Focus on the Family, one of the largest Christian ministries in the U.S., put out a request for bid to upgrade the lighting system in its Chapelteria, a 750-seat large multi-functional conference and event space at its headquarter campus in Colorado Springs. Focus on the Family’s AV team had a set of lighting products in mind and worked with Ben Gleason of LVW Electronics, the local systems solutions provider that won the contract, to ensure their needs were met.

LVW reached out to Elation lighting who in turn put them in touch with Jay Cid of Professional Sound and Lighting Products (www.pslp.com), who was integral in determining the best Elation lighting products for the space. In response, a turn-key solution was created that provided Focus with an outstanding and cost effective lighting system.

Ken Toal, Focus on the Family’s audio visual services manager, recently reflected on the project. “The design we settled on was due to Ben and his team being willing to go the extra mile in order for us to get the desired functionality and performance.” LVW and PSLP designed a system based on the types of shows and presentations that occur in the Chapelteria such as religious services, conferences, monthly meetings and special events.

“The existing lighting system was outdated and Focus wanted to take advantage of LED technology to provide a user experience that would provide a ‘wow!’ factor for the audience,” states LVW’s Ben Gleason.

The new lighting system consists of 4 compact Rayzor Q12 Zoom LED wash luminaires mounted upstage along with 6 SixPar 200 color changers equipped with barn doors. The Rayzor Q12 is a high-speed moving head luminaire capable of creating a wide variety of looks from colorful wash/beam projections to eye-candy effects while the SixPar 200 houses a 6-color LED multi-chip for a nearly infinite range of color choices and gives the space the possibility to express any mood or emotion. Downstage lighting consists of 4 Platinum Spot 15R Pro CMY color mixing moving heads and 9 SixPar 300 color changers, also with barn doors. A pair of additional Platinum Spot 15R Pro’s work from the stage as do 6 ELED QA Strips, quad LED one-meter strip lights used to highlight interchanging set pieces. The entire system is controlled via an Elation-distributed HedgeHog 4 lighting console.

Most important for Focus and LVW when choosing the Elation lighting fixtures was their reliability and quality along with low power consumption and a price that fit with the budget, Ben says. “Also, the amount of flexibility and power achieved by incorporating the HedgeHog 4 with the lighting system allows Focus personnel to create atmospheres and scenes that simply were not possible, or conceivable, with the prior system.”

Installation of the new lighting system was completed in March of this year. “Both Elation and PLSP helped LVW Electronics meet a tight installation schedule, and everyone that I interfaced with was nothing but knowledgeable and professional,” Ben concludes “Jay Cid with PSLP was instrumental in helping out with the design and getting the new system up and running. The system was installed and commissioned just in time for Focus’s monthly Chapel service which turned out to be a huge success.”

After the first show with the new system audience members reportedly commented on how great the system looked, a system that allows Focus to provide a professional end product with a great show experience for the audience.

Elation Equipment:

6 x ELED QA Strip

9 x SixPar 300

6 x SixPar 200

6 x Platinum Spot 15R PRO

4 x Rayzor Q12 Zoom

15 x Adjustable Barn Doors for SixPar fixtures

1 x eNode4

Additional Equipment:

1 x HedgeHog4 Console