Briefingroom on LiveDesignOnline: Everything about the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is big. As the largest Protestant body in the United States, the 167-year-old organization boasts over 16 million members from 45,000 congregations. The SBC’s 2012 annual meeting, held in New Orleans last month, drew nearly 8,000 messengers, who packed the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center for two days of worship, business meetings and conferences, including the historic election of the group’s first African-American president, Fred Luter. Hundreds of thousands more viewed the meeting via live online broadcasts.
3 comments:
This fixture is interesting.. Having worked several years for mega-churches in the south - I know that its all about how many fixtures they have, and flash and trash, opposed to the correct fixture for the job. Which, I think, is okay - because lighting a worship set isnt about the theatrical elements. Its more about enhancing the mood and capturing the audience. This particular fixture is cheaper so it is possible to obtain more. I think the arrangement of the fixtures is horrible, but maybe there was some architectural limitation to how they could be rigged. I have had issues with elation fixtures before, so i usually stay away from them.
The most outstanding line in this article comes from a quote from one of the coordinators of the show, which is that an event such as this needs to be "reverent". This isn't a word we hear too much in theatre, and I'm actually curious exactly how you can manifest something so overwhelmingly bright and dynamic while still maintaining this sort of attitude.
From the mega-church events that I've previously found pictures of, they all seem to fall under the bigger-is-better mentality, and are just filled with hundreds of fixtures such as these to blow away the audience. If, indeed, that's what the client is looking for, then far be it from me to question the notion of reverence. From the description of the Elation fixtures, however, they seem to be so powerful and efficient that it would be impossible for the viewer to focus on anything except for them.
That being said, I'd like to see the fixtures in a different context, and side by side with comparable fixtures. If they can cut through TV-level washes, as the article says, I'd be willing to bet they could outshine some top-tier competitors.
I love the fact that the engineers built this instrument with the idea that it is a tight beam that could cut through light washes but the user used diffusion to soften the beam. One would think that there is a way to build in that kind of effect. I am always blown away by how much money is spent by churches and other religious organizations on equipment that seems overkill for what they are doing. Getting into the install buisness for lighting and sound in churches seems to be a great recession proof career choice.
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