Learn more about church lights so you know what you need
Once you’ve bought your projector and screen for your church’s multimedia set-up, the church lights are the next important step. Here’s a breakdown of the church lights you can get for your church stage.
3 different types of church lights
Stage lighting falls into 3 types or what the industry calls buckets:
Hard-Edged lights: Often referred to as spots, these lights give off a hard-edged beam, which gives hard, crisp shadow making them the easiest to control. Common spotlights are the ellipsoidal, moving head spot and followspot.
Soft-Edged lights: Give off a smooth light so are best for washing the stage in color. They are harder to line up with things on stage but do give off softer lights. Commonly types are head beams that move or pin spots.
Controlling on/off
Controlling the intensity of lighting can make all the difference to your presentations. Being able to control your church lights helps prevent that jarring effect when the lights are switched on or off. DMX dimmer packs let you control both your conventional stage lights and any additional lighting systems you install. NOTE: LED lights can be dimmed since they will burn out immediately.
Control boards
The final piece to your lighting system is a lighting console. This is a main board allowing you to control all the individual fixtures or a group of lighting. The console will have controls that move up or down so you can lower the intensity, do fades and transitions or let one group of lights stay on while others turn off. There are a variety of consoles on the market and some of the more budget conscious options are excellent choices for giving you all the control you need.
Right cabling
Be sure to invest in the proper cabling for your lighting system. Simple extensions cords won’t cut if and can cause power outages. Look for cables with a DMX capability with a 14AWG notification so it can handle the electrical load your system will need.
