are very confident in the technology and worship experience we create each and every week, and always strive to keep things fresh. My dad approached me in 2018 and asked me to design our new family life center from the ground up, with the goal being for a multipurpose facility that would meet all our needs.
Three years and five lenders later, we finally got approval and broke ground in Winter of 2021. Once we got underway officially, delays and material shortages turned the eight-month project into nearly two years.
Meeting Our Goals
Our new family life center had multiple criteria: it needed to be economical, multipurpose, and reach seven specific goals.
1/ To be the new face of our 24-acre campus. Our original building opened in 1997 and always looked like a vanilla warehouse from the outside, though the inside was always filled with the latest tech, modern decor, and what we call “raw excellence.” But remember, man looks at the outward appearance. So it was always a limitation for us, especially since we’re located off one of the busiest stretches of roads in the state of Florida! The new Legacy Building is located in front of our original building, closer to the highway, stands over 6’ taller, and with a 30-foot astroturf courtyard separating the two buildings. It will eventually include an outdoor stage and a roof system.
2/ We never had a real lobby – it was basically a glorified hallway, with little room for people to congregate before and after service – other than an overhang, which in Florida would rarely be used as it’s either too hot, humid, or rainy to be out there most Sundays. Plus, we felt like Covid caused a cultural shift of isolation and separation, even for those in God’s house, sneaking in late and rushing out early! We felt the pendulum would eventually swing, and we wanted to create a lingering culture so people could be at the church and connect in a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Community and connection became a top priority in order to reach the next generation.
3/ Having a Kids space was one of the prime goals; we especially needed more classroom space for preschoolers. We wanted the tech in the entire space to be smart and easy for volunteers to operate. Having regretted the lower ceilings in our original building, The Legacy Building boasts 20’ tall ceilings in all common spaces, with 12’-14’ drop ceilings in the kitchen, bathrooms, pastors lounge, hallways, etc.
4/ To have a real commercial kitchen with banquet space, including a cafe and coffee shop. Hospitality has been called people glue, and we felt the limitations with our original “food prep” space. Over the years, I had been told by multiple sources to stay away from a “commercial kitchen” for the church, as there would be too much government red tape and would cost too much money. I pressed for a bottom line number and – with some creative design from a couple restaurant consultant-friends – we were able to have the county sign off on our plans!
Imagine our guest speakers coming in on a Sunday for two services, getting handed a menu from one of our chef’s, and selecting a cook-to-order breakfast to have in-between services in our pastors’ suite. Or how about bringing your family in to church early, and either ordering on the mobile app or using the wall-mounted kiosk to place your order for coffee or a homemade breakfast sandwich, where profits will exclusively fund missions and outreach!
And speaking of kiosks, all kids’ check-in, welcome center, and cafe ordering kiosks are actually wall-mounted Apple iPad’s hard-wired using exclusive technology from POE Texas, which allows a rack mounted POE switch to bring power and wired internet to each of those tablets using a single Cat6 cable. No more relying on unreliable Wi-Fi during high traffic times for these mission critical devices!
5/ To give our dedicated volunteers we call, “NOW Crew,” an exclusive lounge they can access for grab and go snacks and drinks anytime they’re volunteering on Sundays or during the week, and a secure space they can keep their personal belongings while serving.
6/ A new creative workspace for our staff to come together. Nearly 15 years ago, all the office space had been converted into kids’ space in our original building, so our pastoral staff has been working virtually from home since 2009. A custom 12-seat wooden table with charging ports and power outlets is the perfect spot for planning meetings during the week. Plus, we have a fully-stocked beverage and snack area for our pastors and their families to enjoy while spending countless hours at church.
7/ To be one of the most efficient, eco-friendly, creative and cleverly-designed multipurpose buildings in the country, using the latest technologies, workflows, and automations. A giant 20’ LED billboard is mounted on the face of The Legacy Building, which not only scrolls through upcoming events and announcements; but we can also push live video through it so those driving by can see what’s happening live inside. It also gives us a creative outdoor venue for Super Bowl parties, family movie nights, etc.
More LED technology from our partner at Imagine Screens as soon as you enter the main lobby includes a giant 10’ 360-degree LED cylinder screen, plus brand new lighting technology from our friends at Chauvet, using Iluminarc. This newly-released line of low voltage products uses special POE++ technology, and we were the first venue in the world to integrate it.
With the cost of electrical wiring, components, and labor at an all-time high, Iluminarc allows for an electrician to install circuits at a central rack. Then low voltage Cat6 cabling connects groups of these LOGIC fixtures to the LOGIC Drives. Our lobby, kids’ classrooms and banquet room have both Iluminarc LOGIC Graze L, a compact wall graze luminaire designed to highlight smooth or textured surfaces with a throw distance up to 12 feet which illuminates the white open ceiling; along with Iluminarc LOGIC AR111 downlight luminaires. With their high quality 4-color RGBW color mixing system, downlights provide soft, pleasing accent light and indirect illumination of bright, saturated colors and white calibrated CCT presets. Powerful control options include Calendar Scheduling via onboard webserver, DMX, RDM, Art-Net, Art-RDM, sACN, or you can use the included 8-button wall controller to trigger customizable looks. With NOW Church, we can change the entire mood and lighting look of each space based on the sermon series, conference theme, or special event with the touch of a button. With these vivid colors on throughout the night, everyone who drives by can’t help but notice the colorful glow shining from the inside out.
But Wait, There’s More…
Also our central rack design, is loaded with some of the latest tech. The core audio system features the Allen & Heath AHM-32 which is a 32×32 Audio Matrix Processor. With Dante and RJ45 ports in nearly every room, we can setup a full event or small band setup in minutes by adding an Allen & Heath DX168 16×8 Portable DX I/O Expander and mix it on a tablet. Shure wireless microphones are in the rack with an RF Venue Antenna Distro, so the mics can be used anywhere around the campus, while the receivers stay in the rack and connect to the AHM-32 processor.
Dynacord Amps are racked and once again allow the audio to be matrixed anywhere at any time! A combination of JBL low profile lay-in ceiling speakers for the areas with drop ceilings, JBL 4′ full-range 70v pendant speakers in the kids’ classrooms and staff lounge, a high output JBL column speaker that covers the entire lobby at high SPL, with little over-splash and strong bass response down to below 40Hz, and a pair of JBL 12″ 2-way all weather high output speakers for the courtyard.
There are 19 large LG 4K TVs mounted around the building, including strategic digital signage to help navigate crowds to the correct classroom, hallway, or building; plus a 3-screen digital menu for our cafe, and plenty used for scrolling announcements or the live feed. Several Mac mini’s using Blackmagic Decklink cards in Sonnet Echo Express SEI enclosures run campus licenses of ProPresenter 7. Blackmagic’s Videohub 40×40 12G handles all of the A/V matrixing to the TV’s and to the Colorlight Processors for the LED screens both inside and out.
Alexa… It’s Sunday!
Arguably the most important part of the system, and what makes The Legacy Building a well-oiled machine, is the networking, automations and creative workflows that now run our entire campus. A combination of Q-Lab software, Streamdeck by Elgato using Companion App, and Control4 Smart Home Integration-working together, has been a game changer! Time of day triggers allow audio and video matrixing to be pre-scheduled and the Streamdeck’s allow for more triggers on the fly. Control4 backlit keypads are everywhere a normal light switch would be, but it allows full control of lighting, video, and audio, as well as HVAC. The network uses a backbone of Access Networks Wi-Fi 6 access points, for dependable enterprise-level performance at an affordable price. The coolest part may be how the building can come alive in seconds with just a touch of a button, the programming of a trigger, or even a voice command. This level of sophistication can relieve stress and unnecessary burdens from a tech director or staff. AI is here, so let’s use it to our advantage!
All-in-all NOW Church’s Legacy Building is not just about being a nice new space to meet, eat, and learn. It’s a creative, complex, and multipurpose space that can handle just about any event and leverages new and smart technologies to draw you in. However, at the end of the day, it goes back to the simplicity of: ‘CREATING an intimate space to CONNECT with others and BE THE CHURCH! For more information on NOW Church visit NOWchurch.com.
Ricky is a 2-time Emmy® winner with 25+ years in broadcast television, consulting, and systems integration; and oversees technology for his father at NOW Church in Ocala, FL. His company, Proton Global Media Group, is committed to helping ministries of all sizes achieve technical excellence, affordably.
