Protolight lights New Compass Church “Kids Area” with Chauvet

NAPERVILLE, IL – Every house of worship wants to reach people of all ages, and Compass Church in Naperville, IL is no exception. With this in mind, the church recently converted its old worship center into an attractive “Compass Kids Center” with the help of 132 LED fixtures from CHAUVET Professional.
The worship art team’s goal at Compass Church was to create a center for young people that resembled a theater, with a black ceiling and stage wall. A new truss structure and flexible scenic elements were essential to achieving this goal.  Compass Church called on the systems team at Protolight to help turn this vision into a reality. Protolight did this by working with the church’s internal staff, which included system engineer Josh Tryon; technical director Ryan Baker; and systems engineer/technical director Bill Stoerp”

Protolight used 22 Ovation E-190WW LED ellipsoidal fixtures; 96 COLORdash Par-Quad 18 LED par style fixtures; and 14 COLORado 2-Quad Zoom WW Tour LED fixtures from CHAUVET Professional in the project.  The fixtures were positioned on custom-built, ground-supported truss structure designed by Protolight, and engineered and manufactured by James Thomas Engineering.

Compass Church had used Chauvet color-changing LED fixtures provided by Protolight in the past for remote sites, as well as its main worship center, so the leaders were familiar with some Chauvet fixtures. After evaluating products from Chauvet and other manufacturers, the church chose the Ovation, COLORdash and COLORado fixtures from CHAUVET Professional.

Given the redesign’s reliance on abstract scenic elements, the versatility, framing capabilities and color rendering of the Chauvet fixtures were all critical to the success of the project.  The Ovation E-190WW provided the church with a high-output, low wattage option for stage washes and texture; plus its framing shutter was invaluable in terms of focusing the light and keeping it away from projections and architectural elements in the overall lighting design.

The initial inspection for the redesign project found that the original glulams/beams could not carry the additional rating for lighting and video hanging positions. The Protolight team solved this by designing a ground-supported truss system. The pitched roof also made it a challenge to build a structure that was as tall and wide as possible for the needs of the church, but the team also met this challenge.

The Compass Church leaders have been very happy with the final result of this Protolight remodeling project. The Chauvet fixtures are providing the brightness and flexibility that the church needs to create an engaging atmosphere at its new kids center, while still allowing it to stay within budget.

Protolight has been serving Compass Church for over eight years. The completion of the Compass Kids project is the latest example of how Chauvet has helped Protolight continue to provide Compass Church with cutting-edge lighting solutions. This consistent record of support has helped to solidify Protolight’s longstanding relationship with the church.