Church Production Magazine has always been a strong advocate of using consultants when adding or modifying your audio, video or lighting systems-and for good reason. While many tasks can be accomplished by non-professionals, churches have a long track record of installing numerous AV systems before they get it right-on average, three. This is frequently because well-meaning volunteers who have read up on the topic feel they are qualified, but simply don't know what they don't know.
This is all well and good. But let's face it: there are many churches out there that pretty much need a miracle from God to be able to replace a broken vocal microphone, never mind hire a consultant to add something like a video projector to their sanctuary.
So, should these churches never use technology? That's not a practical answer either. Some churches, when they want to add a new technology element to their repertoire, are simply going to have to do it themselves.
And if such a church is going to take its first step into adding video projection to its sanctuary, how should staff approach it?
Seek Council
First, even if you can't afford a consultant, there may be resources in your community that you can tap into. Are there some large churches in your area with a staff technical director or experienced volunteers? Most of these people are more than happy to offer advice. Build some relationships with those churches and individuals that have already been down the road you're embarking on.
Plan for the Future
Take some time to make a plan. Don't just think about your next purchase. Put it in the context of what you may want to do in the future. For example, if you're going to add more lighting to your room at some point, consider buying a projector that will be bright enough to overcome the increase in ambient lighting in the room. Otherwise, you may be buying another projector shortly after the lighting upgrade goes in.
Consider Your Congregation
Many people leading the technical ministries effort in the church are on the younger side, with excellent eyesight. So, they can see small text on a small screen just fine. However, there are older people in your church as well. Talk to them, and make sure you buy a screen that is large enough to accommodate those who don't have 20/20 vision. (And keep them in mind when creating your worship and service slides as well-tiny text on a large screen won't work for the elderly.)
Where to Buy
The big box electronics stores are now carrying a variety of video projectors. But frequently those stores are not staffed by well-trained, knowledgeable sales reps-they often know just what's printed on the side of the box. So when getting advice from such a store, take it with a grain of salt, and do your own research to confirm what you're told.
When buying local (which is generally worth paying a little extra for), find out about service after the sale and return policies. Can you return the projector if it's not what you needed? Will they be able to help you if you're having trouble connecting it? While online retailers offer excellent prices, you're not going to be able to call them up and get help connecting your projector.
What to Buy
Now the big question: how do you know what to buy? There are two aspects to this question-the projection screen and the projector.
Projection Screens
The first decision is to figure out what size screen you need. Fortunately, there are some good online tools to help with this. One is offered by Acoustic Dimensions-check out http://bit.ly/odHMRv. This tool can help you figure out screen and projector size based on ambient light conditions and viewing distance.
Let's start with the screen. You need to take into consideration the nearest and farthest seats from where you intend to place the screen, to make sure it's large enough so that those in the back can read it. The projection calculator mentioned above can help you with this, and the suggested size will vary based on your goals. Do you want to merely present information, or create an immersive environment? The second requires a much larger screen than the first. Based on the calculator, a reasonable middle-of-the-road approach would be to divide the furthest viewing distance in feet by about seven to get a reasonable screen width for a widescreen format screen.
What aspect ratio do you want to support? Modern video is all widescreen-16x9. However, there's still a lot of 4:3 equipment available. For the future, I suggest going with 16x9.
Then, are you going to do front or rear projection? These are two entirely different types of screens. For front projection, the screen needs to reflect light from the front; for rear, it needs to pass light through the screen. Rear projection requires fewer lumens from the projector and can optimize the light passing through the projector to direct more towards the seating area (referred to as screen gain), but at the expense of limiting the viewing angle. Rear projection does require enough space behind your screen to set up the projector. And doing rear projection also keeps the projector away from the attendees. Some projectors have fairly loud cooling fans, so this can be a nice advantage.
For front projection, you need enough space to place the projector in a location where you won't have attendees walking between the projection beam and the screen. If you are hanging it from the ceiling, it needs to be mounted securely using a mount designed for projectors. This is critical because improperly hung projectors out over your seating area could cause serious injury or death if they fall on someone. Make sure that whoever mounts your projector is qualified to do so.
Make sure you place your screen in an area where as little ambient light as possible is hitting it. Ideally, you don't want any lighting near the screen. The more ambient light that hits the screen, the brighter the projector you will need, which quickly adds to the cost of the projector. Ideally, use a light meter to determine what the ambient light levels will be where the screen is to reside. Projector manufacturers often have calculators to determine the size projector you need, or to show that you need to reduce those ambient light levels.
Projectors
The biggest area of concern with a projector is that it has enough light output to support the screen size and ambient light in your room. Ambient light is the killer- if your room is very dark, you don't need a very bright projector. If you're meeting in a high school gym with bright sports lighting, you're likely going to need a very bright (and likely very expensive) projector for it to be visible and look halfway decent. There's no getting around that.
Make sure that the projector you're looking at will support the projection orientation (front or rear) that you plan to use. Don't assume that all projectors support both.
It might be worth checking out the cost of replacement lamps before you make your final decision. If you're not aware, you better sit down-projector lamps are expensive. Lamps can easily cost $500. And some projectors take two.
When making your selection, take advantage of buyer reviews at the various online retailers. But be aware that a negative comment could actually be from a problem with the user, not the product. As with everything on the Internet, take the comments with a grain of salt.
Connectivity
Something that's easily overlooked is connecting your projector to your video source(s). Most computer video cabling can't be run very far before you start seeing image degradation. You may need to buy a video extender to get your computer video signal to the projector if they are spaced far apart. And the higher resolution you run the projector at, the worse the problem is.
Make sure you understand what output resolutions your computer supports, and what resolutions your projector accepts. Make sure that the two will be compatible, and that the computer image will show in the correct aspect ratio. Walking into a facility and seeing video on the monitors or screen that's all stretched out and deformed because the computer and projector aren't really compatible is quite distracting.
Most media software such as PowerPoint, EasyWorship, Media Shout and others support a dual-head system, which is very helpful. Dual head simply means that your computer has two entirely separate video outputs. The media software will use the main video display as the "control panel" that the operator uses to run the software, and the second output is connected to the video projector and has resulting multimedia image on it.
Hopefully, these tips will guide you to do further research that results in good decisions. Forums like churchmedia.net, churchsoundcheck.com and others can help you understand what to look for in projector screens and video projectors. And if you're still confused-consider waiting until you can hire a professional to get you on the right path. The additional cost of a consultant will be less than having to re-buy your projection equipment two or three times.
