We keep it simple:

For lights, we use a 12 channel light board (Lightronics) with 2 banks of 12 memory slots, 12 chase settings, and adjustable fade rate. We use two 4-channel dimmer packs (Lightroincs) powering 12 x 300-watt par cans and 2 x 750-watt ellipsoidal lights.

We use a 5-pin DMX cable between the dimmer packs and light board. We use our ellipsoidals as a white wash on our stage. They sit about 40 feet of the stage on opposite sides of the room on t-bars. We have to pipe the electricity for the lighting in from the control room of the theater. It runs down the wall – so all in all we probably have about 400 ft of 10-gauge cable to control all of our lighting. We pipe the electricity to 2 short trusses on the edge of the stages that have our colored par-cans (we use blue, red, and gold gels). The dimmer packs sit on the trusses, so we have to run a cable from the dimmer pack to the t-bar for the ellipsoidal lights.

When we’re able to purchase more dimmer packs, we’ll add at least two more ellipsoidals (which we already have) and another 10-12 par-cans (which we already have).

We use the theater’s lighting for general lighting. We keep them at 100% while people come in and during the message, 50% during worship, and black during all videos.

mjd