The show directed by Danny Daniels and lit by the Church’s resident LD Michael Short,   was a seasonal live event designed for the enjoyment and enlightenment of all ages as a gift from the Church to the local community.

Michael utilized the Church’s in house lighting rig which includes six Robe LEDWash 600s, 14 x LEDBeam 100's, four DLX's, four MMX Spots and 4 MMX Wash Beams – all of which were purchased and installed over the last 18 months.

The Christmas performance included a 60 person choir and a 60 piece orchestra plus a children’s choir and a special Christmas rap video section devised by Remedy, the Church’s youth section as well as several all-singing-all-dancing large production numbers.

Michael’s brief from the Worship Department was to make the lighting ‘Chrismassy, glitzy and glowing with magic’ as well as having to cover the big moments and light  several ‘offside’ scenes happening on different parts of the stage. “Basically the lighting had to be flexible, versatile and utilize all the existing in house fixtures,” he explains.

Michael’s life has been made infinitely easier since they started adding the various Robe fixtures to the rig, which were specified by himself and Technical Director Daniel Livingston and started with the purchase of the LEDWash 600s and DLXs.

The lighting upgrade has enabled them to start offering two progressive style services with dynamic lighting which was a vision of the pastor Dr. Jay Dennis in addition to their traditional service using the same lighting kit to add vivid colors and general visual enhancements.

Apart from this, lighting required for events, conferences, concerts and theatrical performances can all now be provided in-house, so they are saving money on rentals.

For ‘Celebrating Christmas’, the MMX WashBeams were used for front lighting, for specials and for color washing the whole stage as well as for texturing. The MMX Spots were used for powerful back lighting and effects with additional layers of texturing, while the DLX Spots were positioned on the floor where they were perfect for lighting the side stages.

The LEDWash 600s boosted the rear wash capabilities of the system and the LEDBeam 100s were added to break up the washes and for creating ‘classic’ beam looks and accents.

Michael likes all the different Robe fixtures for numerous reasons.

“The MMX Spots are super bright and have wonderful colors while consuming far less power than other fixtures in their class.” he enthuses.

On the LEDWash, LEDBeam 100's and DLXs, he likes the color correction that can give a range of whites from “nice warm whites all the way to the bright bluish whites and all in between”.

The MMX WashBeam he reckons is “A great all around fixture allowing you to wash the stage area with color or pin-point and highlight an object with the tight zoom and shutters”.

Michael ran the Celebrate Christmas show lighting – which also included around 60 other assorted fixtures - on the Church’s Hog4 Full Boar console.

A collection from each performance went to support the Agape Food Bank which distributes in the Lakeland Area.