NorthRidge Church
For the 18th consecutive year, NorthRidge Church in Plymouth Michigan has WOW’d another 30,000 audience members with a professional quality, Broadway style Christmas production. These shows are well known in the community and have become a welcomed holiday tradition. The only difference is that, while a handful of people may return from year to year, consistently nearly 80% of those who attend have never seen the show before… and that’s the goal. NorthRidge uses the production as its largest outreach event and spreads the word to its congregation to invite, invite, invite! And they do. The philosophy is that if you present the message in an entertaining, non-threatening, relevant way people will gravitate towards the show and hear the message of hope that Christmas brings. What’s more, because it is a ticketed event, the Church is able to consistently use the proceeds to fund upgrades in their technology.
For 2011, Steinas Systems and the team at NorthRidge made significant improvements to the Lighting rig and Scenic control systems. For starters, while they have been using Martin LED Stagebars since they were released, they wanted to incorporate moving head LED fixtures into this years production. Their fixture of choice was the Martin MAC 101, a bright, fast moving, automated LED unit that could hold its own against their very large, very bright lighting rig which consists of over 175 conventional and 50 automated fixtures. “The 101 has knocked our socks off” said Luke DeMoss who is one of their satellite campus technical directors. “It’s speed, color mixing, and brightness really blew us away.” To further facilitate their lighting upgrades, NorthRidge made the decision to add to their Martin MAC 2k rig with MAC 700 Profiles. Luke added “The 700′s really play well with the 2k’s and we are thrilled with their capabilities and how they look in the rig.” Once everything “over stage” was where they wanted it to be, the team then took a look at their aging follow spots. “We knew we needed something that could punch through all this light on stage and everyone agreed it was time to upgrade” said Technical Director Jason Horn. After many hours of research and recommendations from Steinas, NorthRidge decided on the Lycian 1290 XLT 2000 watt Xenon. “These things are bright!” noted Luke DeMoss. “We have no shortage of light on the actors now.” Needless to say, the video team was also happy!
Other upgrades for the 2011 show included the requirement to get additional dimming on truss to be hung over the audience that would assist in front lighting the stage. For this, NorthRidge opted for the ETC SmartBar. The SmartBar is an innovative DMX controlled unit that uses a single power feed to produce 4 separate dimmer channels. Its size allows it to be easily hung from a pipe or mounted inside of a truss. “The SmartBars really made life easy for us. We were able to run significantly less cable with a much lower risk of failure” said Luke. He added “they (SmartBars) are easy to use and priced so any ministry could benefit from them where budget is concerned.” Finally, the last piece of the puzzle for the Glory of Christmas 2011 was flying all the scenic pieces. For this, NorthRidge decided to add on to their Niscon Raynok motor control system with the addition of 8 Stagemaker Configuration C motors and another Ch-800 control distribution system. “We have been very pleased with the functionality and reliability of our Niscon system. It’s good to know that when you push the button, the piece will move as designed without fail” said Jason Horn.
The 2011 Glory of Christmas production was yet again another huge success for the ministry and the hundreds of volunteers who helped make it possible. Now that the tough work of upgrading systems is complete (for the moment), the Church gets to enjoy and benefit from the use of this equipment throughout the year for all of their incredible series designs.
NorthRidge and Steinas Systems have a long standing working relationship. Steinas Systems has equipped NorthRidge with Martin products including MAC 2000, MAC 700, MAC 250, MAC 101, Stagebar, Tripix, Atomic Strobe, Jem Glaciator, Jem Haze, Wizard Extreme and More. Additional products provided include ETC SmartBar, Lycian 1290XLT Follow Spots, Stagemaker Hoists with Niscon Raynok controller, James Thomas Truss, Cable, Lamps, and other accessories. If you want to learn more about the technology used at NorthRidge, contact us today.