Starting Point

[craighatting]

We are a church of about 3000 and our hall is a large warehouse type hall and we are slowly getting into our multimedia.
We currently have 1 projector and screen but looking at upping to 3 with 2 wide screen projectors on the sides of the stage.
Part of the revamp is to look at lighting our stage and hall, specificaly for the evening meetings as we have a lot of glass windows so it wouldn't be very useful in the day.

My problem is, as with anything new, I have no reference point to start with.
How do I go about getting good lighting in here? And software for controlling it?

I don't want to start down this road and learn through mistakes, anyone have good pointers for me?

[Stuart]

Hi Craig and welcome to the forum.

I won't pretend to be able to answer your questions but I do know what we did. We use a large (though not on your scale), high ceilinged auditorium that was an old workshed.

Our approach was to spend a lot of time researching and approaching sound & light companies. I don't know where you are based but in teh UK there's a company called WIGWAM (Walk In God With All Men) and they support a sizeable chunk of mega pop star tours. One of their early remits was to give bck to Churches by helping them identify what works best for their situation.

I can only suggest you approach sound & light companies or event management companies and ask their advice. Visit other churches, visit local theatres and befriend the Stage Manager. In short talk and read.

Oh, and I'm going to twitter your request and get folks to hopefully help you out some more.

[dean]

If you intended to do any type of DIY stuff,

You can get home automation type stuff, remote control sockets etc. at

http://www.maplin.co.uk/family.aspx?men ... %20Control

They also do lots of lighting stuff.

ie. If I was doing something myself I would link flourescent lights up to automated power sockets that sorts of thing. Im not sure the scale of what your after though!

hope this helps