Image by Christian Bertrand.
Powerful, flexible imagery solutions. That’s what Digital Projection Inc. (DPI) based in Kennesaw, Ga., will tell you that it’s known for. That, and industry-leading customer support. Since professional visual technology products alongside excellent customer support are what every specifier is trying to deliver when they work on church projects, Church Designer spoke with DPI’s vice president of marketing and home entertainment, Michael Bridwell, a visual veteran who also understands the requirements and needs of church technical end users.
We specifically wanted to know why the company’s projectors are reported to stand out as tools that churches and technical teams turn to.
Church Designer: What is it about the church market and servicing those who specify in it, as well as the end-users, that resonates with DPI?
Bridwell: Houses of worship have specific ‘careabouts,’ and can be some of the more challenging applications for creating bright projected imagery with plenty of contrast and color.
Michael Bridwell, VP of Marketing & Home Entertainment, Digital Projection Inc.
Through our work in other markets that regularly contend with high amounts of ambient light, such as rental and staging and live events, we’ve created a range of projectors that thrive in worship venues. All at a wide variety of price points to ensure that most any worship venue can employ the precision of Digital Projection’s display solutions.
Church Designer: DPI is known for manufacturing single and 3-chip DLP and DLP cinema projectors for use in commercial applications as well as the house of worship setting. What about your products make them a good fit with tech teams in churches?
Bridwell: Our church partners love the accessibility and responsiveness they receive when working with DPI. From the regional sales personnel to the in-house technical and application support teams, all the way to the senior-level market specialists, we work as a group to ensure our customers are well supported. Furthermore, we try to make specialized features that resonate with worship applications accessible at different price points. That way, our customers installing our more budget-sensitive solutions can still harness some of the rich feature set that accompanies our flagship projectors. Through exposing our customers to application-enabling technology, and then standing by their efforts with support and insight, we hope our church tech team partners can take risks to go bigger, brighter and more immersive with their messaging. It's all about making their message as memorable as possible, and we're here to help make that happen.
Church Designer: When it comes to service after the sale, how does DPI approach that, and do you add anything to that service when it comes to church design experts—since churches are known for having a hodge-podge of professional or near-professional users on the tech team all the way down to a new volunteer?
Bridwell: This is where DPI truly excels. We create powerful, capable products, with a goal of these products supplying year after year of value to our customers. When you start with that goal, you can't help but place a priority on customer experience. Our personal, concierge-level support emerged from this passion for creating great customer experiences … we prioritize partnerships with our integrators, not simply adding every dealer in a region to our sales network. Those integrators that want to create a valuable partnership with our company receive numerous benefits. One is our pre-sale Application Support services team, mentioned previously, where a highly skilled group within DPI will help review a projection concept, no purchase necessary.
Another is our in-house customer advocate group that exists solely to track a customer's service experience and report back updates, findings and set expectations on cost and service timeframe. And then you have our Concierge program, today reserved for our flagship Insight 4K projector sales, where personnel from all departments analyze and lend expertise in the installation drawings, sources and overall concept to ensure a smooth, satisfying installation experience, start to finish.
Church Designer: How affordable are your services for churches, knowing that they work within tight budgets?
Bridwell: How affordable is free? We supply our truly distinct Application Support insight, as well as the expertise of our regional sales and vertical specialists for free. Our customers have access to our robust warranty programs as well, and we offer both on-site support services and finesse services such as calibration for what we consider reasonable fees. Worship integrators are regularly surprised when they hear all the service options and concierge-level attention we as a company supply.
Church Designer: When it comes to the ongoing maintenance of your products, how do you handle that for church designers and church staff? What does training look like when a church client comes on board with a new purchase or an upgrade to their equipment?
Bridwell: Training is essential when thoroughly comprehending the capabilities of an advanced imagery solution like a DPI projector. With the right training, church tech teams can keep a DPI functioning at top performance for many years—beyond what we conservatively state in our product documentation.
DPI offers regular training opportunities at our headquarters in Kennesaw, Ga., as well as training at most prominent tradeshows such as InfoComm, WFX and others. But again, many companies do that, so what's so 'DPI' about that approach? We don't stop there, instead we offer on-site training to our customers, whether they're integrators or end-users. The goal is that anyone who invests in delivering a DPI-caliber visual experience should have access to the knowledge and insight we have gained over 18 years of manufacturing projectors.
Church Designer: What is it about DPI's culture that works well to serve the needs of churches? Why is ministry a priority or a market that resonates with DPI enough to make it a priority?
Bridwell: We've found that we thrive in verticals where partnerships are prioritized and the experience delivered is more important than having the cheapest solution. We've been able to make so many deep-set, established relationships with both integrators and end-users alike in this space, largely because they value the time and attention we give them. The worship vertical is so diverse, and the applications so demanding, that we can't imagine supporting worship customers with anything less than our full attention. And that's led to year after year of success in the worship space.
Church Designer: What new developments in digital projection do you anticipate will be a hit with the church market leading further into 2016, and why?
Bridwell: Laser-hybrid illumination is transforming the visual landscape within large houses of worship. Enlisting both brightness and installation flexibility, 20,000 hour illumination laser-hybrid projectors like DPI's HIGHlite Laser projectors are allowing content producers to project on walls, screens and even a sanctuary's architectural features.
DPI's HIGHlite Laser projector allows content producers to project on walls, screens, and a sanctuary's architectural features.
Today's grand and mega-churches are delivering engaging AV experiences more akin to the live events and staging verticals than to yesterday's traditional sermons. Connecting with the congregation and pulling them into the message is the priority in these spaces, and laser-hybrid projection is the tool of choice in many of these venues.
