Elite Multimedia Forms a Cohesive Worship Experience for X. WKND

	X. WKND event in the round at the Shocco Springs Conference Center

As part of LifeWay Christian Resources, LifeWay Students is dedicated to providing the tools necessary for an exciting and rewarding student ministry. With a series of summer camps that travel across the nation, the annual X. WKND kick-off event is an opportunity for all the summer camp staff members to come together as one before heading out on the road. Held inside the Shocco Springs Conference Center in Talladega County, Alabama, production designer Jake Brantley wanted to give the 2018 event a unique, in-the-round, worship experience, so he worked with Elite Multimedia Productions who provided a full rig of audio, lighting, and LED video.

"This year we wanted to do something a little different, so we started talking about what was possible in a gymnasium with very limited rigging points," began Brantley. "We started playing around with the idea of doing it in the round, but one of the challenges was that the highest point in the ceiling is only at 26', so we decided to push our LED video surfaces to the outside of the room, facing in. In this set-up, no matter where you were in the house, when you were looking at the stage, your LED visual surface was in the background. It was a unique challenge, but it turned out really well."

Having a clear vision of how the design would come together, Brantley next made a call to Elite Multimedia Productions to fill out the gear list for the live event. Having worked with the production provider on numerous occasions, he was confident that his vision could become a reality.

"Elite Multimedia Productions knows that when I am coming up with a design, it's going to be ambitious and a little different," continued Brantley. "They do a great job of helping us find the right gear that fits both our dream design and our budget. When working to fill out a gear list, you have to be willing to give-and-take a little bit, and Peter Streiff at Elite Multimedia did a great job helping us turn our vision into a successful event."

Ready now to begin the load-in, Brantley and the crew were well prepared for the task at hand. Knowing both the capabilities and the limitations of the room, they were able to develop an ideal production schedule to make sure they got the most impactful design.

"We have been doing events in this space for about 10 years, and with how challenging the space is and the fact that we needed to hang a substructure of truss to be able to fly our rig, we scheduled ourselves an extra day of load-in," explained Brantley. "We were working with a crew of two lighting directors, two audio engineers, three LED video technicians, and then a few stage riggers and volunteers as well. We started almost 36 hours before the event happened so that we could take our time and get it right."

As it was time to put the finishing touches on the design, Brantley and the design team looked to make a dynamic but cohesive worship environment. With an emphasis on selecting a gear list that would allow them to blend all the elements together, they decided on an almost all LED-based package.

"When working with LED video, the lighting and video have to work in harmony," added Brantley. "It's really easy for a programmer to make one more prominent than the other, but if you can truly balance them out it's a much more cohesive look. You have to have an LD who knows the right way to use the lights in the rig to add to the environment, and our LD Chris Kulow did an amazing job of blending all of the lighting and production elements together."

With the doors ready to open inside the Shocco Springs Conference Center, the summer camp staff members from around the nation began to fill the room. Watching as they saw the new production design in place, Brantley was excited to see the vision he brought to Elite Multimedia Productions come to life.

"There was a lot of buzz and conversation around having the worship environment in-the-round and you are starting to see a lot of worship leaders give it a try," concluded Brantley. "The nice thing about this type of configuration for a worship environment is that the fourth wall is broken, and the stage and the audience are all worshipping together as one. It creates a space where everyone is together, united in worship, making it one cohesive experience."