Led by Senior Pastor Ron Carpenter, the Redemption World Outreach Center is a Pentecostal Holiness Church experiencing growth that many mega-churches these days are not. With three campuses and weekly television broadcasts, the church serves a membership of more than 13,000—in large part, thanks to Carpenter’s charismatic preaching style, which many view as visionary. To accommodate this continued growth, the 4,300-seat worship center at Redemption’s main campus in Greenville, S.C., recently received a facelift in an effort to better minister to the entirety of its congregation, whether on site or tuning in via TV. AE Global Media Inc., based in Charlotte, N.C., oversaw the design and integration of the audiovisual systems, the broadcast and Webcast technologies, as well as the stage and backdrop design.
"With modern ministry, and ministries that are forward-thinking on how they want to use media, platform design needs to be a major consideration."
—DONNIE HAULK, President & CEO, AE Global Media, Charlotte, NC
As is the case when church services are broadcast, the challenge is to make the experience genuine for both those who are in the same room as the pastor, as well as those who are watching at home. At Redemption, this put the focus on the platform: it was too far away from the “live” congregation, and it no longer suited the pastor’s delivery style. “He was spending a lot of time down on the floor, making it really tough for the broadcast cameras to pick him up,” explains Donnie Haulk, president and CEO of AE Global Media. “Pastor Ron wanted to be really close to the people when he was preaching, and he felt that the existing platform was keeping him away from the congregation.” Both its positioning—30 feet away from the first row—and its height contributed to this issue.
Field of Vision
The new platform, which spans three levels, is 100 feet across: the lower thrust is 28 feet deep; the second level is 16 feet deep and 85 feet wide; with the upper level at 12 feet deep and 80 feet wide. In designing it, Haulk worked with Carpenter and the church leadership to determine what type of camera angles were necessary to achieve the preacher’s vision, as well as the aesthetics of the platform itself. “It’s a very clean, modern-looking platform,” Haulk says. The three-tiered design allows the cables, amplifiers and monitors associated with the musicians to be hidden away, for example—an important visual element, since Redemption’s praise band is quite large. “My goal was that you would see people, you would see pastors. You would not see wires and mess.”The platform’s backdrop is in the form of a curved, 116-panel LED wall measuring 60.9 feet wide, and 8.4 feet tall, or four panels high by 29 panels wide. Supplied by Mega Systems Inc. in San Antonio, the I-5 Dicolor LED Display is on a 5mm pitch, and uses Dicore processing cards, which allow for individual pixel calibration. Three images span the wall, enabling the display of either three separate images, or one seamless image.
Because of the wide resolution (which doesn’t support standard formats), and the need to make the images seamless across, Redemption generates custom content in-house, as well as in conjunction with Nashville, Tenn.-based Orange Thread Media LLC, through TripleWide Media, its division that creates content for large video walls. Two projection screens measuring 23 feet wide each flank the LED wall.
“I designed it so as Camera One swiveled to follow Pastor Ron as he walked from the left to the right of the thrust section of the platform, the video was consistent,” Haulk explains. The images on the video wall remain in the camera’s sightlines no matter where Carpenter is on the platform—an important design goal for Haulk, since Carpenter tends to move around quite a bit. “We didn’t want to have him locked into staying at the pulpit position. We wanted to give him freedom of movement and still have the branding and imagery [that is on the video wall] inside the camera’s view.” Redemption utilizes eight broadcast cameras: two jibs, five on tripods, and one body camera.
Stage Struck
The pulpit itself is somewhat unusual, in that it can disappear when not in use, thanks to a hydraulic system that’s used to lower it into the floor of the platform. “Before, they were carrying the pulpit on and off the platform, because when were doing worship music they had to clear the stage and then bring it back,” Haulk says. “In doing this, we eliminated the need for people to walk on and off during the broadcast.” Equipped with an interactive touchscreen by Planar, the pulpit doubles as a confidence monitor when in its lowered position, and is controllable via wireless remote.
The new audio system centers on d&b audiotechnik V-Series line array loudspeakers, in combination with J-Series infra subs, as well as an array of B2 subwoofers located in the face of the stage. Three networked Midas Pro 9 digital audio consoles control the loudspeaker system for the sanctuary, musicians, and broadcast. While not every church broadcasts its services, an increasing number are doing Webcasts, placing a larger emphasis on thoughtful platform design. “Before, in church, we never had to think too much about platform design because it consisted of a pulpit and a choir. And 95% of the time, the pulpit was in the center and the choir was behind the pulpit,” Haulk says. With ministries that are incorporating visual media into their services, this has changed. “With modern ministry, and ministries that are forward-thinking on how they want to use media, platform design needs to be a major consideration.”
Visual Branding
Social media has also affected how churches think about their visual branding. Haulk relays that this mandated another design priority at Redemption. “One of my goals with this design was that wherever you sat, when you pulled out your cell phone to do your selfie that you were going to share on Facebook, that the room looked good,” he says. “Before, it was very difficult to take a picture in that room that looked good on social media. I spent a lot of time watching people using their cell phones to take pictures of ministry and events so that when they posted them to Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, it was a very positive-looking image of the ministry, because one of the factors involved in church growth is the effective application of social media.”For Haulk, Redemption’s emphasis on media is largely due to Carpenter’s contemporary approach to the gospel. “As a minister, he’s saying, ‘God is the same. His message is the same,’ but he is very forward-thinking in how he presents that message.”
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