Beautiful Church Retrofits with Chauvet Professional

	Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Northern Florida, lit with Chauvet luminaires.

One of the oldest churches in Northern Florida, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church recently saw an upgrade in gear -- the first in three decades -- with the addition of about 20 Chauvet fixtures. A selection of Chauvet Professional Ovation E-190WW ellipsoidal-style fixtures, COLORado 1 VW Tour, and COLORado 1-Tri Tour PAR wash lights comprise the church's permanent inventory, used for services and special events. Trinity Audio Video Lighting of Orange Park, Florida, specified and installed the gear. Completed in 1910, the church is built in a late Gothic revival architecture style, featuring a cruciform floor plan, pointed arches, tracery on the windows, buttresses and pinnacles, high spires, and an interior high vault. With the addition of the LED fixture these traditional features are enhanced for a beautiful mixture of old and new.

"The church wanted to change the altar and stage lighting to LED," said Ronnie Polowy of Trinity AVL. "Some of the lights were placed in very difficult places to reach and bulbs hadn't been changed since the last time they painted, some 30 years ago."

Two Chauvet Professional Ovation E-190WW fixtures light the center copula, which is about 50' above the center altar. "The copula features a beautiful gold leaf pattern, enhanced now by the Ovation E-190WW -- my favorite fixture of the church's gear," Polowy said. "The copula had not been lit up in more than 30 years because of the difficulty in getting to the old flood lamps. We mounted the Ovation E-190WW fixtures on the left and right pillars. They do a wonderful job lighting the copula from 40' away. We looked at different options and had some problems with the programming, but once we decided to go with Ovation E-190WW ellipsoidal fixture it went in without a single problem. I was very pleased."

Two Chauvet Professional COLORado 1 VW Tour wash lights illuminate the front of the altar with cool or warm white light, while six COLORado 1-Tri Tour light the copula and the altar. Two COLORado 1-Tri Tour uplighting the copula on the right and left side, and four more light the altar: one on each side and two in the center. Ten Chauvet DJ COLORband PiX linear lights wash the wall behind the center altar. To program the lights, Trinity AVL created eight pre-sets with a Chauvet DJ Obey 70 controller. The church mainly uses the bright warm white fixtures for services, and the color pre-sets for weddings and special occasions.

See Chauvet Professional at PLASA Focus: Austin, September 10-11, and PLASA Focus: Nashville, February 18-19, 2014.