Although establishing the entrance doors was the end goal, we have been using this area for backlighting some set pieces all summer. We used this time to design the doors and get the initial construction of the doors done. We installed the doors as we changed out our fall 2010 set.

These two doors swing using a pipe hinge. Both doors are just over 13′ wide and swing to a 70degree angle creating a lot of space for the risers to roll through. This space has helped to speed up our transitions and make removing the guitar pedals via the guitar sleds a real easy addition to our transitions. We are able to clear our stage of all band gear in less than one minute. These doors have allowed us to further accomplish our desire to have a clear stage for our communicators and the video products that we create.

Design:

For those who are interested, the door was designed to be modular. This is so we can easily remove the sections allowing us the flexibility to use this space to project on set pieces or light set pieces from behind. The whole structure rolls on six wheels. It pivots from two ball bearing pipe hinges mounted on the floor and on the support beam below the screen. The wheels are staggered at a slight angle allowing the door to rotate easily on its arced path.

The wheels are mounted to a footer beam that was constructed by wood, gluing three 2×4x14’s, that had been cut down to 13′4″, together. This creates the base for the entire door. The hinge section of the door consists of a pipe cut to size running vertically between the two ball bearing hinges. The pipe is bolted to four 10″ horizontal 2×4’s via carrier bolts. The hinge section continues across so that the entire section is 41″ wide. This was intentionally done so that all four sections of the door are 41″ wide. This keeps the seams in the door evenly spaced. The other three sections of the door are 2×4 structures constructed individually with framing nails. The four sections are bolted together so that they are easily taken apart. The front of each section is surfaced with a 3/4″ piece of MDF cut to size and screwed to the 2×4 structure. 3/4″ MDF was used because the MDF is smooth enough to match the drywall once painted and thick enough to staple or drill set materials on to it. The whole structure is sured up using a strand of aircraft cable with a turnbuckle running diagonally across the back of the structure. This allows us to pull the top right corner tight into alignment with the bottom left corner. Each section of the wall was then strapped to this cable using corrugated metal straps. The whole structure if unbolted can be removed in five relatively light sections.

Starting this Sunday, (8/29) we are moving forward with a new camera numbering scheme.  It will change in BOTH auditoriums.  Please refer to the diagram to see the new layout.  Click the image to enlarge.  If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section.

Currently, (8/26) PCO reflects the old numbering system.  Until this gets updated, please use it as a guide as to where you are scheduled, but use the new guide for your actual camera number.

Thanks, we’ll see you soon!

New Volunteer Position:

Assistant Stage Manager

Reason for creating position:

• To give leadership to the stage crew posted on the left side of the stage.
• To further develop volunteers in leadership roles.

Responsibilities:

• In charge of managing and executing the stage left part of the transition.
• To assist the Backstage manager in all other backstage related activities.
• To help develop new backstage volunteers.
• Responsible for Baptism Microphone Check.

Okay so these have been around for the better part of the summer but they are finally being utilized for what they were originally designed for.

We started broadcasting our service online earlier this year. We are using our jib camera to get wide shots of the room in an attempt to draw people in and make them feel as if they are a part of the service. The shots that the jib is able to get also get the guitar pedal boards, their wires and all the other gak on stage. So our mission was to figure out a way to completely clear the stage of all band gear and unsightly wires. Part of our solution was to build out the stage and create the thrust. The second part was to figure out a way to remove the pedal boards and their wires from the stage.

It was determined that we needed to create some sleds that were universal enough to accommodate any size pedal board that a guitar player might bring. We decided to use a sled system because unplugging and re-plugging the board was nearly impossible with the tight transition times that we have here. So we knew we wanted to have a rolling sled and that we needed to keep the sleds as low to the ground as possible so that the guitarists didn’t have to adjust the way they played. The biggest challenge was to figure out a way to quickly and quietly brake the sleds so that they didn’t roll around while the guitarist was playing. We also had a challenge in the amount of cables we have on the stage and the crossover that can occur with the potential of getting hung up on cable while trying to remove sleds and risers, as well as moving props on.

In the search of a fast and quiet braking system we came across a “pop-up brake.” These brakes are small compact air pressurized pistons that are used on assembly lines. This was the perfect braking solution for our dilemma. The opportunity became how do we pressurize the brakes. They needed 50lb of pressure per brake and we decided that each sled only needed two of these each. The search for a tank began and after weeks of searching we found a small cost efficient HPA (high pressurized air) tank that was manufactured by a robotics company. This would allow us to refill the tanks easily on site with a basic air compressor.

The sled was designed with some pockets able to store the tank, brake, regulator, gauges, hose, and control valve, as well as the SGI for Audio, and 4 xlr cables.

We designed two different size boards. The small board is capable of holding over 60% of the guitar boards that our regular guitarists currently have and a larger board that is able to accommodate even the largest pedal board our guitarists currently use.

We decided to forgo the risk of crossing over cables and wired all the sleds back to our main two risers. During our transition we quickly attach the sleds to our risers via some quick-release pins mounted to the side of each rise. The sleds areattached, their cables are wrapped and placed on top of the sleds and then the whole system is rolled off the stage. This along with placing table, chair, and other props on stage is all done in less than one-minute 15 seconds by a small army of the greatest volunteers in the history of stage volunteers.

Drive conference is a time when church leaders, staff, and volunteers come visit us to see how we do what we do. We thought it appropriate to post this video of the opener to say thanks to all of the volunteers that made the conference possible.

We had the privilege of not only seeing but getting to demo a revolutionary fixture that Varilite has just released. It is what I now consider the first real LED moving light. The leap that this light represents in lighting fixtures is monumental. This fixture is not only the first LED moving head that I didn’t think looked completely ridiculous, but it is what I consider the future of lighting. This technology I believe will eventually make the arc lamp within the theatrical and concert worlds of lighting obsolete.

The LEDs within the light are 90watt LEDs. To give you some perspective the brand new lights that we use at North Point for lighting our current sets are 1 watt LEDs. There are 4 of these 90 watt LEDs on each chip: Red, Green, Blue, & White. These LEDs can be mixed to create an assortment of colors. There are seven of the chips in each fixture, each of the chips are individually liquid cooled. The light passes through an array of glass that diffuses and mixes the light so that when you look at the fixture you only see the mixed color and not the individual LEDs that mix to create the color.

The traditional way of getting color mixing out of a fixture is with colored glass wheels being layered on top of one another to create different colors. This however has the draw back of the colored glass cutting down the intensity of the light. The more glass you stack to create different colors the less output the light actually has. In contrast LED technology actually increases in intensity as you mix colors because more color means more light coming from different LEDs adding to the output. The result of this is very intense saturated colors. This is what will eventually kill traditional arc lamps, however right now it is a bit pricey and is only available in a wash type fixture.

If Varilite figures out how to reduce the price, which time will do, and how to focus the light into a reasonable spot or beam fixture, this new light will take over the industry.

Big changes are happening in the backstage world of North Point Community Church. We finally removed a 14 foot section of wall underneath each of our IMAG screens in the East.

We did this primarily in order to rear project graphics on the set pieces for Drive, and it looked very cool. However, this has been a desire of ours for nearly two years now. This change will allow us yet another entrance and exit to the stage for the purpose of removing risers for the message. The 15 foot holes will soon be equipped with doors allowing for set pieces to be mounted and ride with the make shift walls. We will also have the option of removing the door and rear lighting set pieces like we are currently doing with this set.

These new entrances will create an opportunity for us to create background elements in the view of our slash camera angle (camera 3) without having to re-engineer a way to remove those background elements just to get the risers on and off the stage. The doors should be a Permanente solution to the problem of moving set pieces.

Although we have had the ability for over a year now to use timecode, we have never really had the need. We are using SMPTE time code in order for video to trigger the console during our “minute to win it” segments. This allows us to program the light movements to sync with the video content (which is just a voice over) so that it is timed perfectly with what is being said in the video.

We have programmed a cue-list labeled “MTWI TC” that is activated before we begin the game. It then lies in wait for time code to be sent to it from video, which upon receiving it then in turn triggers the next step in the “Minute to Win It” cue-list. This allows the Lighting console operator to step through the sequences of the game leading up to the video and then the console itself syncs with the video portion of the game.

The SMPTE time code just needs to be reset to zero between services using the SMPTE Time Code Panel window.

We are adding a new archiving procedure at FOH that needs to be done at the end of the day every Sunday. Everything is automated, but there are still a couple of steps you’ll need to do:

• Save and Quit Pro Tools.
• Run the “Backup Masters” application located in the dock or on the desktop (the icon looks like a robot).

That’s all there is to it. There is also no need to shut down the Pro Tools computers anymore.

The online services won’t have a huge technical impact on most of our positions on Sunday morning. And, aside from adding a bigger audience to the 11 a.m. service, it will be pretty much business as usual for us as a team. To view the stream see this page: http://www.northpointonline.tv.