Lighthouse Baptist Church comprises a large community church & school-based in Rockhampton, QLD. Worship Pastor, Ben Bakss began discussions with Forefront, way back in 2019, about possible renovations and upgrades to the church’s outdated AV system. Through all the turmoil of a global pandemic & accompanying state border closures, Forefront recently completed Stage 2 of a complete overhaul to the church’s main auditorium.
It was identified early on that the church’s desire was to incorporate the latest technologies into a new system that was incredibly flexible, for the many various functions of the venue, and also to provide a backbone for future growth. The school has a very successful video program and the auditorium fitout created an opportunity to provide a world-class training facility for live video production. A live switching room forms the heart of the system with a Blackmagic Atem switcher, Skaarhoj Air Fly controller, AJA Kumo 12G SDI router, Atomos Shogun 7 Recorder & a plethora of Blackmagic SDI/HDMI converters. The entire system is 12G capable with kilometres of 12G SDI cabling run throughout the venue to numerous tie-lines. Initially, a 4.5m x 3m, 3.9mm pitch, Pixapanel LED screen, with an additional 0.5m x 3m columns, were installed on stage (16.5m2 in total), only to be upgraded in Stage 2 to a total of 23.5m2 of panel.
The focus on video production led to an equally demanding requirement for quality stage lighting. Some budget limitations meant clever and effective solutions needed to be utilised. A number of ShowPRO LED fresnels, Pixapanel Par Quads and Chauvet R1x Spot movers make up the bulk of the fixtures. Control is via the Workpro Lightshark LS-1 controller connected to 2x Chauvet Net-X II DMX nodes. The system utilises the SACN protocol to access the 8 available universes on the LS-1 with custom FFP DMX patch panels helping to make sense of the 20+ DMX tie-lines.
The audio system has two hangs of 3x Nexo M10 line array cabinets, accompanied by id24 out-fill & centre-fill boxes with 2x M18 subs tucked beneath the stage. All of which provide incredible coverage and clarity across the 400+ seat space. An Allen & Heath Avantis, fitted with a Dante expansion card, looks after mixing duties and allows for virtual soundcheck record/playback & tracks playback from the stage. A custom solution was created allowing the console to be plugged in at any 1 of 3 positions within the room, maintaining connectivity to the GX4816 rack without any repatching. There are also Nexo PS8 speakers deployed to 2 additional rooms, either side of the main auditorium. These spaces function as “overflow” areas for Sunday services, when the main area is full, or as isolated teaching areas during school hours and audio to these areas can be adjusted for either purpose.
Finally, it was imperative that church volunteers, school staff and students ALL be able to access various elements of the large and, at times, very complex systems, via a simple, user-friendly interface. Kramer Control was the perfect solution, enabling basic functions like video source selection to screens, microphone level up/down, power lighting fixtures or amplifiers on/off, adjusting foyer music volume, etc. Kramer Control is fully customisable and can also be monitored & adjusted remotely by the Forefront team.
