Paragon 360 Brings Venture Church's Vision to Life

	The themed children's spaces featured an airplane, boats, and trains, along with stylized trees, canopy structures, murals, sea creatures, and bubble walls.

Paragon 360 partnered with Venture Church to help transform a fast-growing portable ministry into a permanent, purpose-built campus designed for long-term impact. Senior Pastor Tim Neptune launched Venture Church in Naples, Florida, in 2016 as a portable church meeting weekly at Florida SouthWestern State College. Rapid growth followed -- but the limitations of portability became clear during COVID when access to the facility was unexpectedly lost.

At more than 55,000 sq. ft., the new Venture Church campus was intentionally designed to create meaningful moments of connection at every turn. The facility included an 800-seat worship center, a welcoming atrium, dedicated children's and youth environments, nursery, kitchen, offices, conference rooms, adult classroom space, production studios, green rooms, shared workspaces, and various outdoor amenities such as open-air verandas and an amazing outdoor baptistry.

With a $9M scope of work, Paragon 360 delivered a comprehensive, turnkey integration -- bringing together design, technology, and fabrication under one unified vision. Paragon's scope included space planning and layout; high-end audio, video, and lighting systems; motorized rigging; campus-wide acoustical treatments; interior design; furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E); auditorium seating; ceiling features; outdoor audio; signage and wayfinding; and extensive custom fabrication of theming and architectural elements -- all thoughtfully integrated to function as one cohesive environment.

Paragon's signature custom fabrication not only brought cost effective solutions to modular architectural elements and expedited the project delivery but also played a central role in bringing Venture Church's identity to life -- creating immersive environments that reinforce the spirit of adventure.

The themed children's spaces featured an airplane, boats, and trains, along with stylized trees, canopy structures, murals, sea creatures, and bubble walls. Every detail was purposefully designed to spark imagination and engagement. Additional elements around the campus included custom check-in stations, welcome desks, connect boards, Venture Cares feature, lobby ceiling pergolas, coffee kiosks, acoustical ceiling features, custom signage, and a digital history wall.

Many elements of custom fabrication were also included in the worship center such as multiple wall columns on each side of the room, illuminated front of stage facades, rear stage pixel tape scenic elements, a custom drum enclosure, camara platforms, custom acoustical ceiling clouds, and the Pastor's new pulpit.

Another standout feature designed, built, and installed by Paragon is an outdoor 15' custom aluminum cross -- engineered with hand-carved woodgrain detail and built to withstand hurricane-force winds -- serving as a powerful visual anchor for the campus.

Paragon designed and deployed fully integrated audio, video, and lighting (AVL) systems across the entire campus including the worship center, children and youth rooms, lobbies, conference rooms, and outdoor systems. These systems were designed to create a cohesive technological ecosystem that supports worship, teaching, and content creation at every level.

The worship center featured high-performance audio reinforcement, large-format LED video displays, broadcast-ready camera systems, dynamic LED stage lighting and house lighting with extensive motorized rigging, and state-of-the-art hearing assist systems. The upstage wall included pixel tape scenic wedges that extend the visual art all the way across the stage. The space also includes a broadcast control room and isolated audio for video mixing room.

Lobby spaces, adult classrooms, children and youth environments, and conference rooms also featured complete, networked, AVL systems that include additional LED walls, audio, video, and lighting systems, Teams meeting room setups with Neat boards, campuswide digital signage, distributed audio, and more. In addition, outdoor audio and video systems were deployed for background music (BGM) around the campus in addition to multiple veranda spaces and the exterior baptistry.

Extensive acoustical treatments were implemented throughout the campus -- enhancing audio clarity and control in each space. Many of these solutions were custom-fabricated, blending performance with architectural design, while printed acoustic elements in children's areas added to the immersive thematic experience. Over (190) custom acoustical ceiling clouds were designed, built, and installed by Paragon across the campus.

In the worship center, Paragon provided 384 Sauder Clarity auditorium seats as part of the raised seating section with flip-up arms, wooden end caps, and built-in aisle lighting, in addition to 425 Sauder Vantage wooden stackable chairs for the main floor. Paragon also led the interior design effort across the entire campus which included the selection of furniture, fixtures, flooring, architectural lighting, and accessories throughout.

"Paragon's scope was extensive. They led the overall design and concepting process for this amazing facility which is almost 60,000 square feet of space. We wanted someone who could do it all - and that's why we called Paragon and it's why we called them first. They understand church," says Pastor Neptune. "Today's church is about relationships, connection, and engagement... and Paragon understands that. They helped us create spaces where those things just naturally develop." The Worship Center featured the most comprehensive and technologically advanced production systems on the campus. Lighting is anchored by Prolights theatrical fixtures alongside Chauvet, Elation, ETC, Environmental Lights, and Meteor Lighting, covering stage, architectural, pixel-mapped scenic, and DMX-controlled house lighting. Rigging and structural elements are supported by Extreme Structures, Skjonberg Controls, and SSRC, while custom scenic and architectural components are fabricated in-house by Paragon 360. Video is driven by large-format LED walls from ReveLux with processing by NovaStar, and switching, routing, and conversion handled primarily by Blackmagic Design and Decimator. Camera systems include Blackmagic Design and Panasonic, supported by Clear-Com intercom. Audio systems are led by Martin loudspeakers and amplification with Fulcrum Acoustic subs, with control and mixing via Allen & Heath, supported by Waves, Shure, DPA, RF Venue, Symetrix, and Powersoft, creating a full-scale, broadcast-ready worship environment. The space also features a new state-of-the-art hearing assist system utilizing a Listen Technologies transmitter via the Auracast broadcast platform Auracast.

Elsewhere across the campus -- Children's areas, Youth spaces, Atrium, Classrooms, Conference Rooms, Production, Shared Workspaces, and Outdoor areas -- the systems scale appropriately while maintaining consistency in manufacturer quality. Lighting throughout relies heavily on ETC, Chauvet, Environmental Lights, and Meteor Lighting, combining architectural, theatrical, and control-based solutions. Audio systems across these spaces primarily utilize QSC, Electro-Voice, Fulcrum Acoustics, and Powersoft, with digital signal processing and control from Symetrix and mixing platforms from Allen & Heath. Video presentation and digital signage are dominated by ReveLux displays, Blackmagic Design switching and interfaces, and BrightSign media players. Networking, racks, power, and infrastructure solutions consistently come from Middle Atlantic, NETGEAR, Juice Goose, and Furman, while campuswide acoustical treatments and themed scenic elements are provided by Paragon 360.

Taken together, the equipment palette reflects a deliberately standardized, professional AVL ecosystem across the entire campus. Flagship worship and production spaces leverage premium touring-grade brands, while supporting environments use scalable, reliable manufacturers to ensure operational consistency, ease of training, and long-term maintainability-resulting in a unified technical experience from the main sanctuary to the smallest classroom.

See the Video: vimeo.com/1191184177.