Photos courtesy of Harvest Christian Fellowship, Riverside, Calif.
Creating the joy and grandeur of Christmas in our church productions has always been a balance of tradition, trends, and innovation. That is especially true for lighting. With so many stories, sets, and speakers to illuminate, creating a look for Christmas 2022 will be no exception. However, what has changed for many lighting teams is their trajectories. For many, plans and purchases had to be put on hold or changed radically to adjust to months of pandemic response. The demand for lighting to support video streams increased, of course, but there were many changes. For most lighting teams, recent production plans have been not just a matter of lighting the scenes, but of coping with change. Now that people are returning to live worship, teams must again adapt. For Christopher Eguizabal, AV and production supervisor for Greg Laurie’s popular Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, the return to live worship means that lighting this season will be a less-is-more approach.
“2022 will be less the big-Christmas-show-of-the-past in favor of the creative use of sets and more intimate lighting to draw people in.”
—Christopher Eguizabal, AV and Production Supervisor, Harvest Christian Fellowship, Riverside, CA
Coming back
“We are still ticking back up at our locations,” says Eguizabal. “More people [are] now coming to the experience of live worship.” With three physical campuses in Riverside and Irvine in Southern California, as well as on the Hawaiian island of Maui plus two satellite campuses that remain closed, worshippers at Harvest Christian Fellowship currently average 10,000 on Sunday—coming back from pre-pandemic levels of twice that number.
At Harvest’s main campus where the auditorium seats 2,500 with an overflow capacity of 1,200, Eguizabal describes the church’s plans for Christmas 2022 productions as a more simple and intentional approach vs. the productions of previous seasons with higher production value, employing large video walls and complex lighting designs. “2022 will be less the big-Christmas-show-of-the-past in favor of the creative use of sets and more intimate lighting to draw people in,” he says.
“We’ll have more physical sets and constructed stage design,” Eguizabal adds. “That doesn’t replace the use of our LED wall, but it increases opportunities for interaction with live worship and speaks to more intentional use of the wall going forward.”
Unlike many churches that had to switch gears and relight or improve lighting for better video, Eguizabal’s lighting teams were already working with gear and designs for broadcast. “Since we were already set up for broadcast with lighting gear and placement for video,” he says, “not many equipment changes were required. However, without a live audience to consider we were able to set up the stage differently to take full advantage of the space.”
The set-up allowed the set designs to have speakers and musicians face one another. “It created a different dynamic,” recalls Eguizabal, “and allowed us to film differently without having to consider people in the room. It gave us the opportunity to light more creatively, in a cinematic way rather than having to balance lighting for video and an audience.”
With many now returning for live worship at Harvest Christian Fellowship’s Riverside campus and other live venues, Eguizabal and his teams are reconfiguring lighting and camera locations to once again consider an audience. They plan to continue with the more intimate looks for staging and lighting, including techniques learned during the pandemic, to increase engagement for the Christmas season for 2022 and beyond.
New gear
With more live productions happening for Christmas 2022, new innovations in lighting gear will play a part in lighting design for worship. Eguizabal points to fixtures like Elation’s Rayzor series and in particular the new Proteus Razor Blade that, along with their increased functionality, provide a design that translates into a more interesting look for video and live performance. “Considering the physical appearance of lights has become important for sets to look good in person and on camera,” he says. “Call it eye candy, but they add an upfront quality being more noticeable, as lighting fixtures become more present on stage.”
Christopher Eguizabal, AV and Production Supervisor, Harvest Christian Fellowship, points to fixtures like Elation’s Rayzor series and in particular the new Proteus Razor Blade (pictured here) that, along with their increased functionality, provide a design that translates into a more interesting look for video and live performance. Learn more at Elation.com.
More than eye candy, the Proteus Rayzor Blade L, for example, offers features that make it stand out on stage, like attention-demanding, high-intensity strobe lines, along with the effects of a sweeping linear wash and Elation’s SparkLED FX, all packed into a single compact fixture.The company touts the unit’s unlimited placement possibilities that, because of its IP65 rating, can be in any indoor or outdoor environment. The IP65 rating offers unique protection from dust and water, so these fixtures are ideal for outdoor use and even permanent in a less-than-forgiving outdoor installation.
For many lighting professionals faced with weather and climate challenges, fixtures with IP65 rating can mean less work and less worry.
With a campus on a Hawaiian island, Eguizabal says the IP65 rating has become an important factor in his church’s outdoor operation there. “Our Maui location is an outdoor campus,” he says, “and, as you can imagine, fixtures are exposed to relentless humidity, bugs, and water.” Harvest Christian Fellowship permanently installed IP65-rated Chauvet Professional onAir IP Panel Min fixtures four months ago and are very pleased with their operation. “They offer us superior white light that is bright, weatherproof and durable,” Eguizabal says.
For many lighting professionals faced with weather and climate challenges, fixtures with IP65 rating can mean less work and less worry. In addition to its ability to work in situations that are typically unfriendly to lighting gear, the onAir fixture features a compact size and flexible mounting options so [it] can be used on location or in the studio. Additional features of the onAir IP Panel Min include a smooth 16-bit dimming curve, a +/- green adjustment, an emulated redshift, and the ability to produce a pop of color with built-in, customizable effects.
More live worship
As a testament to the return to live worship, Eguizabal will oversee the considerable production efforts associated with his church's annual outreach event, SoCal Harvest 2022. The two-night crusade is returning in November to Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, and will feature special guests including Crowder, Newsboys, Jeremy Camp, Phil Wickham and, of course, Pastor Greg Laurie. “It promises to be a great event this year with so much great music, and a good lead-in to the Christmas season,” he says.
