Production Musings

Response Stage Design Part 2

// April 23rd, 2010 // 11 Comments » // Stage Design

This could be our most versatile stage design we’ve ever done. I was greatly satisfied at the number of looks we were able to achieve. Our friend Lester Hamrick loaned us 2 of his Elation Power Spot 250s for accents. Instead of talking, here are the photos:

To mimic the series graphic (see previous post)

Response Stage Design Part 1

// April 23rd, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Stage Design

We just began an 8 weeks series addressing what it means and does not mean to worship. “Our church culture often defines worship as a specific time during a Sunday morning service that consists of some praise choruses, or perhaps a specific music service that occurs during the week. Certainly, that is one way people connect with God. But, we may be limiting ourselves by missing some of the most valuable meanings of worship. It was never intended to be a simple activity that we perform but something much broader. In reality, it was not even supposed to originate with us.” – BR Teaching Team

Tim conceptualized this design to use offset 2′x4′ pieces of white coroplast. The idea was to use 16′ vertical 2x4s on 4′ centers. We would staple one end of the chloroplast to the stud and the other end would be offset approximately 8″ from the stud. I modified our original 3d models to illustrate the assembly in a way much better than I can describe:

Tim, Colin and Todd will attest to how difficult I can be to work with at times. I tend to over think and over analyze details of ideas or concepts and immediately move to “what are the potential problems with this idea?” or “can I immediately identify challenges we’ll need to consider ahead of time?” when brainstorming. Talk about a Debbie Downer for the creative process. In this case, I was worried about the 12″ spacers creating undesirable shadows when downlit and I was also worried that the spaces between the panels wouldn’t look right. For both cases, I was wrong. In hindsight, I think the shadows and spaces played to our advantage once we got color on it.

The entire structure is braced to the back wall and safetied. For sidelight we used the AC Lighting Color Splits (one per side), 5 High End Studio Beams above it, 6 ETC S4 Jr for band backlight and 5 S4 Jr Zooms for Vocal frontlight. Fresh pics to follow….

T3 Stage Design

// February 5th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Stage Design, Video

We just wrapped up our 2nd Series of the year. I suppose I must have gotten distracted along the way because I totally did not take any photos of it. I do, however, have a special documentation of the process thanks to Tim and Colin. They setup a Canon 7D and took photos every 30 seconds during work hours all the way up until Sunday morning into the 1st Service.

About the design:
- We wanted something warm
- We got the lanterns from The Paper Lantern Store (along w/ 15′ cables)
- Used 40 watt bulbs
- For power distribution, we found a great 12 outlet distro at Harbor Freight for $20. We replaced the ends from Edison to Stage Pin and it worked like a charm.

Between the 15′ extensions and the distros, we should have a really nice setup for future designs when we want to incorporate lots of dimmable incandescent fixtures.

Collide Series Part 2 (2009)

// January 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Stage Design

I mentioned yesterday that this was the design for trying new things. For part 2 of Collide we were into the holiday spirit and decided to have a little stage change-up for several weeks. For several years now, a few other Blue Ridge leaders have really desired a giant screen on stage. We currently have 2 screens off stage left and right. At any rate, finally we had a fantastic opportunity to explore some uncharted technical territory. We pulled off a 24′x6′ image across the back of the stage.

The response to our experimenting was overwhelmingly positive. Our executive pastor told me, “Out of all of the technical things we’ve ever tried, I haven’t received as much positive response to anything as I have the center screen.” Despite the way we bootlegged this setup, people seemed to like it. The number one comment we received was that it was “much more engaging being able to look straight ahead rather than off to the side.” It was a technical learning win as well. While we were in the planning stages, someone asked me if it was going to turn out ok. I responded, “I have no earthly idea. It could be successful or we could fall flat on our face.”  Either way we would have learned something.

As far as changes to the set, we did away with the angled truss, joined the ends and made one nice long straight piece of truss from which to hang the projectors. We measured their placement and distance as best we could, 8′ apart and 15′ from the screen if memory serves me correct. VGA was supplied to each projector fed by a Matrox TripleHead2Go. Our operating resolution was 2400×600 and our screen was about as homemade as you can get.  Todd used thin finishing boards as a flat surface and a half inch frame around the back.  In addition we used two 20′ battens secured to the frame to give us rigging points.  To finish it off we wrapped it in spandex.  We love spandex, can you tell?

My Macbook Pro drove the whole system from stage left after we discovered that the Matrox doesn’t appreciate having a 100ft VGA extension between it and my laptop. (It is supplied with a proprietary cable that must be between the computer and itself.) If any of you understand why that is so, feel free to educate us! To control my laptop and be with the rest of the tech crew, Colin screen shared it over our network and it worked like a charm. Overall, we didn’t have any major issues with screen sharing although we would not recommend this method for anything other than a short term experiment.

Here are a few solid things we’ve learned from this project as we look to do something more permanent:

1. We shouldn’t make our own screen. Fluctuating humidity and temperature causes wood to warp. Even over 5 weeks, noticeable image distortion could be seen.

2. Brand new projectors and new lamps are a must. As projectors age, so do their LCD panels. Color and brightness should match as closely as possible. The provided photos illustrate the color/brightness differences.

3. Edge blending is a must if you desire smooth transitions between projectors. We’re considering Panasonic projectors because it’s built in and hard to beat the quality.

Propresenter worked very well in controlling the display. As we consider a longer term solution to a center display we feel strongly about Renewed Vision’s product in terms of reliability and quality. Special thanks again to Lester Hamrick of Just Right AV for the use of his projectors and volunteering countless hours as well as Mark Hudson for giving several days worth of his time during this stage design and for his faithful service over the last several years.