Stage Designs

Woven Metal

Eric Alexander from Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, NC brings us this metallic take on the Weave. (originally posted March 2016)

The inspiration behind this design came from a theme in their student ministry called “Renegade.” It needed a harder element than Coroplast. So as a take on the “weave” design, Eric decided to use flashing, typically used for roofing. The structure is built from sixteen 2″x4″x12′ boards painted black and fastened to the stage floor and the upstage truss. The flashing was screwed into the 2×4’s on the back side and on each end. Eric tasked one of his co-workers and some students to build what came out of his head and it turned out exactly what he expected. Another simple but effective design.

The project cost around $400 and took about 6 hours to build. Be careful with the flashing though, as it can be sharp on the edges. Their team used gloves to handle the flashing.

The design was lit with 6 ADJ Megabars (3 on each side in a column), and 6 Chauvet Slim Par Pro RGBA’s, and 3 Chauvet COLORado 1’s. This gave them the ability to use different colors to enhance the various angles on the flashing.

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LED Net Onward and Upward

13 responses to “Woven Metal”

  1. Chris Reid says:

    Great job!

  2. Greg Chudyk says:

    This design I could totally get behind.
    Well done!

  3. Jesse says:

    Looks great! One question: Did you deal with any glare issues? With the light on the metal I’m wondering about the reflection back to the congregation. Is it muted bc the flashing is not polished metal or did you have to do something to it?

    • The reflection is not too bad. It did brighten the ambient light on stage. The lighting looks different from different angles which makes it kind of cool. The biggest problem I have had with it is the low angled front lighting since the ceiling is only 15′ high. But overall, it looks really good.

  4. Beth says:

    This looks awesome. What size L brackets did you use?

    • Those are the 2″ L brackets. They don’t really need to hold much since they are not a load bearing point. We will continue to develop the use of the 2×4’s for the different set pieces. They may need to be strengthened if we do anything too heavy. They are attached to the truss up top with metal strapping. The truss is dead hung from several points so that allows the structure to be secured on the top and bottom. The structure is pretty strong but I will have to keep an eye on the load.

  5. Greg Womack says:

    Where did you get the flashing? I haven’t found anything that cheap.

    thanks,
    Greg

  6. Sully Cook says:

    Hey Eric! This looks great. We are looking at doing a galvanized metal roof design along the backline. With your design did you have any trouble with the drum noise reflecting off the metal?

    • Eric Alexander says:

      As with any solid surface there are reflections but with the weave we we able to diffuse some of it. And we have some Clearsonic pads on the top and rear sides to bring the noise down some more. It is not too much of a problem in our student center because the room is pretty dead acoustically.

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