Elation Lighting for Bayside Community's New West Bradenton Campus

Bayside Community Church in southwest Florida is not only one of the state's fastest growing ministries, with an enterprising spirit and new intelligent lighting system at its new, permanent West Bradenton location, it's also one of the most dynamic. Crown Design Group (CDG) has been involved in several AVL integration projects at Bayside campuses over the years and this past fall designed and installed an Elation lighting system for a new worship space at their West Bradenton Campus.

With approximately 12,000 parishioners and seven campus locations, the nondenominational Christian megachurch continues to grow in popularity. The West Bradenton location, the first campus ever launched by the church, had been mobile for years but at long last found a downtown property they could convert into a permanent worship facility for their growing congregation.

CDG's Ben Graham was on the production staff at Bayside Community Church prior to co-founding Crown Design Group in 2012 and has a special affinity for the church. "We were privileged enough to be a part of the amazing growth at Bayside, and had the opportunity to play an integral role in the weekend services, events, and campus launches," he says. "Bayside is really where CDG began to take shape."

Involved with the West Bradenton project from the very start, CDG handled design, integration, and installation of the stage and house lighting systems. "Bayside is a very active church," Graham explains. "They are constantly adapting, always changing and consequently are very production driven." That translates into the need for a flexible lighting system that can adapt to whatever they have going on.

Needing a versatile color-changing house lighting solution, CDG found it in Elation's LED downlighting Colour Pendant. Over 100 of the color or white light fixtures are used throughout the space from the main room to youth and kids rooms, where performances and worship is kept visual to keep kids engaged.

Although the main sermon takes place at a main broadcast location elsewhere in Bradenton and is fed live to the approximate 1,000 parishioners at the West Bradenton facility, weekend worship is a full-on service complete with live music. Lighting is both a key accompaniment to and creator of the dynamic atmosphere. When it's time for the message, a motorized screen lowers with the live feed and the lighting adjusts accordingly to keep the focus on the sermon.

For color wash on the main room stage, CDG turned to Elation's Fuze Wash Z350 LED wash moving head, a single source PAR luminaire with zoom, along with SixPar 200 LED Par lights that allow for a wide range of color shades. Cuepix Blinder WW4s, an LED-based white light unit that gives the classic look of a 4-lite blinder, are used for low-end color temperature looks and audience lighting. Also used on stage for added color and dynamic effect when needed is ACL 360 Bar LED moving battens. The lighting system works complementary with content on LED panels and other screens.

The new lighting system is used on high-energy weekend services plus a variety of other applications the sanctuary space is used for. The new Bayside West Bradenton facility was completed earlier this fall with first services held in early October.