By Stephen Ellison
I promised to talk about worship lighting in this article, which brings up an examination of the light plot. I like the term systems to define fixtures being focused for general lighting. The “General” lighting systems provide the basic illumination of the platform grouped by direction. These are the fixtures that you must have in order to fulfill basic illumination.
I remember designing a church with a 40’ wide platform, but they only had a budget to provide Illumination for 20’, I had designed and installed the infrastructure to light all 40’, they just didn’t have the money for all of the fixtures so they were restricted by budget. There will always be some restrictions that you have to work around. By first filling in the systems that provide lighting for the sermon cue you will ensure that you meet the first Illumination requirement.
As I described in a prior article you need a minimum of back, side, and front lighting fixtures that cover the area along the front of the platform where the Pastor speaks from.
There are two more basic times in the service that need Illumination:
• the time when it isn’t worship or the sermon, and
• worship.
The in between time will require the systems already in place for the sermon to be increased to cover the rest of the platform. Starting with the back lights add additional fixtures to cover the rest of the platform.
For every 10’ of platform depth add a row of fixtures to allow for allow for overlap from row to row for an even wash. Repeat this with the side lighting adding rows going upstage. The front lights will only require one additional row for basic coverage. The front lighting coverage for most of the time does not need to cover the far upstage. You can’t light that upstage without impacting the back wall lighting or projection, side lighting will work for most needs. When you really need to light the band then a special is required and will be covered in worship lighting.
Upstage and Sidewalls
We have not included any fixtures for architectural accent or the upstage wall or cyclorama. Before we get to the worship lighting let’s talk about the upstage wall or sidewalls. In most churches there is either a screen or video wall dominating the center of the back wall. If it is a screen, then you must make sure that you focus your lighting, so no light gets on it.
Video walls are more forgiving of light spill, but they actually are so bright that they need to be considered a light fixture on top of the content they provide. The video wall as a fixture must be incorporated into your design plans and cueing.
When most of the backlight color is coming from the wall then you can reduce the number of fixtures you need in that system. You should remember to have the discussion about the use of the video wall, will it always be used or do you need to have the capacity to light the platform without it. Projection screens are not as dominant but they do produce a good bit of reflected light.
Architecture
The architecture of the building can provide some wonderful accents and will almost always want to be a full color fixture; this is a special system with dedicated fixtures for just lighting that feature. Another special system to consider is the set lighting. These fixtures could be a set of fixtures that are just repositioned based on that sermon series set. Alternatively you may need new or rental fixtures for a specific set, budget plays heavily in this system. You can also use the lighting beams as the set design during worship, this allows you to reconfigure the look based on the songs for that Sunday, and you can also change their locating for new looks.
Worship Lighting
This brings us to the worship lighting. The back lighting system and the side lights, assuming they are full color fixtures are ready to provide general wash. What you need to add are “specials” to light the reluctant musicians. Depending on a number of factors this can be anything from a spot fixture on each musician, to a moving light or two that can be moved to the lead at the moment.
If you have an upstage group of musicians then you can increase the angle above 45º so that you don’t light the back wall. If they insist on standing against the wall then you can only get them with a side angle. Special consideration should be taken for the downstage soloists. If you are using a dark upstage look you will want to have some specials focused from the front light pipe that are not part of the general front wash.
Depending on the size of the platform, number of soloists, and willingness to share a place on the platform will determine how many specials you need, oh and budget restrictions. Just to add in you may also have a choir and they will need a set of frontal lights, although they may not like it.
Worship lighting varies from church to church and even from service to service. Some churches will have one service with a full band and contemporary music, then two hours later they have a full choir. The general lighting systems will want to be fixtures that can do a good even whitewash, and have full color capabilities.
Once the general systems are installed you will see the restrictions you have to deal with to achieve your ideal lighting rig. Some of the more common restrictions are, hanging positions, power, DMX distribution, and money to buy what you want.
