Bull Frogs on The Vine

5 July 2005

USA - Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, is one of the largest churches in North America. When choosing a lighting console for the two smaller rooms that augment the main sanctuary at Southeast Christian Church, The Vine lighting director Christopher N. Rodman and student technologies director Perry Thomas had very specific ideas about what was needed.

"Cost was a major factor in choosing a console," remarked Rodman. "We need to be able to control both intelligent and conventional fixtures. In addition, many of our younger junior high and high school students wanted to learn the console - allowing us to have multiple operators for shows." The console that Thomas ultimately decided on was the Zero 88 Bull Frog - physically the largest Frog console in the popular line. "Having the Bull Frog enabled us to be able to incorporate the best of both the automated and conventional worlds in one easy to use console," said Rodman.

"The price was very competitive to other manufacturers who had similar consoles on the market, but the Bull Frog had many more features." The two rooms that the Bull Frog consoles were installed in were part of an emerging church service of Southeast Christian Church called The Vine - an informal worship service that features a casual setting. The two spaces, one with a capacity of 850 and the other with a capacity of 1,500, share a diverse inventory of equipment - in addition to a Bull Frog console in each room. Lighting fixtures include Martin MAC 500s and MAC 600s, High End Technobeams and Intellabeams, ETC Source Fours, Altman cyc lights, Par 64s and 56s, and MR-16 zip strips. "Each venue changes its equipment inventory regularly," says Rodman. "Adding, removing and changing fixtures from the fixture library in the Bull Frog to accommodate our gear and the event that is occurring in that space, is something that we are always doing. So we appreciate that it is so easy."

With the Bull Frog consoles in use most days, Rodman appreciates the 20 pages of 24 submasters. "One of the things that led to our decision to purchase the console in the first place was the ability to store cues and chases onto submasters," says Rodman. "The Bull Frog has plenty of available submasters to allow us to store as many different things as we need to for each show. Having everything I need at my fingertips is a key requirement for the way I like to light. The Bull Frog allows me to program looks into the console on the submasters, and then I can run the entire show off submasters alone!"

(Lee Baldock)