Destiny Christian Church youth centre equipped with Elation lighting solution
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: Destiny Christian Church in California, U.S., is an active parish with a number of ministries and classes and a weekend attendance boasting more than 3,000 worshippers. Seeking to evolve its style of service and its ‘approach to the worship experience’, the church has relied on the expertise of Illuminate Production Services over the past eight years to steadily adorn the facility with lighting systems in its main worship centre, lobby, exterior façade and most recently, its youth centre.
‘The church has had a number of ongoing needs as it pertains to lighting and production,’ explains Illuminate’s Rick Franke, who is also lighting director at the church and served as main lighting designer for the various indoor and outdoor projects, while son Caleb Franke handled lead design for the youth centre. ‘We wanted to make sure we had a company that would stand behind the gear. We chose to go with Elation products in particular because the church needed a solution that was cutting edge but wouldn’t break the bank and Elation delivers every time.’
The first project was an installation of Elation Design Wash 575 and Design Spot 575 fixtures in the 1400-seat main worship centre. The church has made consistent upgrades and purchases of Elation, Acclaim and ADJ equipment ever since, all of which is still reportedly being used today. Prior to installing the Elation fixtures, Destiny operated an incandescent system with a large number of parcans and other conventional fixtures. The original Elation install in the worship centre has subsequently been supplemented with Elation Design Spot 300, Power Spot 700, Rayzor Q12, ELAR 216 Panels, Opti QA Par, Opti Tri 30 fixtures and 20mm pixel pitch EVLED 1024 LED video panels.
Mr Franke also explains that church pastor, Greg Farrington, is a big believer in Elation products. ‘I can remember selling that first group of fixtures eight years ago and explaining why I would choose Elation,’ he recalls. ‘I can tell you with all certainty that Elation is standing the test of time in this venue. Though the fixtures in the main worship centre are getting older, they are certainly going the distance. Some of the movers have more than 8000 hours on them with very basic maintenance and some fixtures we planned to retire a couple of years ago are still in service today.’
Last year, Destiny wanted to make a statement for its 25th Anniversary and opted to install a 4mm pixel pitch Elation EZ4 LED video display in the worship centre, as well as a 6mm EZ6 LED video display in the lobby.
‘They have both worked perfectly for over a year,’ Mr Franke states. ‘The EZ4 has a black front making it easy to mask and hide when not in use on the stage and the colour is perfect on both. The EZ6s are install-grade panels that have worked flawlessly from the day we put them in. The colour batching is really good, the contrast is excellent and the brightness is perfect. As an install panel, I would recommend either of them to any church that is interested. In fact, it is causing us to rethink our typical video projection plan campus-wide.’
Previously lit with high pressure sodium lighting, the building’s large outdoor façade and columns are now illuminated in colour using LED-based Elation Elar 216 Panel RGBW and Elar 180 Par RGBW fixtures, along with Acclaim AL Bar and Acclaim Rebel series fixtures. ‘LED and colour saturation were very important factors for the exterior lighting package,’ furthers Mr Franke. ‘A rich colour scheme was important as was the desire to save power through an all LED solution. Warranty was also a big deal to our client.’
The most recent project, for the church’s youth centre, has included Elation Rayzor Beam 2R and LED-based Rayzor Q7 moving heads, along with Epar Tri LED Par lights. These are joined by a variety of DJ effects intended to give ‘energy’ to the services. According to Mr Franke, ‘speed of movement, impact for money and durability were all key factors in choosing these fixtures for the youth centre.
‘It's been a great experience working with Elation,’ he concluded. ‘As our company has grown, Elation has grown its product line and reputation in the pro market. We serve many churches up and down the west coast. We lead with the Elation product line and feel it is the perfect solution for a lot of church clients we work with.’