The creative possibilities of Scenex LED tape have recently been exploited to maximum effect by Andy Bentley, lighting designer at Elevation Church, based out of Charlotte, NC.
The tape, which offers the designer a variety of pixel pitch options, with DMX control over each individual RGB pixel, was specified for a stage design element at the Church’s quarterly ‘Student Worship Nights, where students congregate at two locations in Charlotte — Blakeney and University City — for a purpose-designed worship experience.
Three geometric shapes — a circle, triangle and cross — formed an essential part of the promotion and branding. “So we decided to bring those elements on stage and make them a key feature of these nights specifically,” said Bentley.
He added that the color-consistent LED tape provided an obvious solution because of the nature of the shapes they were trying to recreate — specifically the circle. “We knew an out of the box solution wouldn’t work for us as we needed something that we could modify to fit those shapes. Scenex was suggested on the recommendation of Josh Holowicki of E2i Design, who was able to get us a reasonably high-resolution solution to fit within our tight budget.” The resolution itself can vary, with pixel pitches ranging between 6.9mm to 33.3mm.
The Scenex tape also provided a fast and intuitive learning curve. “Although this was our first time working with LED pixel tape, we were able to get everything up and running within a week, and pixel mapping took only a few hours.
“On the night everything looked great. The ability to actually run content on the LED tape — as opposed to just solid colors — made the pixel tape well worth it and we received tons of positive feedback about the set pieces. Everyone from students to the pastors said they loved the look of them, and that they would love to see more elements like them in the future.”
Finally, Scenex offers a range of different power supplies and DMX drive options, including Artnet integration for larger systems. In this instance the package included a compact 1RU PP4 all-in-one pixel driver, with four outputs connecting directly to the LED tape. “These drivers are great,” assessed the LD. “We have four units to drive the 16 strands of pixel tape, and the ability to send Artnet straight into the driver, and go straight out with just 4-pin XLR makes for much better reliability and ease of set-up. It gave us exactly the level of control and depth of configuration we were hoping for.”
As a result, Andy Bentley says he envisages further opportunities for deployment of the Scenex tape within the ministry. “LED tape gives us so much creative flexibility,” he says in conclusion. “Everybody has different design needs, and LED tape is perfect to help meet those. We certainly expect to be repurposing the tape for events in the future.”
