How Many Lights Do I Need To Light My Church Stage

How Many Lights Do I Need To Light My Church Stage?

By Frank Schabell > Lead Lighting Design at Pro Church Lights

Since achieving the correct color temperature varies depending on your existing lighting setup – it would be best to talk to a PCL Church Lighting Expert to determine your best path to 4000k.

All Pro Church Lighting fixtures ship with a filter that gives you that crisp and perfect white light for your stage and live stream.

How Many Lights Does Your Church Need To Correctly Light The Stage?

Determining the correct quantity of lights to light your church stage is critical to producing a smooth and even stage wash. The correct quantity of lights ensures that your worship team, pastor or anyone else on stage is lit well, even and has minimal shadows.

Having the correct quantity of stage light fixtures directly impacts your in-person worship experience as well as your live-stream quality. The other factor here as well is the correct TYPE of fixture. You can’t just aim any old “light” at a stage. To light your stage you need to prioritize implementing the right fixture type for your stage and room size.

Watch this video for a quick overview of all things discussed in this post…

WATCH: Church Lights – How Many Lights Do I Need To Light My Stage?

Calculating Fixture Counts

Based on all of the data we have from serving churches around the nation – we’ve found that the majority of churches only need between 4 to 8 front wash fixtures – sometimes a few more if you have a very deep stage. We’re talking the “majority” here though based on our data.

IMPORTANT: In order for this to be true though – you need to implement the correct type of light fixtures at your church! You can not just head over to Amazon and buy 4 lights and hang them and expect good results. That scenario would be a total waste of your valuable budget and in our opinion very poor stewardship.

We’ll discuss correct fixture types later in this post…

For now – here is a ballpark amount of fixtures you will need based on your stage size.

6′ to 8′ Wide Stage = 2 Fixtures

8′ to 12′ Wide Stage = 2 Fixtures

12′ to 14′ Wide Stage = 3-4 Fixtures

14′ to 16′ Wide Stage = 4 Fixtures

16′ to 20′ Wide Stage = 5 Fixtures

20′ to 26′ Wide Stage = 5-6 Fixtures

26′ to 32′ Wide Stage = 6-8 Fixtures

Keep in mind, these are approximate fixtures. If your stage is deeper, you will in most cases need additional fixtures. Also if you have a Thrust or portion of your stage that sticks out (usually in the pulpit area), you’ll need additional fixtures.

Correct Fixture Types

Using the correct fixture type is CRITICAL when lighting your stage! Track Lights, Flood Lights, Little LED “Dot” Lights, House Lights and RGB LED Lights – ARE NOT LIGHTS YOU SHOULD USE TO LIGHT YOUR STAGE!

The correct type of stage light that you should be using to create your stage wash are: Fresnels or Ellipsoidals. These fixtures have barndoors, shutters and beam control so that you can focus light exactly where you want it (and keep it off areas you don’t such as screens, seats, walls, etc).

Your church stage lighting will forever suffer if you do not implement correct stage lighting fixtures. To talk all of the guess work out of choosing a set of front wash fixtures – download our catalog. We’ve sectioned out front wash fixtures as Priority #1. Front wash is the 1 thing you need to get right before all else. Download the PCL Catalog Now!