The PRICOM L2 lighting console is designed to let small- and medium-sized churches create sophisticated, yet easy-to-design lighting scenes. This image shows an Easter production at the 300-seat Meridian Point Church (MPC) in Peyton, Colo., where owner Bob Scheffler's family serves and worships.
There are those who, when faced with a problem, choose to build their own solution from scratch. Bob Scheffler is one of these people.
PRICOM’s claim that its products are designed by church techs for church techs is more than marketing-speak: in addition to fulfilling their respective roles at the company, the Scheffler family is also heavily involved in the technical ministry at their church each week, where Stephanie is technical director and Bob often runs the lights. Click here for more info.
It all started at Meridian Point Church (MPC) in Peyton, Colo., where Scheffler and his family are members and volunteers. MPC, a 300-seat house of worship, was upgrading its lighting system, which eventually led to the search for a controller. Those on the market were either too expensive for the church’s budget, or too complex for new volunteers to learn quickly (or both). So Scheffler––the founder, president, and principal engineer at PRICOM Inc.––designed his own.
The result is the PRICOM LCS2 (or L2 for short), which features 32 motorized multifunction faders; two touch screens (one 10.1-inch and one seven-inch); and a precision T-bar for manual fades. There are eight universes in total, and four direct DMX outputs. The console also incorporates SMPTE and MIDI Timecode inputs and outputs.
Affordable and easy to use, the PRICOM LCS2 (or L2 for short) features 32 motorized multifunction faders; two touch screens (one 10.1-inch and one seven-inch); and a precision T-bar for manual fades. There are eight universes in total, and four direct DMX outputs. The console also incorporates SMPTE and MIDI Timecode inputs and outputs.
“The idea of being a computer person operating a light board was not appealing to me,” says Scheffler, who has been doing production lighting since his early teens. “I wanted to come at the design of the L2 from a lighting perspective more than from a computer perspective. You don’t have to do a lot of typing on the keypad––it’s more about moving faders. One of the things that I love about old-school, two-scene presets is that you can sit there and tweak all the knobs with your fingers to get a blend that you like.”
Scheffler acknowledges that many churches pre-program lighting scenes prior to services so that all volunteer operators must do is hit “go” at the right moment. He concedes there is a place for this, but that smaller churches often don’t have the time for pre-programming.
The L2, Scheffler says, provides an ideal combination of manual and automatic control, giving church techs the freedom to adapt to the quirks and nuances of live production. “It was really important to me that the moving faders would allow operators to edit on the fly––during a production––without being confined to ‘Program’ or ‘Run’ mode,” he explains. With the T-bar, operators have the ability to respond to the energy in the room. “For example, in an Easter scene, Jesus may make his entrance at slightly different times, depending on applause breaks. It’s important to have that control over whether or not I need to go into a scene faster, or hold back while the audience finishes applauding. There are all kinds of dynamics that happen during a live production and you don’t know when they’re going to happen. Having that manual control allows lighting operators to make smooth transitions that aren’t noticeable or distracting.”
Bob Scheffler is the founder, president, and principal engineer at PRICOM Inc.
The L2 also facilitates volunteer training, Scheffler notes. At Meridian Point, volunteers start out operating the L2’s T-bar between three modes: Preach, Worship, and Stage Wash. As they gain more confidence, they begin experimenting with the faders to control the spots focused on individual musicians. Scheffler says it builds from there. “It’s a really good tool to get volunteers interested in learning about lighting, and there is only one level of screens so there’s no fear of getting nested three levels deep and getting lost,” he says. “It’s really meant to be operator-friendly.”
Stephanie Scheffler, Bob's daughter, is PRICOM’s director of manufacturing, operations, and support.
It also makes people feel less intimidated up front. “It’s very approachable,” Stephanie Scheffler, Pricom’s director of manufacturing, operations, and support (and Bob Scheffler’s daughter), says. “You know that this fader turns this fixture red, this one turns it green, and you can learn how to mix from there. There aren’t all of these complicated labelings, and you won’t have a whole bunch of buttons that you never use because you have no clue what they do. It’s very simple.”
Bob Scheffler, an electronics designer, founded PRICOM in 1981, designing and manufacturing an eclectic array of gadgets, including Trivial Pursuit timers, model rocket launchers, hotel wakeup callers, and model railroad controllers. Soon after, the company was also offering computer repair services. At the same time, Scheffler continued working on his designs, selling several to the likes of Motorola and T-Mobile.
But a love of theatrical production, combined with his passion for electronics design and a deep commitment to his church, drove Scheffler to focus on developing lighting consoles capable of delivering high quality performance at a price that small to mid-sized houses of worship––churches like his own––could afford. Today, PRICOM is a true family business; aside from Bob and Stephanie, Steven Scheffler (Bob’s son and Stephanie’s brother), a commercial airline pilot, is in the role of CEO. Starci Scheffler, Bob’s daughter and Stephanie’s sister, is lead SMT technician. In total, eight of the 10 Scheffler children work in the business.
PRICOM’s claim that its products are designed by church techs for church techs is more than marketing-speak: in addition to fulfilling their respective roles at the company, the Scheffler’s are also heavily involved in the technical ministry at their church each week, where Stephanie is technical director and Bob often runs the lights. Through her production company, Trinity Shows––which is in the process of receiving its 501c status––Stephanie writes, casts, produces, directs, and costumes the Christmas and Easter productions, as well as collaborating with her father on the lighting design. Sister Starci oversees the choreography, with Bob once again running the lights. Mom Shari handles stage management, and appears in productions as well. Once again, the rest of the children pitch in where needed.
These productions are also streamed live and recorded for on-demand viewing (or for transfer to DVD).
Bob Scheffler relays that MPC’s standard lighting set-up is quite simple, comprised of approximately 30 thin pars and eight moving heads. “When Stephanie is running it for church services, she does an amazing job of making it look special: there’s pools of light on each of the performers, and she switches gel colors,” he describes. For Stephanie’s productions, PRICOM will complement the rig with another 200 fixtures for more sophisticated scenes and transitions.
In today’s worship environment––where most churches are doing some kind of streaming––quality production lighting has become absolutely necessary to keep both in-person and online audiences engaged. Still, Stephanie Scheffler notes that smaller to mid-sized houses of worship now have access to lighting technology that delivers professional performance without tapping out their financial resources. “That’s the nice thing with DMX: you can add fixtures as your budget allows––you can start with two fixtures and then acquire another one, and then another one, when you have the funds,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be complicated.”
