Christmas Designs

Christmas Bars

Steven Hall from Northland Church in Longwood, Florida brings us this massive Christmas stage design.

They built a massive structure to support 72 Megalite Bright Stripe LEDs. The structure used gas pipe, uni strut, and various connectors. They built 10 separate sections to support the LEDs. The LEDs were then clamped to the pipe. Each section had its own DMX Universe. There were 10 universes of LEDs run from a computer running Madrix.

They also rented a circular truss. They used custom made bases and truss from Canavan Scenic in Orlando to create the arches around the center screen. They covered those arches in garland and Christmas lights. They also put 10 Clay Paky Sharpys on the truss and 6 on the floor.

The hardest part of the design was the scale. They used sixty-four 1″ gas pipes, 32 couplers, 20 sections of unistrut, 64 connectors, and 64 clamps.

It took 12 people a full day to setup and wire all the panels. They put black fabric behind the LEDs.

Check out the paperwork of the setup, linked at the bottom of this post. Cool!

Sanctuary Paperwork

Triangle Projections Castling

11 responses to “Christmas Bars”

  1. Clay Paky Sharpys… I’m pretty sure this is heaven.

  2. Mike Fowler says:

    Wow. Impressive! This looks amazing! How long did you keep the set up for? Oh, and what lighting console were you using?

  3. Steven Hall says:

    Dalton,

    Lol. You nearly had me fall out of my seat. Sharpys are awesome, but I am sure the creature of light and dark has something much better in heaven!

    Mike,

    We preset(hung the LEDs behind a black drape) for 2 weeks, and then used them for service for 4 weeks. We are using a Grand MA series 1 . We used a computer to run a 16 universe Madrix setup for the LEDs.

    ,Steven

  4. Jeremy London says:

    so thats what 1.5 million dollars in lights looks like! dang. love the layout. just wish it was more obtainable to the normal church. Cant imagine how much your bringing in. Crazy!

    Did a great job on the design and engineering of all the lighting universes and dmx channels!

    Quick question do you like madrix? ive used it once but found it to be a bit trouble sum to set up properly.

  5. Steven Hall says:

    Jeremy,

    I can assure you that the lighting cost was no where near 1.5 million dollars. Our total Christmas budget was $20,000. I agree that is a lot of money, however with that amount we purchase 80 LEDs (that we use quite often now), rented circle truss, rented 16 clay paky sharpys, built scenic and support structures for the LEDs and paid for all the install labor. No small feat, for sure.

    We have done very similar looks with PVC pipe and projection for under $500. One of our multi-sites used PVC to mimick what we did in the sanctuary and It looked almost the same.

    Northland’s lighting runs on a very small percentage of the church’s overall budget. We use under 2% of the churches budget. I tell you this to give you an honest view of the church. The Church as a whole is called to minister to people, not put on a “good show”. At Northland we strive every week to create an environment for worship while keeping in mind we (the church) have much more pressing needs (like feeding the homeless and taking care of people in need). Have a look at http://www.generous.northlandchurch.net/respond/livegenerously/ I think you will see that Northland is doing much better things than lighting :).

    I love Madrix. I think it is the best program for quickly creating and playing back LED content. It is a very good program but patching can be a pain sometimes. Feel free to call or e-mail me and I would love to help you any way I can.

    Steven
    stevenhallav@gmail.com
    618-267-5528

  6. You have an excellent point!

  7. Ryan Spencer says:

    So cool… Steven- Thanks for all the details and giving a real snap shot of a large scale budget and perspective.

  8. Jason says:

    Good Morning Steven,

    I am the lighting coordinator for all services and events at Life -Community church in Jamestown, NC. It’s amazing how the correct lighting can impact a performance for holidays or everyday worship for that matter. We are in the early stages of having lighting as a part of our services and just in the last 3 years have been able to push the need for something better. We added intelligent lighting and i am now looking for ideas of the best way to space my intelligent fixures based on our layout for worship. Are there websites or research tools that would help me with ideas. We are currently running 2 mac250’s, 6 a7000 leds on a compulite – dlite48 board. We are continuing to upgrade each year and i’m looking for new ideas on stage designs for a smaller budget. Thanks for the time. Your stage looks incredible

    • Steven Hall says:

      Jason,

      Sorry It has taken so long to get back to you. I don’t know of any specific places to find lighting layout “guides”. However, there are plenty of designs featured in this blog that are can be helpful. I would encourage you to contact people who have designed sets you like. Most of them will be more than happy to speak with you and give you some insight. My personal opinion is that you could do well with your LEDS uplighting some set pieces and your Mac 250s out front lighting them with textures. I would love to speak with you more in detail personally, if you would like.

      Feel free to call me at 618-267-5528

      ,Steven

    • Dewey says:

      Hello Jason,

      We recently bought some stage light products from this company called Pro Lighting. Their website is prolightingshop.com. They currently have a 20% OFF promotion. Please see if they have what you looking for. Good luck. God bless.

  9. Bob Turner says:

    We should be careful trying to “dress up” our service, building, & sermon so much that we distract from the gospel, thus overshadowing the cross, & somehow emptying its power from our message. (1 Cor. 1.17)

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