Bayside Church in Granite Bay, California, near Sacramento, isn’t your traditional house of worship. With one of the country’s top worship leaders, Lincoln Brewster, exhibiting a penchant for rock ‘n roll and the entertainment technology that goes with it, Bayside has foregone the shades of stained glass for the color of Martin MAC 550s.

Bayside is a progressive church that boasts an impressive concert schedule, John Tesh and Michael W. Smith for example, who perform in arguably one of the best multi-purpose room designs you’ll find. Twelve 400-watt Martin MAC 550 animation and color projectors, supplied by Pointman Theatrical SVC through Sacramento Theatrical, were installed in the facility this past February.

Not your stereotypical church
“The MAC 550s are useful when these groups come in,” states Louis Hudson, owner of Pointman Productions, and lighting designer and specifier for Bayside Church. Louis also completed the programming. “I couldn’t live without them. They’re used for specials and creating interesting looking effects. I don’t want the congregation to come in and see something that they’ve seen over and over again. I want them to look forward to coming to church. This is a group of people who don’t like the stereotypical church. It’s a multi-purpose type building that doesn’t feel churchy. You won’t find a stained glass window in the place.”

Multi-use, state-of-the-art space
Louis explains that through the design process it was discovered that other churches poured millions of dollars into building sanctuaries or auditoriums that are used only 5% of the week. “In this project of building an entirely new campus, the dollars needed to stretch and service the entire congregation. Bayside has constructed a building that serves as a state-of-the-art sports center, a state-of-the-art worship center and a state-of-the-art concert venue. Most of the changeover process from sports to worship is done simply by turning off the fluorescent sports lights and turning on the incandescent house lights. The environment changes from the type of lighting that you would find in a sports arena, cold and harsh, to lighting that is warm and intimate like you would find in a church or theater. The room is further accented by walls that have rounded corners and rounded surfaces that help with acoustic issues, as well as aesthetically softening the room.”

MAC 550
The venue houses a Brazilian Birchwood floor, a floating athletic floor that will not support a scissor-lift to refocus fixtures. That obviously posed a problem. So, Sacramento Theatrical and Louis created a flexible lighting design with Louis putting together a plot to cover the entire stage with conventionals while four MAC 550s project from a front position, which reportedly works very well. The other eight MAC 550s are located over the stage.

“Four MAC 550s are located at FOH position which is approximately 30 feet from the front edge of the stage,” Louis explains. “I took ten-foot sticks of 12-inch box truss and hung them at angles so the upstage portion is hanging lower than the downstage - hung at a 30o angle across the stage like a canopy. A MAC 550 is located on the end of each piece of truss. It creates some real interesting angles and worked out well. The 550 is packed with features and can mix up looks.”

On the conventional front 163 of the 192 dimmers are dedicated to stage lighting, allowing for maximum flexibility. DMX is located throughout, distributed at all three AP positions, as well as the three electrics. Additionally, the 10 floor pockets each contain a DMX output.

“This building was designed as a system oriented building that truly serves all purposes very well rather than some purposes very well and others not so well,” Louis concludes.