South Metro Ministries Christmas Service
Since moving into a new 900-seat auditorium 18 months ago, South Metro Ministries has been progressively growing each production in their new space. Their latest event, a Christmas spectacular titled "What a Glorious Night" used gear from 4Wall Nashville to make the lighting experience one those in attendance would remember.
Tech Director, Mike Stigile, and Lighting Director, Andy Rushing, sought to bring the "wow factor" you get with an actual glorious night to "What a Glorious Night." The only problem: having the necessary lighting fixtures to create their dream design.
"We have great infrastructure and grid above the stage; however, when it comes to fixtures, we only have a few lekos, pars, and battens to go along with a small amount of power for the room," said Stigile.
The two creative minds would not be deterred from their vision. The goal for the design was to have deep saturated colors that would create a canvas-like background for the beams to shine through; much like a night sky does with stars.
With that design in mind, Stigile and Rushing turned to 4Wall Nashville for a truck full of equipment to make the design a reality. Included on the truck traveling the short distance from Tennessee to Georgia were Clay Paky Sharpy Wash and B-Eye K20 fixtures, Martin MAC Viper Profiles, Elation Platinum Beam 5R Extremes, and Chroma-Q Color Force LED Battens.
Stigile and Rushing quickly put the fixtures to use upon arrival.
"The Sharpy Washes were perfect. We used them to create saturated colors on stage and really fill up the air space. The zoom and frost gave a great classic wash fixture look. The Platinum Beams worked great as a contrast against the washes and gave us a really nice textured look on stage," Rushing said.
MAC Vipers were placed on the floor to create aerial effects with gobos and backlighting, creating depth behind the band and vocalists. The team turned to the Color Force LEDs to uplight soloists and narrators. Stigile found the battens impressive.
He said, "The Color Force 72s were amazing. The coverage was even and they produced a great natural color tone for the cameras."
The B-Eye K20 fixtures literally "topped off" the design, flying over the crowd to create the ambiance of a starry night.
Rushing said, "We wanted to bring the audience into the production with creative elements. The B-Eyes were perfect for this, their beam effect created the exact starry look we were going for, while their powerful wash function and creative macro effects brought the audience right into the energy of the show."
In fact, the team felt that flying lights over the audience was the most exciting part of the design and proved to be successful in maintaining a continuous feel from the stage to the crowd.
In the end the team met their goals of creating an amazing looking production while keeping the entire rig to 250 amps to meet their power requirements. Stigile reflected on the incredible progress of the South Metro production team.
"A year and a half ago we did our first production in the new sanctuary. We had six movers delivered in a Chevy Tahoe. Every production has progressively grown until we loaded 61 fixtures into a semi for this Christmas event."
Stigile also spoke of partnering with 4Wall for this production and those coming up in the future for South Metro Ministries:
"We could not have been happier with the service from 4Wall. The gear was in better shape than all the rental gear I've ever used. Everyone at load-in was in awe of how perfect the cables were wrapped! The customer service was top notch; any trouble shooting questions we had were answered right away with a simple phone call. We have every intention of using 4Wall for future events, and look forward to what we can make happen for our Easter production."