Calvary Chapel Chino Hills Story

The CCI Solutions team loves partnering with churches of all denominations, sizes,and stylistic preferences; however, there is something special about working with a church that has the history, rich heritage, and global reach that Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. What started in 1990 as 6 people in a Southern California living room has grown to more than 5,000 adults attending Calvary Chapel Chino Hills every Sunday. Additionally, “Real Life with Jack Hibbs” is an internationally recognized radio and video show based from content generated in the 2500 seat auditorium at their Chino Hills, CA campus, which was opened in 2000. With its continued growth in numbers and reach, it’s no wonder that in 2015 the church brought CCI Solutions on board to transform their main auditorium to better serve their multi-cultural, multi-generational church and ministry.

 “To meet such a goal, we set out to create a multi-faceted environment,” explains Pastor Jack Hibbs, Founding and Senior Pastor. “This would allow us to provide a range of experiences that if need be, could take our worship community back in time that is reminiscent of the reformation period or in a matter of moments, we could easily transform the worship experience forward to the present day. The interaction between rich and spacious hard woods, and the latest in lighting and LED screens, has created exactly what we wanted to achieve.”

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The Technology

The primary driver for the project was needing an engaging but flexible environment for worship in-person and via media. Lighting was a critical part of creating that flexibility. The Calvary Chapel team wanted the creative lighting to immerse the whole room in additional to the stage. And most importantly, with just a small staff driving so many things happening in the auditorium, everything had to be very low maintenance and easy to use. Stage lighting was completely switched out to LED based fixtures, with a mixture of (32) Chauvet Ovation Ellipsoidal and Fresnel fixtures serving as front light for the stage. For toplight and special lighting, the church wanted to maintain the low-maintenance approach of LED but add flexibility of movement and last-minute aiming and focus, so (24) Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Wash fixtures handle the toplighting, with (6) of the Rogue R2 Spot fixtures available for special lighting. To carry these dynamic looks off the stage and into the rest of the room, 147 ChromaQ Inspire fixtures allow the church to present a very standard look or produce dynamic color at every seat in the house. With a new Chamsys MQ500 lighting console and upgraded/expanded ETC control system/backbone, this fully renovated lighting system is ready to handle from the simplest to the most complex looks on demand.

In addition to lighting upgrades, video received a dramatic upgrade. With the emphasis on a building creative and flexible environment, the church wanted the option to roll in various backdrops when needed. Multiple tracks were designed and implemented to create options for different stage backdrops, one to manually bring in large, custom wood panels, one for a softer look with a manual stage drape, and finally a motorized track to bring in a 28’ x 14’ Absen 3.9 mm LED Video Wall. For every event, whether it’s being captured for broadcast or not, the church can choose between a simple theatrical look, a rich wood backdrop, or a virtual high-resolutions set. And for both the LED video wall and the wood panels, they can be moved forward or backwards(including out of sight) in order to maximize the perfect depth of field.

 Not to be outdone, side projection screens for image magnification received upgrades to Absen 3.2 mm LED video walls, providing the clearest and brightest video support available, easily overcoming ambient light or lighting design in the room. (3) Confidence projection screens were added to the back of the room, giving support to those on stage regardless of which direction they are looking. A completely new video control backbone was added, maximizing their flexibility of video shoots, including a Ross Carbonite video switcher and Ross Ultrix broadcast router expandable to up to 18 camera locations. Network based video distribution was added from SVSI which, when combined with their campus Q-Sys network, gives them the ability to route all campus audio and video via the network.

 CCI Solutions’ team believes that a well-planned infrastructure is worth the investment and essential to a church’s long-term success. The team at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills partnered with our team to design and implement a robust infrastructure system, including a fully digital routing/patch system for their audio system, expansive connectivity for a quickly growing video system and broadcast ministry, and lighting flexibility for the many events the rent additional fixtures in for. Many additional key infrastructure pieces were added to increase function and flexibility across the board. Backstage blue lights from ETC, a rider friendly power disconnect box from Stagecraft Industries, power sequencing and control from Lyntec, and even surge suppression from SurgeX were all carefully designed and implemented as part of this project to maximize everything the church can do, ensuring that it can meet the heavy demand they put on their equipment.

 “CCI has been amazing to work with for the past four years on this project. They were able to create a awesome, epic and versatile system while still being volunteer friendly. We will continue to use CCI for projects big and small.”