LDR Success on Major Project in Guatemala

The Frater, the largest Christian Church of Central - South America is a modern multi-complex venue built on a 113,000 sq.m. site in San Cristobal, a few miles away from the city centre of Guatemala. The 50,000 sq.m. building includes a main auditorium with 13.000 seats.

The Frater belongs to a Christian congregation, Fraternidad Cristiana de Guatemala, established in the late '70s by pastor Pastor Jorge H. Lopez.

The main auditorium is used for religious services as well as religious celebrations and representations. La Via Dolorosa, representation of the Passion, bring together more than 30,000 people in three days and during the month of June, the Frater is home of the Christian Music Festival, Explomusic fest.

Lighting provides a potent mood enhancer and particular attention was given to its installation, a big challenge due to the dimensions of the building and the nature of its context.

The design was commissioned with the intention of creating an intimate atmosphere as well as being capable of meeting the theatre and live concert needs during the all-year-round program of events and functions. Walter G. Moran, a leader in lighting design in Central America was named head of the project.

Due to the challenging nature of the project, Moran was assisted with consultation from Fabiano Besio of LDR of Italy. The team also worked under the supervision of Frater's artistic director Renato Briones and lighting director Luis Chacon.

Replacement of the existing house lighting was one of the biggest challenges that the team had to face since the roof is at 30m high above the audience sector, and the existing power distribution and hanging points were not easy accessible.

The initial idea of using tungsten halogen lamp source was discarded in favor of more long-lasting sources capable of reducing maintenance costs, and using the existing mains wiring and structure, the company says.

After a close evaluation of available equipment, they chose for LDR ALBA LED zoom profile. With only 200W, ALBA is capable of delivering the same light level as a conventional 1000 TH source. And thanks to its optic design and front zoom lenses (a total of five lenses), it can project a homogenous lighting beam up to 30m and fully resolve A size gobo patterns.

"Another aspect that made us choose Alba," says Chacon, "was its unique dimming resolution (0.01%) on one channel only, the color rendering and skin tone. With ALBA, we have the right level of illumination for broadcasting and the perfect color temperature."

A lighting simulation using a WYSIWYG program was made dividing house and stage lighting.

Company STL of Guatemala was awarded the installation contract and a total of 90 Alba 8/22 Zoom LED profiles were positioned in the roof for house lighting. Each set of Albas was pointed down and assigned to a specific sector of the auditorium while 87 Alba 8/22s were mounted on a truss surrounding the Stage.

The Installation was completed with two LDR Canto 2000 MSR followspots, operated from the control room. Each set of Albas was wired with DMX cable and terminated with a DMX receiver.

"It's great job," says Briones. "The team matched my request and it looks like we have a new building. From now on we have an unlimited opportunity to create different lighting scenery."

"It was a great pleasure to work on this project," says Besio. "With Mr. Moran we made a great team and we have managed to create something new but we also made many people happy with the result. Our passion for lighting and attention to details made the difference. When a tungsten halogen source is not suitable, ALBA LED proved to be the best alternative solution to achieve what people expect when using a conventional theatre profile zoom lantern."

Moran says: "We worked hard, but it's important that everybody is happy with the achieved result. A special thanks goes to Fabiano Besio who supported us and to all the team who worked on this project."