The future’s bright at Willowdale

Although Willowdale Seventh Day Adventist Church has updated its lighting infrastructure over the years, it was only recently that the North York, Ontario-based church decided to undertake a comprehensive overhaul. Headed by sparkAV, Willowdale’s house lights were replaced with Chroma-Q Inspire XT and 2Inspire fixtures, the stage lighting was upgraded with Prolights EclProfile CT+HPs LED ellipsoidals and a Luminex LumiSplit 2.10 rack-mounted DMX splitter was added. Following a discussion with Willowdale’s communications leader, David Civera, sparkAV’s innovation and design specialist Marc Snow discovered that the church had been updating its visual technologies on a piecemeal basis. Led by project manager Ken Kruse and field operations manager James Nickerson, sparkAV’s entire project team embarked on taking Willowdale into the future.

Working closely with consultant Brad Dickson and A.C. Americas throughout the design process, Snow explains how the lighting upgrade was initiated. “I relied heavily on Brad to provide us with the proper lighting plot and guidance on the correct instruments to light the stage appropriately. Brad was a lighting director for CBC for decades and is now with Calibrated Technologies, so he was a huge help. Our design team also appreciated A.C. Americas meeting us at the church with the client and providing onsite demos. Additionally, they invited sparkAV and Dickson to visit their facility for full camera testing and fixture comparisons using calibrated HS Scope software.”

In addition to replacing the house lights, sparkAV provided full lighting to paint the stage, baptistry, upstage wall and ceiling, in addition to the audience seating areas. With the services being livestreamed, appropriate lighting had to be factored in for broadcast. “To ensure we were able to achieve on-camera colour accuracy, we evaluated the EclProfile CT+HP fixtures on camera using HS Scope to measure them,” furthered Snow. “They gave us a good range of colour temperatures and the control to calibrate them, because we were also incorporating LED panels in the church. It was important to match the new lighting to the way the video panels look on camera.”

The Inspire fixtures – including 20 Inspire XTs, eight 2Inspire POEs and nine 2Inspire 200 POEs – needed to provide a minimum standard of illumination for reading. “With the full colour LED Inspire XT and 2Inspire fixtures, we easily surpassed that standard,” continued Snow. “The Inspire house lights also gave us the benefit of single shadows, allowing the congregation to easily read their prayer and hymn books without the distracting multiple shadows often associated with older lighting systems. Three 2Inspire 200 PoE Ethernet-powered fixtures serve the back of the sanctuary as wash/accent lighting under the balcony, and the DMX controllable Inspire XTs are located over the stage as fill lighting to light the forestage.”

The architect and designer’s original vision for the space called for LED lighting strips to be mounted on the church’s interior rafters and to outline a large crucifix and elevated panels at the rear of the stage. Ultimately, the off-the-shelf LED strips the church hoped would provide sufficient light were abandoned. “With the help of the team at Moss LED, our design team replaced those with camera-friendly, flicker-free, colour-accurate, higher-output versions to preserve the architect’s original concept,” added Snow. “But they still weren’t going to have the 10m candles necessary to provide the minimum light level for reading without eye strain. They didn’t originally want pendant house lights, because they preferred to light the entire house with white LED strip bars. It’s not just about lighting the stage in a house of worship; it’s about the whole room to encourage congregational engagement.”

Because the Inspire fixtures are full RGBWW controllable lights, sparkAV could blend the audience seating colour calibration with the stage. Chroma-Q fixtures were preferred over standard, pendant LEDs. The house lighting also provides flexibility for special events that require a specific colour palette, such as a wedding. Some of Willowdale’s previous fixtures were repurposed as wash lights and architectural elements, but stage lighting is handled primarily by 10 Prolights EclProfile CT+HPs. Mounted across three pipes above the congregation, the latest fixtures are positioned well outside of audience sightlines.

The Luminex LumiSplit 2 DMX opto-splitter allowed sparkAV to set each individual port to a separate Universe. “All the house lights are in a different Universe, which makes the system easier to configure because they’re using a virtual lighting desk,” explained Snow. “They have a lot of technical acumen, and programmed their own code to control the system, including all the stage lighting, LED accent lighting, and house lighting.”

Willowdale is now expanding its community and congregation, including its remote viewers, through an engaging worship experience. Following the upgrade, the congregation’s response was experienced by sparkAV’s entire team. “David delivered a sermon dedicated to our company and everyone involved,” recalled Snow. “I was watching it on a YouTube stream whilst flying down south with one of our owners and the company president. We all shed a joyful tear that morning, because they loved the product so much, and were so happy with the result.”