Martin Professional Contributes to Harvest America Event's SuccessAmong the many forms of technology Harvest's Pastor Greg Laurie uses to bring his Harvest America events to millions of people across the US is lighting provided by Harman's Martin Professional. In fact, during last year's event, the ability to quickly synchronize across hundreds of Martin lighting fixtures was key to the staff's ability to work within an unusually aggressive load-in schedule. Harvest America events bring the spirit of Laurie's Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California to venues in different locations. The 2014 gathering was held October 5 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, and was attended by more than 21,000. The event featured a day of live music performances, family activities, and a sermon from pastor Laurie, which was then broadcasted and live-streamed to churches, theaters, and living rooms across the country, reaching an estimated 68 million via television and the Internet. To provide a visual experience that could be tailored to both in-person and remote audiences, Chris Eguizabal, lighting designer for Harvest Ministries, relied on the Martin MAC Aura for lighting. "With the MAC Aura's exceptional colors, we were able to achieve the kind of lighting that not only washed the audience in an array of beautiful colors, but also looked great on camera," said Eguizabal. His biggest challenge, however, was the venue load-in. Since Harvest America isn't a traditional live tour every show has its own look, which occasionally requires the production team to cut its load-in schedule from two days to 12 hours. This was one of those occasions. "Thanks to the modular Martin lighting rig we prepared, we stayed true to the show's aesthetics even though we only had 12 hours to load the entire event," Eguizabal said. "We ended up cutting a few sticks of truss on stage from the air to accommodate the very limited load time but due to the strength and versatility of the Martin products, the show's visuals didn't suffer." Eguizabal is no stranger to Martin lighting fixtures, citing his introduction to Martin product manager Matthias Hinrichs and Martin senior sales manager Greg Jones several years ago as a "stepping stone" into the lighting industry. "Since then I've received nothing but incredible support from Martin no matter the product or event," Eguizabal said. "Not only are Martin products exceptional but the customer support is top-notch and above any other manufacturer I have ever dealt with. I was on the phone with Matthias and [west coast regional sales manager] Scott Anderson before the event, working out the details in my M6 console and fixtures. They were by my side until the very end. That's above and beyond the fact that the products I used performed flawlessly." Already familiar with the M6 lighting controller from two installed at Harvest Riverside and Harvest Orange County campuses, Eguizabal used the console to program the show in advance of the load-in. He spoke highly of the M6's benefits: quick connectivity with visualizers, abundance of playback faders and buttons, and, especially, customizable controls. "The M6's modules can easily be swapped for left handed programmers or whatever configuration you wish," said Eguizabal. "Almost every button on the desk can be customized as you wish -- I can program faster on this desk than any other desk for that reason. I can define the encoder knobs to any parameter control, giving me instant control insanely fast. The M-series software is very user-friendly and Martin is constantly refining and improving based on user feedback." Felix Lighting, based in La Mirada, California, was instrumental in the load-in, which included a plentitude of Martin video, effect, and lighting fixtures including the Martin MAC Viper Profile. "I love the MAC Viper Profile," Eguizabal said. "The bright colors are amazing, the optics phenomenal and the beam quality excellent. I use them all the time at our church campus and the 32 I used as my primary profile fixtures for this show really gave me some punch from the stage." Read more about Harvest America at http://harvestamerica.com/. Read more about Felix Lighting at http://felixlighting.com/. 
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