The Three Best LED Lights For Your Church
Lighting can turn into a rabbit hole situation-ship relativity quick, especially with all the new things that release non-stop. What do you actually need though? What lights end up being a better-long term investment? I’ll be the first to say spend the money. However, I tend to shock people at how conservative I can be with a budget. Spend the money on the important stuff, don’t try to get it all at once if you can’t do that without cutting corners somewhere else. This is a part of stewardship of church finances. Keep that in mind when reading this post.
There are three lights that I consider essential in the church world. There’s so many fixtures that I absolutely love, but I broke this list into one from each “essential” category. These category’s are: ellipsoidals, moving heads, and washes. I have experience with all of these units and can honestly say that the cost is 100% justified in the long term. I also went with all Chauvet products for this post, they are basically the Fender of the lighting world due to accessibility, ease of access, and cost-to-quality ratio.
1: Chauvet Ovation ED-200
First up is the Ellipsoidal category. I absolutely love the flexibility of these lights. If you’re not familiar with Ellipsoidal fixtures, they allow you to “carve” out the focus of your fixture. These are your primary lighting fixtures. Kind of a “set it and forget it” situation.
My advice with the Ovation series from Chauvet
Get the brightest unit that you can afford to purchase enough of.
Don’t mix-match with other “white” fixtures. Pick a fixture and stick with that one
The link I have provided is for the “warm white” version of this light. This way you can just gel the light to cool it down if you prefer cooler lighting. This is a loaded subject. I have mixed opinions, overall, I’d say just make sure you pick one direction and stick with it.
Don’t skimp on quantity or quality here. You can cut quantity somewhere else in your lighting budget. This is by far your most-important fixture to purchase.
Grab The Chauvet Ovation ED-200 From HoneySonic Today!
2: Chauvet Intimidator 475ZX
Next up, Moving Head Lights! I intentionally shoved the fun lighting unit into the middle of this list to keep your attention. The 475ZX from Chauvet’s incredible Intimidator series is a phenomenal light. Especially considering that similar lights from other brands would blow your budget out of the water. Moving head lights are important because of their flexibility. You can use them as a spotlight, a practical, a wall wash, not to mention the endless possibilities with using Gobos. Alternatively, I’d recommend checking out the 375ZX as a cost-cutting solution. I can’t personally recommend going lower than that due to the output of the lights being less at the lower price points. I’d say if you’re ONLY using them as practicals, you could dip into the lower-cost solutions, but you’re losing your flexibility.
Some Advice on Using the Intimidator 475ZX from Chauvet
Order some custom Gobos before you hang the new lights up. Get rid of the entire set of cheesy ones that are included with the light.
Make sure you have matching sets of Gobos in every fixture, even if you don’t think you’ll actually use certain ones in certain lights.
Make sure each Gobo is in the matching slot. For example, if you have a Gobo with a star pattern on it and place it in the first slot of your first light, make sure that same Gobo is in slot one of every other light. You’ll thank me for this later.
Make sure the orientation of every light is the same. Again, you’ll thank me for this later. I personally go with the screen side of the light facing TOWARDS the stage
If you’re mixing moving head lights make sure everything is in matched pairs. Example, if you’re doing two on each side of a truss, make sure all of those lights match. Use your other set of lights somewhere. If you don’t have enough lights to do that, don’t mix-match.
Buy them all at once or in pairs, just to keep track of the life-span of the light easier.
Grab the Chauvet Intimidator 475ZX from Honeysonic.
3: Chauvet Pro Rogue R1X Wash
Finally, the wash light category. I’ll be the first to say that the price point of these are aggravating, but worth it. I was torn between these and the traditional “light bar” styled lighting fixture. The main reason I went with this light for this category is solely for flexibility for your team. The average church volunteer doesn’t want to have a panic attack every week due to a light bar not being on the right spot of the floor, or the angle is suddenly not right. Plus, with the frequent stage changes that churches go through, this one was ultimately the winner.
Advice For Using The Chauvet Pro Rogue R1X Wash
Don’t use it as a “fill” light. Color matching to your Ovations (or whatever you choose as your key light) just creates problems.
Use it on the walls, on the band, and even the crowd, just don’t touch the singers or speaker with it. It’s not a flattering look on camera.
Further away from the target, wider the light but with lower output.
Don’t mix your washes. It’s a camera nightmare, the kicker is that you may not notice it in person. Make sure if you ARE combining lights to use the same rule of thumb mentioned above, every light has a “zone” and a “purpose”.
Order Your Chauvet Pro Rouge R1X
There’s Other Lights & Brands Out There
These are just my recommendations based on experience. These lights are tried and true. I’ve learned my lesson multiple times by trying to maximize my budget with “less than” lights. Everyone suffers. Especially camera world.
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Our team at HoneySonic is great at pin-pointing exactly what your church can benefit from the most. We want to respect your budget by keeping you away from lights that you’ll just replace in a year, causing you to spend more than you would have by going with the other light fixture.
