It’s Finally Here!

When it comes to any production, one thing I love to do with a burning passion is lighting. And since City Reach this past year, our lights haven’t worked at 2Twenty. Leaving me either to do sound (which I don’t mind), computer (which I never do but sometimes would like to do), or do nothing. And personally, I don’t like to do nothing. But finally, lights return!!!

We recently just bought an Elation DMX Operator 192 light board. This is for our Intelligent lights, which are the three old intelligent lights from APC. They are 3 American DJ AccuScan 250’s. The lights are going up the first of April. CAN’T WAIT!!!!

Winter Retreat Lighting Ideas

Winter Retreat is Awesome!

But seriously, when I do lights for any APC Event, my goal is to make them look good and still make an atmosphere for worship and for people to connect with God. So I have had a couple of thoughts for how I can do this. This year we are planning to use all LED’s and some Intelligent  lights. So do you think we should still get par cans? Here are my thoughts for what we have.

1) Have four LED’s on two trusses and a few on the floor with Intelligent lights on top of the trusses.

2) All LED’s on the floor and intelligent lights in the ceiling.

What’s the best idea?

Software Review: Elation Elumination

Today I thought I'd start doing some software reviews. Today I'm going to start with Elation Lighting "Elumination Software". This software let's you control up to 8 groups at one time with 8 different light banks. Along with each bank, you can program up to 48 different fixtures. This software gives you the same capability as a normal light board.If you can look at the image, you can see that I have programed 2 Intelligent scanners which I can change how it moves, the gobos, color fixtures, and so much more. Also I have 8 color LED's from American DJ, and 11 LED par can lights from Elation (good for any preach or stage white lights).

Personally, I've always been the one to run lights from multiple light boards, one for intelligent lights and one for everything else (including house lights), but I like this program because I can control all that just from my laptop (and I have a small laptop [netbook]) and it's a free software. Now you maybe wondering. "Don't you need a special cord to run lights from a computer?" Yes you do, and it's cheap. All you need is a USB to DMX cable, then attach the DMX end to the other end of another DMX cable and it will work. Hope this helps! Next I'll start doing worship softwares!

Home Sick Really isn't That Fun

Today on Veterans Day, I am home sick with a fever. That gives me a chance to do a couple of things that I really need to do before the next couple of weekends.

1. 12 Disciples Video for Joe. Here's how the first try came out, so I'm redoing it.


2. Look up lights for 2Twenty. Any suggestions, let me know!!!!

The Search is On

A couple of month's ago, our light board at 2Twenty :'(
Anyway, time to move on. I am currently on the search for the following:

• New lights at 2Twenty
• PC Based Software
• Oh...and a new computer (Laptop or Desktop i don't care)

So, does anyone have any suggestions? Let me know asap!

It Finally Happens this Week!

Finally! One of my favorite productions of the year here at Allison Park Church is happening this week. That one is also known as Kidz Kaboom. Close or over 400 elementary and pre-school kids will be on the APC Campus during the week, and over 100 teen helpers will be on site to assist them. What happens during Kidz Kaboom is in the morning there are camps that the kids attend (art, basketball, martial arts, cooking, dance, cheerleading, and obviously the pre-school camp for the pre-schoolers). Then in the afternoon, there is a high energy service that takes place featuring worship, games, story, scripture memorization, multi-media, and soooooo...much more! That's where tech ministries comes into play. In order to make it high energy, we want to bring in equipment that will make the service (rally) look both good, inspirational, and freakin awesome all at the same time. Sunday afternoon till the wee hours of Monday morning (if it takes us till 2am, we'll be there) is the set up in the sanctuary. I will try to update from there at some point with some pics of what's happening so far.

Kidz Kaboom 2010 Production

Okay, one of my ALL TIME favorite events at Allison Park Church is Kidz Kaboom. Over 400 Kids will be taking part in High Energy Rallies, Miscellaneous camps, games, worship, and more. And over 60 Middle School and High School students will be on campus at APC to make sure this happens in an orderly fashion. Where I come into this is that once again, I will be in the Tech booth running lights again. Most likely I will be using, yet again, the DMX Operator 192 (Two of them) for Intelligent lights. Then two or three other boards after that. I can't wait for this event. I you are interested in signing up for this even if you're a middle school or high school student, Click Here.

Great TIme at Upward Awards

Last night was a blast at Upward Awards Night. I got the chance to once again work with Inteligent Lights with the Elation Operator 192 board once again. Not only that, I had to do video switch, and I got to take home a 2-litter thing of Coca-Cola (I seriously needed it after this past week starting day lights saving time.) But I got the chance to work with 4 other amazing people who without them, the night would not have happen. So special thanks to Gregg Jacobs, Brian Russel, Nick Karis, and Andy Eble. Joe Schafer did an awesome job also making the night happen.

Upwards Award Night

I will continue to post about this for the next week or so, but my next big production is Upward Awards night.

For those of you who don't know what Upward is, it's a Christian basketball league that Allison Park Church holds that involves APC and other surrounding church's like Orchard Hill Church, North Hills Christian Community and more. I got placed in helping with the tech production with that which includes Projectors, Lights, Live Cam, and output switching. I'll be working with Gregg Jacobs and hopefully 1 other person. This should be one of those easy productions that APC has.

The New Experience of Working Winter Retreat

This past weekend, I got the chance to work with new people. A new band to start with. I got the chance to work with The Valley Forge Christian College Band (featuring Brendon Robinson From APC) and a bunch of other people from the college. The biggest Inspiration from that group that I got from that whole weekend was from the sound man Jason. Before the first service and before a little bit of the second service, but he was able to pull through and make it one of the best retreats ever. One other person I'd Like to thank for being there this weekend is Brian Russell. He was the person who ran the computer and did an outstanding job. The retreat this year was a big success. Plus also in the first night alone, 25 people gave their lives to Christ which I think is awesome!

Production for Winter Retreat

This weekend, I get to work one of my favorite 2Twenty productions.

That is Winter Retreat. This year I am incharge of working not 1, not 2, but 3 light boards. One of them is our normal 2Twenty Light Board (see all below) Also like I've put in previous post's, the DMX Operator 192 for Intelligent Lights. And Finally for a second set of Can lights is the Light Board known as the Stage Desk 16. The mentality I'm keeping this weekend is found in the Bible in Phillippians 4:13, "I can do All things through Christ who strengthens me." So....WISH ME LUCK!!

American DJ Forum...Great ways to get Tech Questions

This afternoon, since I've been off the past 5 days, I've decided to go "OCD" on learning how to program the DMX Operator 192 for the Winter Retreat which is Pictured. I thought That I would try submiting a question on "American DJ's Forum", which is a company that sells this board. I already got one reply from a guy named Chris who sounds like he know what's he doing. My question was do I need Scenes to record chases on the board. Check out what he said.

"Yes, you need to program scenes before you program chases.

Chases are dependent on scenes being created. You could make the chases without the scenes, but your chases are going to be really really BORING since there is nothing in the scenes.

The manual is excessively clear on this fact.

Since you do have the manual, this is some advise(besides reading it):
Sit down with the DMX Operator 192 with the manual open. Go over the scene programming stuff one step at a time with the manual, going over and over it until you feel comfortable with the whole programing thing. It's not confusing, but it takes extra practice. You might also want to download the manual and print out the pages that pertain to progamming to make those extra available. I say this because that is what I do with my DMX Operator(not 192). But I don't use my DMX Operator often these days since I'm using MyDMX as my controller.

Have fun and hope your retreat goes well. It sounds like you got a fun job!"

That is really going to help me as we Prepare for the Winter Retreat.

APC Tech Booth Upgrad---As of October of 2009

New Center Screen and Lights













New HD Camera on Tripod Mount














2 Mounted Web Cam like Cameras with New Switch Board











2 New MACs completed with Pro-Presenter Worship Software




Other than that, the tech booth hasn't changed much.

Programing Light Boards

This year for the Winter Retreat (which you can sign up by CLICKING HERE) I have been given the ultimate task. Programing the Intelligent Lights for service. The board is the "Elation Operator 192" (which is pictured below)











Looking at the manual, it's really easy, but I still got almost a full month to figure out how much more I can do with it. Wish me luck!!