!Audacious Church was first set-up in the heart of Manchester City Centre in 2007, and has since expanded its mission, with an established campus in Chester and opening soon in Cardiff, Sheffield and also venturing to Europe with its new campus in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Chester campus moved in to its own building in 2017, a former warehouse, accommodating around 400 people. Since acquiring the new premises, it has undergone upgrades to the sound system, and interior design, and now most recently lighting equipment.

!Audacious Church’s Production Manager, Lewis Wilkins was in charge of selecting the products for the upgrade, and approached specialist entertainment equipment supplier, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) to help with this. All products needed to be easy to use and accessible to their volunteer base.

Looking for versatile fixtures that could work at a basic level, but also offered more complex features that could be utilised as the team’s skills develop, Lewis chose the PROLIGHTS DigiStrip, an LED video pixel strip. On the same principle, as most of the lighting operators are volunteers, Lewis wanted an all-in-one control surface that provided an intuitive, easy to use system – for this he chose an Avolites Quartz – their smallest all-in-one console.

Speaking about the PROLIGHTS DigiStrip, Lewis Wilkins commented; “I was looking for a product that would serve us now, and in the future, so whilst video integration and full pixel mode are possibilities, we’re not quite ready for that yet! I also really like the flexibility provided by the multiple lens options and the wide range of different looks and finishes that can be achieved. We are looking forward to experimenting with this more over the coming months. The DigiStrip provides a versatile backdrop for different moments throughout our church services – we can match the high energy of some of our praise and worship moments, as well as softer looks for the more reflective moments, and during the preaches/sermons and the information slots they just sit in the background nicely.”

Lewis continued; “When choosing lighting control, easy operation and budget were our main considerations. Our budgets largely come from people giving into the church, so we need to be diligent in how we spend what is available to us. For me, Avolites have always sat in that gap of being feature heavy, user friendly and affordable. The Quartz was a great choice for us because it has everything we need straight out of the box and it’s compact so doesn’t take too much space.

“Steve has been great! When you’re on this side of the process you are always concerned about being the nightmare client constantly changing things, but he has been wonderful from start to finish, always up front about any shipping/supply issues. I will have no issue ordering from AC-ET again.” Concluded Lewis.

Photo credit – McDavid Photography