High End Systems Helps Solve Worship Woes at Speak the Word Church Speak The Word Church International in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was experiencing a problem with its existing lighting system as maintenance costs skyrocketed while reliability spiraled downward. Heat produced by lamp sources and the power needed to run the stage lighting system stressed older components and led to failures. Lighting consultant Travis Slyter offered to help. He has been the lighting designer and programmer at the church since 2007, and is also the sales manager with locally-based visual design company Ruehling Associates, Inc. Slyter recommended a new cost-effective LED lighting system with increased stability and versatility for their worship services, holiday specials, music and dance performances, and broadcast/live streaming. First, the church sold off or donated most of their lamp-based automated lights and conventional fixtures. Slyter specified High End Systems Sola Series for the main auditorium, including 20 SolaSpot 2000s, six SolaFrame 750s, 18 SolaHyBeam 2000s, six SolaWash 2000s, and four SolaSpot 1000s. This range of lighting would provide all the bells and whistles of automated fixtures, but with the energy savings and color consistency benefits of LEDs -- along with its patented lens defogging system for trouble-free operation. The conversion to LED has reduced the power consumption in the main auditorium from nearly 250,000 watts to just under 60,000 watts. Additionally, the low heat output allows units be placed next to curtains, set pieces, instruments, and the LED wall with no worries. "The rig is much quieter now that we have cut the number of fixtures by 70-percent and don't have a couple of dozen fans trying to cool larger units with 1,200W - 5,000W lamps," Slyter says. "In the past, we would have breakers, dimmers, and in some cases lamps fail after being on for a few hours due to the electrical load and heat. We had one of the hottest summers in the Twin Cities in many years and the system has been rock-solid." While power reduction is one major benefit, the plethora of product features is another. "The Sola Series offers us an integrated family of fixtures with outstanding output, full theatrical features, superb optical performance, and very quiet operation," he adds. "HES has also provided us with outstanding technical support and the most comprehensive warranty coverage in the industry." Slyter adds, "The consistent color temperature of the white LEDs allows us to use CTO on the Sola fixtures for a 'warm daylight' look near 5,000K that has become the new standard for broadcast wash. We can have smooth subtle CMY cross-fades and still have split colors and color scrolls for bolder moments." The high output of the Sola Series' LED engines covers more area with fewer fixtures and gives flexibility to light areas from multiple locations, which improves broadcast coverage and provides multiple creative layers, Slyter explains. "The framing shutters are invaluable in shaping light to just where it's needed. They are a definite plus in the SolaWash and SolaHyBeam fixtures, which are often used as key lights along with the SolaFrames." He adds, "The crisp gobo projections and flat fields from the SolaFrames and SolaSpots allow us to create high resolution projection effects and along with HyBeams also gives us razor-sharp aerial beam effects that jump out over the LED Wall and projection screens. The brightness of the Sola Series allows us to create beam effects with less haze, which is important in minimizing distractions and avoiding the graininess in the broadcast video that can often occur in softer moments when haze can get too thick." The main auditorium also includes 24 ETC Sensor D20 Dimmers for houselights. A Hog 4 console controls the lighting and LED video wall playback from an HES Axon HD Pro media server. "It's very immersive and the projection quality of the moving lights has people asking if we are doing environmental video projection. Since we debuted the moving lights at Christmas, we've had a lot of positive comments." 
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