Harvest America is a free annual live nationwide simulcast event, featuring top Christian artists and bands and a gospel message, with a goal to impact a nation desperately in need of hope.

Among the many forms of technology Harvest’s Pastor Greg Laurie uses to bring his Harvest America events to millions of people across the US, is high-quality lighting provided by Harmaan’s Martin Professional. In fact, during last year’s event, the ability to quickly synchronize across hundreds of Martin lighting fixtures was key to the staff’s ability to work within an unusually aggressive load-in schedule. The 2014 gathering was held on 5 October at the American Airlines Centre in Dallas and was attended by more than 21 000 people. The event featured a day of live music performances, family activities and a sermon from pastor Laurie, which was then broadcasted and live-streamed to churches, theatres and living rooms across the country, reaching an estimated 68 million via television and the Internet.

To provide a visual experience that could be tailored to both in-person and remote audiences, Chris Eguizabal, lighting designer for Harvest Ministries, relied on the Martin MAC Aura for lighting. “With the MAC Aura’s exceptional colours, we were able to achieve the kind of lighting that not only washed the audience in an array of beautiful colours but also looked great on camera,’ says Eguizabal.

His biggest challenge, however, was the venue load-in since Harvest America isn’t a traditional live tour – every show has its own look, which occasionally requires the production team to cut its load-in schedule from two days to 12 hours. This was one of those occasions. “Thanks to the modular Martin lighting rig we prepared, we stayed true to the show’s aesthetics even though we only had 12 hours to load the entire event, we ended up cutting a few sticks of truss on stage from the air to accommodate the very limited load time but due to the strength and versatility of the Martin products, the show’s visuals didn’t suffer,’ states Eguizabal.

He’s no stranger to Martin lighting fixtures, citing his introduction to Martin product manager Matthias Hinrichs and Martin senior sales manager Greg Jones several years ago as a stepping stone into the lighting industry. “Since then I’ve received nothing but incredible support from Martin no matter the product or event, not only are Martin products exceptional but the customer support is top-notch and above any other manufacturer I have ever dealt with. I was on the phone with Matthias, West Coast regional sales manager and Scott Anderson before the event, working out the details in my M6 console and fixtures. They were by my side until the very end. That’s above and beyond the fact that the products I used performed flawlessly,’ Eguizabal says.

Already familiar with the M6 lighting controller from the two installed at Harvest Riverside and Harvest Orange County campuses, Eguizabal used the console to program the show in advance of the load-in. He spoke highly of the M6’s benefits, highlighting it’s quick connectivity with visualizers, abundance of playback faders and buttons and, especially, customisable controls. “The M6’s modules can easily be swapped for left-handed programmers or whatever configuration you wish, almost every button on the desk can be customised as you wish, I can program faster on this desk than any other desk for that reason. I can define the encoder knobs to any parameter control, giving me instant control insanely fast. The M-series software is very user-friendly and Martin is constantly refining and improving based on user feedback,’ comments Eguizabal.

Felix Lighting, based in La Mirada, California, was instrumental in the load-in, which included a plenitude of Martin video, effect and lighting fixtures including the Martin MAC Viper Profile. “I love the MAC Viper Profile; the bright colours are amazing, the optics phenomenal and the beam quality excellent. I use them all the time at our church campus and the 32 I used as my primary profile fixtures for this show really gave me some punch from the stage,’ concludes Eguizabal .