LOUISVILLE, KY – Although CHAUVET Professional’s Maverick series and other new products generated an enthusiastic response at the WFX Conference in Louisville, the “star” of this show as far as the company was concerned was its educational sessions that featured leading church lighting designers and tech directors from across the US. “The house of worship market is very volunteer driven,” said Berenice Chauvet, vice president of Chauvet. “Because of this, we view education outreach as critical to our involvement in this market. WFX provides us with an opportunity to further our educational goals. We were extremely happy with the response to our educational sessions at this year’s conference.”

The 2016 WFX CHAUVET Professional learning sessions got off to an auspicious start, as its first seminar, by Church on the Move consultant Daniel Connell, drew a standing room-only crowd. Connell’s session on “Lighting for Video” provided an in-depth look at issues like selection of optimal color temperatures in varying settings, evaluation of illuminance levels, balancing live audience and broadcast demands, positioning fixtures to avoid shadows, and creating depth with background lighting.

Session two, conducted by Mike Frost of The Crossing in St. Louis, expanded on some of these themes by offering tips on adding dimensionality to stages with lighting. Justin Firesheets of Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, AL (one of the fastest growing congregations in the US) discussed inspiring volunteers in the third session. Rounding out day one and drawing an overflow standing room-only crowd was a session on Christmas Concert Lighting, featuring Andy Rushing, LD for Grammy Award winners Kari Jobe and Lauren Daigle; Craig Rutherford, LD for Big Daddy Weave; and Bobby Richardson of The Heights Baptist Church.

The enthusiasm and large crowds continued on day two with David Leuschner, Senior Director of Technology and Technical Arts at Gateway Church, conducting an inspirational session on The Digital Great Commission; Duke DeJong of CCI Solutions discussing the advantages of LED systems; and Aaron Cole of Love is Red offering details on designing lighting for youth conferences.

“It was very gratifying to see the response to our sessions,” said Chauvet. “Church tech directors and designers must deal with a variety of issues, often with limited resources and volunteers. We were happy that so many of them told us that they took away lessons from our sessions that will help them meet these challenges.”