Low trim heights, limited hang points, the lack of house lights… these challenges seem to be present when lighting an event at any big ballroom. They certainly were at the Gatlinburg Convention center when Andrew Dingman set out to light the Clayton King Ministries’ Crossroad Winter Conference this January.
Dingman, though, is one of those inspiringly optimistic people who sees a solution in every challenge. “The room and rigging will always be the biggest challenge when designing a show like this in a venue like this,” he said. “But as is true in every case, there are always ways to overcome challenges.”
In this three-day conference, Dingman met the challenge presented by the relative lack of overhead space by modifying his plans. “Originally, I wanted to do another LED Banner above my Mid Stage LX Truss, but was unavailable due to trim,” he explained. “Flying my MS LX Truss to max trim allowed me to get bigger looks and more beam throw. A lot of those position were over the heads of the audience which helped create depth and height.”
Dingman also created a deeper sense of immersion on the ballroom’s stage by artfully blending “IMAG Torms” with a collection of 24 CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M fixtures, which like the rest of his rig, was supplied by StageWorx AV.
“Part of my design was to have video content on three vertical structures we call ‘IMAG Torms,'” he said. “All the content had to be custom made to fit, but it was well worth the trouble, compared to what we would have had if we did a typical 16:9 wall.”
Dingman blended this video backdrop with his Color STRIKE M fixtures. “The upright truss towers between the torms made lighting and video blend together to result in some great looks,” he said. “I ran content from Resolume on a media server and had it all fired off of my console. I also had bump buttons to do white hits on the LED to match some of the lighting hits.”
As part of this plan, Dingman positioned three Color STRIKE M fixtures above each IMAG Wall Wide stage left and stage right. He also used eight of the motorized strobe-washes as house lights and kept eight on the stage’s upright truss towers.
“The convention center venue had no house lights, so I had the Color STRIKE Ms fill in and play this role,” said Dingman. “During worship, I used them as house wash with colors and effects. Then, for the preaching and talking moments, I created a really nice and even house light with their center tubes.”
Describing his rig’s Color STRIKE M fixtures as “a real game changer,” Dingman says they allowed him to create looks on stage and throughout the room that usually aren’t possible in a standard ballroom setting. “Usually” aren’t possible? True, but not when a designer sees each challenge as an opportunity to find a solution.