Founded in 2003, Life Baptist Church in Las Vegas is an active ministry that until recently was holding five services each weekend in order to accommodate its growing congregation. After seven years in a building that only held 250, the church opened a new 700-seat sanctuary in December that features a modern Elation lighting system designed by Las Vegas-based consulting and contracting firm Embassy Services (www.embassyhold.com).
Hired by project architect IZ Design, Embassy Services, which specializes in permanently installed production systems, served as consultant of record for the design of all the low-voltage systems in the new building – audio, video, lighting, control, and comms – as well as acoustics.
Embassy Services owner and principal designer, Michael Brown-Cestero, met with Creative Arts Pastor at Life Baptist, Matt Phillips, when he started the design process back in the spring of 2018. “He served as a great ambassador for the church and has a really strong tech team behind him,” Brown-Cestero states. “As they hold both in-person and broadcast services, they wanted a versatile lighting system, one that operates flicker free with both high-quality white light and color light options. A big concern for them was not only making sure the lighting was good for the people in the room but also for those worshiping from home or viewing it on-demand. The church already had a growing streaming service before the pandemic and with a growing web-cast presence, TV-ready was important.”
A system of high-CRI lighting ensures that pastors, or anyone else on stage, are always seen in the best light, and the lighting can be easily redirected to complement other activities such as a full on-stage band. Adorning three overhead lines of Global Truss, two over the stage and one downstage, is an all-Elation system consisting of 8 KL Fresnel 8™ warm-white LED wash lights, 6 Colour 5 Profile™ full-color ellipsoidals, 4 CW Profile HP™ cool white ellipsoidals, 2 Artiste DaVinci™ LED Spot moving heads, and 12 SixPar 300™ color-changing Par lights. Integration company National Technology Associates (NTA) supplied and installed the gear.
Control is via an NX2™ lighting console from Obsidian Control Systems, a console Brown-Cestero had previewed at LDI in 2018 and says was exactly what he was looking for. “I’d been waiting for an opportunity to spec it into something new when the church project came along. It’s a great value – a solid product at an outstanding price.”
Pastor Matt Phillips says they have been extremely happy with the installation so far. “Mike helped us design an incredible system that we’ve been able to set up in a way that our volunteers have been able to operate with ease,” he states, “yet it’s sophisticated enough that we can grow into much more robust productions over time.”
Specializing in user-friendly, fully-integrated systems, Brown-Cestero says he prefers to work with as few brands as possible on a project and that choosing Elation for the new sanctuary was an easy and early decision. “It just makes things easier to have a single brand that encompasses lighting, control, cabling, clamps, etc.,” he said, adding that it even makes purchasing and invoicing simpler. “Plus, with Elation right down the road, when something does need serviced, it won’t take a long time.” Not that he’s counting on having to do that very often. “I know for a fact that they actually test every fixture,” he said. “I used to think that was marketing hype until I visited the Elation facility in LA. From their excellent value to their ease of use to their QC policy, it was a no brainer for me.”
Life Baptist’s new sanctuary building, which also includes classrooms, offices and a coffee shop, was dedicated on December 16, 2020.
