case study

Holiday Sets Go From Ordinary to Extraordinary

challenge

Each year for the Christmas Season Lakeland Community Church strives to show its community the best in stage design. In 2022, building custom “truss trees” was in order, which called for bar lights to outline the trees and add dimension to the stage

Solution

Tech Director Josh Stecker and Lighting Designer Connor Hutson used 42 Stormchaser Supercells to outline the “truss trees” and then flew them over the stage at an angle to add depth and visual interest behind the band.

Result

Churchgoers loved the new, unique set and the crew loved the versatility of the new lights. Good Friday, Easter & Youth Summer Camp sets all incorporated the new lights in different ways, so the team is stewarding their resources well.

During holidays such as Christmas and Easter, church staff face the pressure of larger congregations and the need for exceptional in-person experiences. Limited budgets make it challenging to find inspiration for new ideas and sets.

For the 2022 Christmas Season Tech Director Josh Stecker and Lighting Designer Connor Hutson took on the challenge of surpassing the standard Christmas tree set design at Lakeland Community Church. They ordered truss angles to make “truss trees” and used 42 Blizzard Stormchaser Supercell bar lights to outline the trees and add visual interest and depth to the stage. Always looking to be good stewards of church resources, the Lakeland crew has gone on to incorporate the lights into Good Friday, Easter & Student CAMP sets that delight churchgoers.

Verismo™ Profile WW

300W Warm White LED Profile Spot

Designing Captivating Holiday Sets

“We dead hang everything at Lakeland and my tech team is amazing,” said Josh Stecker. “We struck the previous set design and got the Supercells set up while Connor created a show in the GrandMA3 and got all the lights into the rig. Running fixtures at 52 DMX channels, you go through universes quickly, but it’s worth it for the Supercells because they offer so much in max DMX mode. The ability to separate the LEDs into groups makes it an ideal fixture to design with, and it comes to life with its pixel-mapping effects. The new Phaser engine in GrandMA3 takes these fixtures to a whole new level.”

For the Christmas set Lakeland Community Church used 42 Blizzard Stormchaser Supercells, 16 ADJ Inno Spots, 8 SHEHDS Wash, 8 Elation Level Q7, 4 Martin Rush MH6, 2 Martin Rush MH1, LED light curtains, 1 Chauvet Low Fogger, 1 Pea Soup Phantom Hazer, 10 Chauvet Rogue R2X Wash VW and GrandMA3 on PC. The stage was designed by the Lakeland Tech Team, the lighting designer was Connor Hutson and the photographer was Amanda Breen.

Designing for both a somber Good Friday stage and a high energy Easter celebration required a versatile design approach. “The set design for Good Friday is always somber; lots of reds and more emotional colors. We set out to use the same design for Easter and when Easter hit we were able to add all the colors, high energy, and pixel-mapping from the Supercells that just sent the set over the top with energy. The versatility from a somber, supportive fixture to the main attraction for Easter is amazing, the Supercells are completely unmatched in features for their price point.”

For the Good Friday & Easter set Lakeland Community Church used 20 Blizzard Stormchaser Supercells, 13 ADJ Inno Spots, 8 SHEHDS Wash, 8 Elation Level Q7, 4 Martin Rush MH6, 2 Martin Rush MH1, 1 Pea Soup Phantom Hazer, 10 Chauvet Rogue R2X Wash VW and GrandMA3 on PC. The stage was designed by the Lakeland Tech Team, the lighting designer was Connor Hutson and the photographer was Amanda Breen.

In the summer, Lakeland Community Church hosts a week-long student CAMP to give kids a creative outlet to learn about tech and music. “We did a simple truss over band set-up and covered it with movers and 24 Supercells. We run Vista by Chroma-Q for CAMP and only have 2 universes so we ran the Supercells in 52 channel mode, patched 12, and then mirrored them from left to right so 2 would share the same address. Sometimes you don’t have the budget for 4 universes and this worked great. The amount of energy the Supercells push into the room with brightness and effects is cool to watch, and they really stole the show.”

For the CAMP set Lakeland Community Church used 23 Blizzard Stormchaser Supercells, 8 ADJ Inno Spots, 16 ADJ Mega Hex Pars, 4 Martin Rush MH 8 Minis, 1 Chauvet Amhaze Whipser Hazer, and 1 Vista by Chroma-Q. The lighting designer was Josh Stecker and the Camp Tech Director was Greg Hogfeldt.

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Prioritizing Price, Versatility, and Reliability

“I don’t want to be thinking about lights when I should be focusing on my team and the congregation. Blizzard’s support is amazing, and they continue to back their products day in and out,” said Josh Stecker.

CREDIT TO
Lakeland Community Church

Lighting Designers: Connor Hutson & Josh Stecker

Technical Directors: Josh Stecker & Greg Hogfeldt


PHOTOGRAPHY
Amanda Breen


CHRISTMAS SET GEAR:
42 Blizzard Stormchaser Supercells

16 ADJ Inno Spots

8 SHEHDS Wash

8 Elation Level Q7

4 Martin Rush MH6

2 Martin Rush MH1

LED light curtains

1 Chauvet Low Fogger

1 Pea Soup Phantom Hazer

10 Chauvet Rogue R2X Wash VW

GrandMA3 on PC

GOOD FRIDAY / EASTER GEAR:
20 Blizzard Stormchaser Supercells

13 ADJ Inno Spots

8 SHEHDS Wash

8 Elation Level Q7

4 Martin Rush MH6

2 Martin Rush MH1

1 Pea Soup Phantom Hazer

10 Chauvet Rogue R2X Wash VW

GrandMA3 on PC

CAMP GEAR:
3 Blizzard Stormchaser Supercells

8 ADJ Inno Spots

16 ADJ Mega Hex Pars

4 Martin Rush MH 8 Minis

1 Chauvet Amhaze Whipser Hazer

Vista by Chroma-Q