24.03.2021 | IPS and Elation bring concert level production to Impact Church, Scottsdale, AZ

LED lighting package teams with large ADJ LED video wall to bring worship space to life.

Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Impact Church is a fast-growing, multi-ethnic church known for high-energy worship and relevant, accessible teaching. The church recently moved into a new home, which was purpose-designed to host cutting-edge worship services with a focus on high quality audio, video and lighting. The anchor point of the new AVL system is an ADJ LED video screen that fills the rear of the stage, while the lighting setup consists exclusively of fixtures from Elation Professional and sister company ADJ.

Ambitious retrofit
What began as a bible study in the late 1990s for the Arizona Cardinals and hosted by player Andre Wadsworth was opened to the public and soon became one of the fastest growing churches in the nation. Headed by Senior Pastor Travis Hearn, Impact Church has a reputation for diversity, authenticity and throwing a huge God-sized party celebrating Jesus each weekend! These parties (services) have become so popular that the church outgrew its previous building, which led to an ambitious project to retrofit a former grocery store into a large custom-designed worship space.

Illuminate Production Services
The company responsible for designing, supplying and installing the audio, video and lighting system for the new facility - Illuminate Production Services - has a relationship with Pastor Hearn, which predates Impact Church. The company's President, Rick Franke, served as Youth Pastor at Hearn's previous church in the early '90s before focusing on a career in church media. He founded IPS in 2006 with his wife Sherece and together they have built the company into a market leader, providing integration services to churches across the USA as well as supplying concert tours, festivals, corporate events and theaters.

System design maximizes height
Having maintained a friendship with Rick over the years, and aware of the strong reputation his company has for effectively delivering the specific production needs of church clients, Travis reached out to IPS to partner with Impact Church on this exciting yet challenging project. Originally designed as a grocery store, the church's new building didn't afford the height often found in purpose-built church buildings, which meant that Rick and his team had to design the new system carefully to maximize the available rigging height. Another challenge they faced was the presence of support columns throughout the auditorium, which was overcome by an expansive video system that can be clearly seen from anywhere in the space.

Concert level production
At the heart of the church's new system is a large LED wall comprised of no less than 144 ADJ VS3 panels that extends the full width of the stage and provides a constant backdrop to whatever is happening in front of it. "The clarity of the VS3 is phenomenal," Rick comments. "From a practical point of view, it's about the easiest wall our team has ever assembled, and we have certainly built a lot of LED walls!"

For lighting, Impact Church's style of worship called for a full-on concert level of production. As a part of this, IPS's talented young VP of Design, Caleb Franke, decided to make use of a variety of fixtures selected from Elation Professional. Aerial effects and surface projections are generated by 16 Fuze SFX™ LED Spot FX moving heads, a compact yet feature-packed multi-purpose luminaire. "The client was looking for a versatile moving head with a lot of value," states Caleb, "and as a hybrid fixture the Fuze SFX was a great choice. The clarity of the optics are also great and you get a lot of brightness. All of this at an affordable price point made it a great fixture for the project." Complementing the Fuze fixtures on stage are 12 Rayzor 760™ LED moving head washes used for punches of color while its background pixel illumination system, SparkLED™, creates subtle mood-generating twinkle effects when required. Caleb says the fixtures "complement the church's high energy and inspirational stage content very well."

A run of Chorus Line 16™ motorized pixel wash bars sit under the LED wall along the back of the stage, while key light is provided by a mixture of KL Fresnel 6 CW™ and KL Fresnel 8™ LED Fresnels, which Caleb says was their choice for video key lighting. "The client requested a good cold white and the fixtures definitely deliver this. Both fixtures help provide very even coverage for video lighting. Since so much of the church's message delivery relies on both broadcasting and live IMAG, these fixtures were perfect for the church's video cameras." Finally, ADJ's recently released Jolt 300™ multipurpose strobe/blinder/color wash fixtures work from the mid-stage truss, downstage truss and floor. A Magmatic Therma Tour 800™ oil-based haze generator completes the setup.

Technology brings space to life
Summing up the project, Rick states: "We feel the overall design and products chosen have not only met but exceeded expectations. More importantly, our clients absolutely love the finished project. It was so great seeing the smiles come to the leadership team's faces as the systems came to life. This was a full audio, video and lighting install, so watching it all come together brought a lot of joy to the team. Like with any project, seeing the technology bring a space to life is always fun. Being there to observe the reactions of the client was a priceless experience."

IPS carried out the installation of the new system in the fall of 2020 and had it fully commissioned in time for Impact Church's grand opening event at the beginning of December. Since then, the versatile system has been utilized extensively both for energetic in-person Sunday services and engaging online broadcasts that extend the church's message across Scottsdale and beyond.

Church
Impact Church13802 N Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85254
www.impactchurch.com

Senior Pastor
Travis Hearn

Installation Company
Illuminate Production Services Inc.
www.lightingips.com

Owners
Rick & Sherece Franke

VP of Design
Caleb Franke

Gear List
144 x ADJ VS3
18 x ADJ Jolt 300
16 x Elation Professional Fuze SFX
12 x Elation Professional Rayzor 760
10 x Elation Professional Chorus Line 16
12 x Elation Professional KL Fresnel 6 CW
6 x Elation Professional KL Fresnel 8
1 x Magmatic Therma Tour 800