A very modern yet traditional style church, located in a beautiful waterside location in Southport, Lancashire. Functioning as a community centre, they host a variety of indoor and outdoor events throughout the year, with live music playing a central role in church life.
The Requirements
The Centre approached us in January of 2016 as they required a raised platform and stage area for the regular musical performances and wanted to go for a removable, transportable option rather than building in a fixed platform as it allows for a much more flexible use of the room for different events.
With a central position along the room facing wall of their main hall, the space available between wall fixtures and other items allowed for just under 7 metres width and 3 metres depth to allow room between the stage and seating, though in actual usage only 2 metres depth of stage surface was required. Coming to us from a recommendation, the centre were happy just to follow our suggested products so a quotation wasn’t required. A preferred budget was given which was more than ample to cover the equipment we had in mind, so the job proceeded quickly.
Stage Platforms
Our tried and tested SCA-03 stage deck was chosen as the perfect solution, with its 2m x 1m size allowing 6 of the platforms to be used widthways against the wall giving a 6 metre wide by 2 metre deep stage. A further single 2m x 1m deck was then added lengthways to the front centre space, giving an overall ‘T’ shape and 3 metre depth to that section. These were selected with the durable and safety grip ‘Hexa’ pattern textured finish which is both hardwearing and provides a high traction surface which is great for performers and their equipment.
Only a small height advantage over the seated audience was required for the stage, so 200mm / 20cm tubular legs were supplied giving a nice easy step up without the need for plinths or skirting, and giving enough floor clearance to allow cables to be run underneath out of sight.
Ambience
To complement the stage area, we were also asked to provide coloured wash lighting for the rear wall, which could be linked and controlled together and would give a strong defined beam per unit. With simple functionality and great performance, we selected 10 flat par multi colour wash units from the BeamZ lighting range with DMX control to allow simple multi unit control.
Evenly spaced behind the stage along the back wall they give a full yet individually defined colour wash which provides a lovely warm background and ambience to the whole room, whilst not looking overbearing. Remote fade and scene selection was also required, so the latest version of Chauvet’s ShowXpress pc/mac based DMX software was supplied, which would also be connected to the two ceiling mounted par can stage spots that were already in place, giving full control of every aspect of the stage lighting from one location.
Feedback
Put into immediate usage, the house band set up their electronic drum kit, keyboard, microphone and lectern, and a pair of active speaker monitors, along with some christian themed display items to complete the feel. The 6m x 2m main surface area provides ample room for 4 to 5 musicians, giving them a nice defined space and clear view of the audience, while the wash lighting provides them with a great mood setting tool, with easily changeable colour schemes to suit the nature of the performance.
The Centre were extremely happy with their new stage and lighting, giving them just what they were hoping to achieve at the right quality to give years of daily usage, and all at a price point that was well within their allocated budget.
Sometimes simple is best, and though not a large installation or custom build, this type of job represents our dedication to providing high quality solutions to our customers and their specific requirements, which is often realised using our off the shelf stock items.
For all of your stage, truss, audio and lighting requirements the team here at Stage Concepts is on hand to guide you through the selection and purchase process, ensuring you only get the equipment that’s correct for your needs.
7 x Alustage ‘Aludeck Light’ SCA03 Stage Platform 2m x 1m Black Hex Anti Slip Finish
28 x 200mm Aluminium Legs
12 x Alustage Self Leveling Insert
12 x Alustage Clamping Clamp
10 x BeamZ 6 watt 3 way RGB slim LED par can
