23rd Jun 2005 - One of America's largest churches chooses a Bull Frog for each of its two informal worship spaces.

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,” noted 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. The Vine is an informal worship service that features a casual setting.

The two spaces, one with a capacity of 85o people 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. The range of fixtures includes Martin Professional MAC 500 fixtures, MAC 600 fixtures, High End Systems Technobeam fixtures, Intellabeam fixtures, ETC Source Four elipsoidals, Altman cyc lights, PAR 64s, PAR 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 hardly a day going by without at least one of the Bull Frog consoles being used for an event of some kind, Rodman appreciates the 20 pages of 24 submasters on the Bull Frog. “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,” comments 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!”

With a different manufacturer’s complex console in the main sanctuary, the Bull Frog console’s easy to use interface means that there is one less thing for Rodman to be thinking about on a busy day.

“A great feature of the Bull Frog, is that it’s easy to learn how to program,” says Rodman. “There’s not much of a learning curve to the Bull Frog unlike the console we have in the main sanctuary. Within an hour or so of setting up the console, you can have a show programmed. I’ve programmed multiple services and concerts on the desk with ease. I would recommend the Bull Frog to anyone who needs a great console at a price point that is affordable.”