River of Life Church in Crawfordville
USA - As part of a complete technical overhaul, River of Life Church in Crawfordville, FL has upgraded its full lighting system for the first time since its building was constructed 18 years ago. The new setup, which utilises ADJ fixtures for both house and stage lighting, has not only enhanced the aesthetic of the space but also significantly improved electrical efficiency through the use of LED light sources.
Firelight Media and Integration was the company selected by the church to carry out a complete refit of its audio, lighting, and stage power infrastructure. The relatively young but fast-growing integrator specializes in the church market, driven by owner and founder Joshua Branch’s 15 years of experience in music ministry. Established in 2017 and based in Thomasville, South Georgia, the company services churches throughout the South East, all the way from Virginia down to Florida. Firelight became an ADJ dealer around a year ago and Joshua has nothing but positive things to say of his experience selling and installing ADJ fixtures.
“We had some success with product from other companies,” explains Joshua, “but felt that ADJ could be a good fit for our clients. When we became an ADJ dealer we soon discovered that the product is superior. The price-point is exactly where most of our clients want to be at, and the value for money is very good. Since we’ve switched to ADJ, the results have been amazing.”
With a distinctive tent-style design, River of Life church is a sizeable building with a capacity of approximately 900. Prior to this upgrade, it’s lighting system was seriously outdated and extremely inefficient. The stage was lit by a collection of conventional lighting fixtures powered by four 10-channel dimmers, two of which were broken. Meanwhile, house lighting was provided by 1000W par cans pointed upwards to reflect off the building’s white ceiling.
This setup meant that there was a large amount of excess heat generated, the video captured for the church’s online services was blown out, and there was very little scope for creativity when it came to lighting worship. Several companies bid to design and implement the new technical system, but it was the proposal from Josh and Firelight – including ADJ’s new Encore Profile Pro professional LED-powered ellipsoidal fixtures – that the church’s leadership selected.
Firelight’s technical designer, Marco Guarino, created the plan for the new system using computer design software, which allowed for the inclusion of 3D visualizations as part of the proposal prepared for the church. Marco’s design utilized both the warm white (3200K) Encore Profile Pro WW as well as the RGBWAL colour-mixing Encore Profile Pro Color.
Eight of the colour units were rigged to a first FOH truss and used to wash the rear wall of the stage and the worship team. Fourteen of the warm white version, fitted with 30-degree lenses and color correction filters, were then positioned on a second FOH truss to provide key light. Finally, two pairs of each fixture type were mounted to 45-degree trusses at either side of the stage to provide side-fill.
Commenting on the Encore Profile Pros, Marco says, “They have exceptional output, especially at that price point. The colour also just blew me away, I was really impressed by the linearity between all of the colours.
Two additional trusses, positioned at the rear of the stage, were used to hang five ADJ 7PZ IP fixtures each.
In addition to illuminating and colour washing the stage, Josh and Marco also chose ADJ fixtures to take care of house lighting in the church. They replaced the outdated Halogen lamp fixtures with 14 COB Cannon Wash DW units.
Summing up the project, Joshua concludes, “It was a night and day difference from what they had before. Our clients couldn’t believe the difference getting the lighting right could make, it was like walking into a completely new church.”

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