Biltmore Baptist Church acknowledges over 10 years of Martin and Harman
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: The 7,500 member Biltmore Baptist Church in North Carolina reports that its 2,400-seat worship centre at its main Arden location has been relying on Martin lighting and Harman Professional audio equipment for more than a decade for its sermons, concerts, church activities and theatrical and video productions.
The church maintains a strong online presence with live streaming video services, podcasts and original video productions, and utilises a variety of Martin intelligent lighting fixtures to illuminate its main platform area, measuring 34m across, 14m deep with a 24m stage between the video screens which are located at each end of the platform.
The church’s lighting array includes four MAC 500 floor-mounted spot luminaires with dual colour wheels, dual gobos and a rotating prism for uplighting, two MAC 500s used as overhead wash fixtures and a number of MAC 575 Krypton 57W lights positioned throughout the church. However during the holidays, additional MAC 101 and MAC 301 Wash LED lights and MAC 700 Wash lamp lighting is rented to add festive colours and special effects to the church’s interior spaces.
‘Our lighting requirements run the gamut from simple to highly elaborate,’ explained Eric Alexander, the full-time technical lighting specialist at Biltmore Baptist Church. ‘When the pastor is giving his sermon we just need some basic wash lighting to cover him as he walks around the platform – we want the focus to be on him and not the lighting and a couple of Martin wash lights are all we need to provide uniform and effective illumination.
‘For the praise band and choir we’ll get more creative and complex with effects and colours,’ he added. ‘In theatrical productions and concerts we’ll use the full array of colours, effects, movement and backlighting that Martin lighting provides, for a more powerful and exciting presentation.’
Mr Alexander is assisted by Zach Brady, the church’s audio specialist and front of house mixer, technical director Dave Duncan and a cast of volunteers that can amount up to 20 during a Sunday morning service with choir, orchestra and praise band.
Real World Audio installed the audio for the Biltmore Baptist Church, which comprises three columns of eight JBL VerTec VT4888 line array elements each are hung at stage left, centre and right, and four VerTec VT4880 dual-18-inch line array subwoofers are placed underneath the stage. A variety of additional JBL VP and other speakers are installed throughout the church in the fellowship hall, youth area, gymnasium and other rooms, all powered by Crown amplifiers and connected via Harman HiQnet System Architect software. In addition, the church uses a variety of JBL VRX Series loudspeakers and Crown amps in its Swannanoa and Franklin campuses.
‘My main consideration is that the lighting and sound must serve the message the pastor and the people on stage want to deliver without drawing too much attention to itself,’ Mr Alexander clarified. ‘The Martin lighting can provide an incredibly wide range of looks, colours and effects and the JBL loudspeakers provide stunning concert-quality sound, so we could really dazzle the congregants if we wanted to but that’s not what we’re about. We use lighting and sound to enhance the message we want to convey and if you do it right, it has a big impact.’