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When the Midlothian campus of the Passion Community Church in Virginia, moved its services from a local movie theater to a local middle school, the A/V team decided it was time for the projector upgrade they had been discussing. After working closely with Ed Goldman from Projector Team, he says Passion Community Church decided on the Hitachi CP-HD9321 8500 Lumen Full HD projector for its low price point, versatility, and accessibility.
Passion Community Church is a multi-site church with three campuses in Virginia plus an online campus where anyone can watch the services live each week. While the campuses are separated by physical location, together they are unified in providing a consistent atmosphere, teachings and experience. Lenny Harris is the technical coordinator at the Midlothian campus and has been with Passion Community Church since Fall 2008.
“When we moved from the theater to the middle school our whole projection situation changed,” says Harris. “We finally decided to upgrade our projector to fit the new space. Our campus has to set up and tear down each week for our service. The Hitachi CP-HD9321 is easy to set up and program, and we can have it from the back of the truck to ready for service in less than 25 minutes.”
"Our campus has to set up and tear down each week for our service. The Hitachi CP-HD9321 is easy to set up and program, and we can have it from the back of the truck to ready for service in less than 25 minutes."
Lenny Harris
Technical Director, Midlothian Campus, Passion Community Church.
Harris says he committed to the CP-HD9321 for the Midlothian campus especially for the full-HD, large screen capabilities. At the Midlothian location, the projector sits at the back of the stage on a small platform the A/V department designed to help the projector sit at the correct angle. Once the projector is down, the only setup needed is a matter of moving it left or right to line up with the screen and then a quick tweak using Hitachi's PerfectFit utility. It took Harris less than one day to train his crew on the ins and outs of the projector so they could set everything up on their own.
Another part of the CP-HD9321 that sold Harris on the projector was the interchangeable lenses that can be purchased. “I really love how the lenses make everything more versatile,” says Harris. “For a significantly lower price we were able to buy a second lens to allow us to use the projector at a longer throw distance. I can bring the projector to any of our church meetings and can set it up just as easily with a completely different lens.”
Coincidentally, the Riverside campus of Passion Community Church just completed installing two new Hitachi projectors for their services. These two installations were completed by a local Custom A/V Installer, Voigt Enterprises, and both campuses decided on buying Hitachi equipment separately. At this location, two new Hitachi projectors CP-WX8265 and CP-WX8255, were purchased for permanent installation for the church services. The first projector, the CP-WX8255, is used to project lyrics, motion backgrounds and announcements behind the band on stage. Both projectors are permanently installed in the church, but at different throw distances. The second projector, the CP-WX8265, is set up to project to a screen that is lowered from the ceiling at the front of the stage. This projector remains off during the songs, but will switch on when the weekly message starts at a 10-12-foot shorter throw so the projection can appear at the front of the stage. Together, the two projectors work to give the congregation an immersive experience each week.
A/V is an important component to any church, but for Passion Community Church it is especially important as it uses video from services for the weekly online campus. Anybody is able to tune into one of the three services they stream live. Due to video, Harris had to work to make sure the projector was compatible with the video equipment used each week and that the quality stayed as crisp and bright as it is in person.
“The new projector has made such a difference for my team,” says Harris. “Being a mobile church has its difficulties, and it's nice to know that we have a piece of equipment that's easy for us to set up, easy for us to manipulate to fit whatever we need and is reliable every time we use it. It's just a great projector for us to have on our truck.”
