Church lighting designers know that solving lighting challenges is often about having options. And since budgets can often limit our options for lighting gear, gear that can outperform its price range is something well worth seeking out.
Road Tested & Tech Certified: Church Production's new User Experience program not only puts products in front of church techs at 3 separate churches, select products, such as the ADJ Focus Profile. have earned the Road Tested certification—signalling that the product is church-ready.
Aaron Larson, Media Producer at Northwoods Community Church in Peoria, IL, recently put ADJ’s affordable Focus Profile moving head fixture (List Price: $5,199) to the test. It’s the new flagship model in ADJ’s Focus Series of LED-powered moving heads and claims to be the brightest and most feature-rich fixture in its class. Larson was surprised to see just how well this budget-friendly alternative performed next to some of the industry’s leading moving lights.
What's to like, and not to like? Learn more about the ADJ Focus Profile, from Aaron Larson, lighting and video engineer at Northwoods Community Church in Peoria, Ill.
Seth Potter
The ADJ Focus Profile’s 400-Watt LED light engine is designed for an output of 20,000 Lumens. Its beam shaping tools, precision optics, and large front lens work together to produce what the manufacturer calls ‘a punchy output’. “While the Focus Profile packs in all the features of more expensive movers,” says Larson, “I think the biggest thing for me was that, unless you knew it was different, you wouldn’t even know it was there.
“First off, right out of the box, the build quality of the Focus Profile looked great. Very solid.”
—Aaron Larson, Northwoods Community Church
“First off, right out of the box, the build quality of the Focus Profile looked great,” notes Larson, “very solid.” He also noted that in addition to typical DMX connections, there were several useful I/O options, along with a screen and button panel for programming. “Some of our more expensive fixtures only provide for DMX,” he says, “and the Focus Profile can do that, but you can also plug it right into the network. That’s really forward-thinking --- pretty impressive.”
The sophisticated, professional lighting system at the Northwoods Community Church main auditorium provided an ideal setting to compare the Focus Profile to the church’s stock of moving lights. “We put the ADJ fixture in the air at a height of about 25 feet with power and connection to our lighting controller and let it do its thing,” he said. “We auditioned some aerial effects and moves, then tried some washes.”
“The output matched nicely,'' he recalls, “and even though the breakups weren't exactly the same, any differences really didn't stand out.” - Aaron Larson, Northwoods Community Church
Something that Larson was anxious to see was how the new fixture’s GOBO patterns would fare alongside the church's existing battery of moving lights. “I really liked the optics and breakup choices of our other lights,” he says, “and we spent a good deal of time with them.” Larson was pleased to see how well the ADJ fixture mixed right in. “The output matched nicely,'' he recalls, “and even though the breakups weren't exactly the same, any differences really didn't stand out.”
The Focus Profile’s 400-Watt LED light engine is designed for an output of 20,000 Lumens and has a native color temperature of 6,700K. Its beam shaping tools, precision optics, and large front lens work together to produce what the manufacturer calls ‘a punchy output’. There’s a motorized focus feature that can deliver sharp GOBO projections or deliberately blur out the beam to create soft-edged looks. Additionally, the fixture’s beam-shaping tools allow church lighting designers to create custom shapes and manipulate the light output to cover very specific areas on a stage. A motorized zoom function and iris can further alter the beam angle and create pulsing effects.
Even in the mix with our bigger, more expensive movers, you really wouldn't be able to tell. It just fit right in.” - Aaron Larson, Northwoods Community Church
With sets at Northwoods Community Church auditorium changing several times a year, planning for new lighting designs starts two or three months ahead, says Larson. “We look at our options for the new set, move lights around to see what looks the best, then take a week to ‘flip’ the stage,” he says. Controlling color temperatures on set is of particular concern to Larson and the production teams so the new set will look its best for both a live audience and online viewers. “Past just looking at the stage,” he says, “we're comparing the experience in the room to how it will look online, how the set and lighting play with cameras. You want it to look good in the room, of course, but it has to look good online, too.”
Seth Potter
“Some of our more expensive fixtures only provide for DMX,” Larson says, “and the Focus Profile can do that, but you can also plug it right into the network. That’s really forward-thinking --- pretty impressive.”
“Mixing what your eyes see and what the cameras see is a bit tricky,” notes Larson. “We focus mostly on getting our key light right because we don't shade our cameras. So once the key light, color temperature, and intensity are set, they generally don’t move. Then, we go about adjusting all the movers and other elements that play around the set key lighting.”
For matching lighting on stage, the Focus Profile offers full CMY color mixing, with 16-bit control to get the right color for a given scene or look. A variable CTO color temperature control allows for white light illumination between 2,700K and 6,700K, and an additional color wheel with six dichroic filters with four primaries (red, green, blue, yellow) is also available, together with CTB and CRI filters.
“While the Focus Profile packs in all the features of more expensive movers,” says Larson, “I think the biggest thing for me was that, unless you knew it was different, you wouldn’t even know it was there. Even in the mix with our bigger, more expensive movers, you really wouldn't be able to tell. It just fit right in.”
