On January 14th 2007 First Christian Church of Canton Ohio held their opening dedication ceremony honoring the designers and workers that successfully completed their new 128,000 sq ft worship facility. The FCC worship center is highlighted by a state of the art, 2500 seat sanctuary and concert room built for modern worship and concert production. AVL and sanctuary concept design present many challenges for the modern church. While you certainly want a beautiful facility it must be able to support modern worship and multi purpose events. Volunteers make up 95% of the technical crew that usually support church productions. This can present safety and consistency concerns for worship. First Christian Church technical director Adam Bien was heavily involved in defining the technical requirements for the facility. Adam’s list included goals of being able to turn the facility around in less than one hour between services and events for all staging, lighting, video, and sound production. This meant the volunteers had to work quickly and safely to refocus lights, change draperies, move set pieces and video screens. Early on in the project I contacted Mark Black from InterAmerica Stage with these design issues for the project. InterAmerica Stage played a vital role in the creation and installation of the catwalks, tension grids, and rigging support systems.

Mark suggested a 2000 sq ft tension grid be constructed above the stage/platform area that would have easy access from a second floor room - allowing volunteers to safely adjust all the lights, draperies, truss motors, and main speakers. It also provided storage for the additional cable and lighting instruments when not being used. Volunteers can quickly adjust to working 28’ above the deck pretty much from the moment they step on it which allows rehearsals or service set ups to go on without interruption. The catwalk and beam truss systems are a unique design, which will support many types of productions. This includes over 200’ of catwalks and multiple 1000 lb load rigging points over the house and congregational seating areas for special event production.

Additionally the front catwalks have three follow spot positions and over 336 ETC dimmer distribution channels incorporated into the rails. There are also motor points and electrical distribution outlets above the grid that drop chain through the tension grid to the deck below for portable truss lifting. Over all, First Christian Church Canton will become the place to see if your church is interested in understanding what state of the art worship centers can become. I would put it on your list of places to visit on your next church or theatre tour trip. From my personal experience on this project, Mark and all the crew from InterAmerica Stage were indispensable and great to work with.

Bill Platt
Platt Design Group