PrimeTime Lighting MSL155 and MSL255

By William Beech

The mission of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association (COGWA), is drawn from Christ’s promise that His Church would preach a specific “gospel” message, continuing the theme of all inspired Scripture: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). Our values are developed from those of the New Testament Church, which means we teach the living Word of God from both the Old and New Testaments. We currently have 209 congregations worldwide in 50 different countries. We offer Scripture-based services aimed at teaching our attendees in-depth, God-based lessons on challenges and blessings God offers all believers, and giving a reminder of what we can accomplish when we follow God’s plan and keep His commandments.

COGWA’s central administrative office is based in Allen, Texas, from which we oversee all U.S. and international areas. Our financial support is based on members’ tithes and offerings, which are then allocated according to the principle of “feeding the flock” and “preaching the gospel.” We produce content in our studio for both of those tasks. For example, for our members we produce a weekly news update, a weekly online Bible study, sermons in three languages, educational webinars, etc. For our efforts to preach the gospel to the world, we produce videos that are posted on our website—Life, Hope & Truth (www. lifehopeandtruth.com/learning-center).

We work on production quality and consistency of our messages, whether it is in articles on our website and magazine or any video we produce

Part of the consistency of our message is making sure our media team is producing video content that looks good. Our lessons and videos that are produced need to be well-lit and sound good because we believe we are representing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Most content posted on our website is filmed in our main studio, with a few sermons recorded at our local congregations and then edited through our administrative office.

We currently use PrimeTime Lighting’s MSL155 and MSL255 white accent lights for our green screen, U-shaped studio. PrimeTime supplied all the lighting for the studio, and we use their lighting system to fully light the room, eliminate shadows and provide key and backlight. Available honeycomb and gel frame accessories deliver the control needed to minimize or eliminate camera flare, or diffuse light output as needed. Both the MSL155s and MSL255s offer a low-profile design, which works great with our suspended ceilings. The MSL155s have a 51° beam angle on the vertical axis and a 100° on the horizontal axis, while the MSL255s have a 56° beam angle on the vertical axis and a 100° on the horizontal axis.

One of the interesting things about our studio is that even with all 19 lights on, we only use 1650 watts of power—less than a blow-dryer. PrimeTime Lighting is very efficient with their wattage. The fluorescent bulbs are high-efficiency, with internal parabolic reflectors bent at calculated degrees, which increase light output by 15-20 percent. We’ve been using the MSL155s and MSL255s for 3½ years and still haven’t had to change any bulbs yet, and the studio is in use on average of one to four hours a day, not counting live, continuing education seminars, which run nonstop for the entire day.

Dick Bock at Digital Resources introduced us to PrimeTime Lighting, and they helped us draw up the studio lighting grid to ensure our green screen studio was not only green, but also set-up to maximize the lighting to be highly functional. We have a multiuse set. Our lighting engineer set the lighting for two primary sets, one a green screen with a desk that will seat up to three persons, and then one for a white screen background for standing presenters. Depending on the exact shooting direction, we have very little for adjustment to the light cans, usually just redirecting a light or two for backlight.

Our lighting engineer was able to show us how to target the lights according to our set-pieces and the number of people in the video, but we’ve never had to move a fixture around. Our lighting system was designed around our requirements, which makes our jobs much easier and ensures clean, consistent light for all our video.

WILLIAM BEECH WEARS MULTIPLE HATS FOR THE CHURCH OF GOD, A WORLDWIDE ASSOCIATION. HE SERVES AS DIRECTOR OF AV, DATA AND WEB STRATEGY. HE HAS OVER 20 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN AV