SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 1, 2020— McWong International, a leading innovator in Bluetooth® mesh technology, teamed with project partners High Lighting Service Company and Parker Reed, to deploy a sophisticated proprietary Bluetooth mesh control system at Historic Trinity Lutheran church in Detroit, Michigan.
Historic Trinity Lutheran has been a vibrant faith community in the metropolitan Detroit area for more than 150 years. The building is constructed of vari-colored granite and Indiana limestone, with slate roof and floor, oak woodwork and stained glass. Its style is 16th Century Pier-and-Clerestory Gothic, with a triforium gallery similar to those seen in Old World cathedrals. The dramatic structure features dozens of wood and stone carvings and stained-glass windows designed to enrich worship services. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1981.
In 2019, the church leadership realized that its aging theatrical dimming system was failing, with interior lights sometimes turning off during services. A comparable replacement system would be extremely costly and the leadership engaged local lighting experts Parker Reed Lighting and High Lighting Service to help identify a solution. The firms proposed retrofitting some of the historic fixtures with custom-built 300-500W equivalent LED light fixtures with embedded McWong Bluetooth mesh control modules and McWong LED drivers, powered by proprietary Casambi software. The solution would preserve the historic fixtures, and deliver new, powerful, flexible fixtures with control capabilities to the liturgical team.
The project team began work on the retrofit/new fixture installation in late 2019, removing the legacy 300W halogens from the interior fixtures and replacing them with a total of 109 custom-built 50W, 38W and 25W LED fixtures with control devices. The project team had selected a 3000K color temperature throughout the interior spaces. They worked closely with the liturgical team to create a wide range of control zones and pre-set scenes using the smartphone app. The design resulted in 15 control zones ranging across the entire interior of the worship space, including zones to highlight specific spaces, such as the lecterns and pulpits as well as uplighting zones that highlight the ceiling. Numerous pre-set scenes ensure fingertip access for special worship events.
“The ease of the system means the pastor can access scenes from the app on his iPad during services if desired,” notes Josh Farlow, Owner of High Lighting Service, “he can also adjust scenes or program new ones on the fly, which gives them a lot of flexibility.”
Selecting the proprietary Bluetooth mesh system from McWong rather than replacing the failing theatrical dimming control system with a similar system realized a first cost of investment savings that exceeded $100,000.
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About McWong International
For 30+ years, McWong has produced superior lighting controls and related electrical power and protection components. Today, McWong has engineered IoT solutions for today’s rapidly changing marketplace. With advanced design and manufacturing facilities, McWong offers extensive component choices for OEMs as well as robust solutions for contractors, ESCOs and facility managers.
