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Systems Integration
The Crystal Cathedral
The Celebrated Church Presents Technical Challenges in Order
to Mount a Show
Developing the video and audio systems for Creation: Once Upon All Time,
the new show staged inside the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California,
presented a long list of technical challenges.
Founded 50 years ago by Dr. Robert H. Schuller, the Crystal Cathedral
is the home base for the international Crystal Cathedral Ministries,
including a congregation of more than 10,000 members and the internationally-televised
series, Hour of Power .
The soaring, airy Cathedral, designed by celebrated architects Philip
Johnson and John Burgee, features more than 10,000 windows of tempered,
silver-colored glass held in place by a lace-like framework of white
steel trusses - a most challenging environment for a house of worship
in which audio and video play a regular role in services as well as in
special shows.
Creation: Once Upon All Time, addresses the question how did we get
here by telling the story of a boy and his grandfather who embark on
an amazing journey where the physical and spiritual universe unfold around
them. The show, written, produced and directed by Carol Schuller Milner,
blends elements of live theater, CG, aerial acrobatics, puppetry, original
music, and light, color and sound effects. Performances, which take place
at night inside the Cathedral, began in June.
Electrosonic accomplished technical feats never before achieved with
a live theatrical presentation, says Larry Ganson of Ganson Production
in Dallas who acted as production manager and senior technical director
for Creation. They overcame numerous challenges on this project from
the size of the screen to dealing with compressed video and the server
system. But the biggest challenge of all was the audio system.
For Creation, Santa Monica-based Threshold Entertainment crafted a complete
two-hour computer-generated film with original digital content.
To display the CG content Electrosonic installed a 252-by-28-foot screen,
the largest on the West Coast. The screen is actually comprised of seven
individual Harkness Hall screens, explains Bryan Hinckley, Electrosonics
systems sales engineer.
"We also supplied seven Christie S+16 projectors, on floating platforms
hanging from the ceiling of the Cathedral, and all butt-spliced to create
a single image across all of the screens," he says. "High-resolution
imagery was essential for the CG display but the distance from the projectors
to the screens was too far for DVI digital signals to span. So Electrosonic
used DVI fiber converters to run the digital signals over fiber optic
lines through the ceiling and to the projectors."
The big challenge was the overall size of the screens hanging from the
ceiling and connected together to create as seamless an image as possible,
says Hinckley. And we had to make sure the seven floating projectors
did not move although they're integrated into a very busy ceiling where
aerial performers fly through the space.
In addition, the show was originally going to use HD MPEG sources but
to meet quality requirements, we went to an uncompressed high-resolution
video playback system, he says. "Electrosonic installed an IRIDAS Frame
Cycler cinema playback system and, with the help of IRIDAS, developed
custom software to lock together seven uncompressed streams of video.
It was the first time we've used IRIDAS and the first time IRIDAS synchronized
seven streams together," Hinckley says.
To handle the huge number of moving lights, smoke effects, confetti
cannons and water misters that are seamlessly integrated in the show,
Electrosonic employs a Medialon Manager show control system.
"Late in the video installation cycle it was also decided to revamp
the Crystal Cathedrals large audio system. The Cathedral is world famous
for its all-glass design, but the acoustics of a glass room make it incredibly
difficult to control the audio and deliver intelligible sound," Hinckley
says. "We worked with Acoustic Dimensions of Dallas which, with the help
of multiple acoustical software programs, designed a sophisticated, multiple
array audio layback system to meet the demands of the challenging space."
The new audio system had to meet a number of requirements. The Cathedral
is a working church where the spoken word is key, Hinckley says. The
audio system had to reproduce clear, intelligible sound for the congregation
on a weekly basis. But it also had to support a full-range, dynamic musical
score with extensive surround sound capabilities. During the Creation
show, the audio has to fly around the large Cathedral space and enhance
the show.
The new sound system consists of five JBL line array clusters for main
left, center and right; the left and right arrays consist of 10 self-powered
boxes and are approximately 15-feet tall. A surround sound line array
of five QSC Wideline speakers moves the audio around the huge space.
All 10 speakers are connected together, painted white to match the Cathedral
architecture and suspended above the projection screens so they are not
in the projection cone.
"We worked incredibly hard with the Creation team to get the audio system
installed in time," Hinckley says. "JBL and QSC helped with quick equipment
delivery, and we were able to get installation completed in six weeks."
"The new audio system has been phenomenal," says Larry Ganson. "Electrosonic,
in conjunction with Acoustic Dimensions, has turned the Cathedral into
an amazing acoustical dream. Everyone has been very, very satisfied with
the way the audio sounds: The music sounds great, and the spoken word
is very clear. Electrosonic did a fantastic job getting the system up
and operational."
At Electrosonic, Stan Gilson was audio systems project manager, Olaaf
Rossi video systems project manager, John Louis audio systems engineer
and John Notar lead projectionist. Guy Fronte and David Boudreau supervised
installation teams.
Craig Jansen, principal of Acoustic Dimensions, served as lead audio
designer with Ryan Knox lead audio engineer and programmer for the company.
Jim Penner, executive producer of the Crystal Cathedral Ministries Hour
of Power series, was instrumental in getting the new audio system approved.
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