Creating an immersive worship experience is a hot topic with contemporary church production and creative teams. The process often involves creating an ambience with projection, lighting, and sound that literally and virtually surrounds the worshipper and enhances their experience. While creating immersive environments with video projection is cutting edge, what's next in video displays for the house of worship market?
Popular in movie theaters and making headway in home theaters, 3D display technology continues to be developed. There are projectors currently in the marketplace that are equipped and marketed as "3D-Ready." Some think it is only a matter of time until it becomes viable for houses of worship. Fredrik Svahnberg, marketing and communications manager at Dataton, says, "I consider the house of worship a highly [imaginative] market and also a very early adopter of new technology. I would not be surprised if we will see some of the finest 3D presentation (outside the TV and cinema world) coming from here."
Frank Anzures, senior product manager at Christie, concurs. "With the demand for 3D in the home and business markets, house-of-worship markets may also look to add an immersive experience into their presentations, which will open up some exciting opportunities," he says.
Tools of the Trade
LCD projectors remain one of the popular technologies being used today. First introduced in the mid 1990s, another prevalent technology is Digital Light Processing (DLP), which incorporates a Digital Mirror Device (DMD)-a chip that has thousands of tiny mirrors, with each mirror representing a pixel in the image matrix. Other light engine technologies also competing for market share are LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) and 3LCD. Many of the projectors available today are capable of providing HD 1080p resolution and vivid, bright colors even under high ambient-light conditions. As incremental innovation continues in projection technology, how do these advances apply in church production environments and what can we look forward to?
Latest Developments
The desire for improved image quality has placed high-definition and wide-screen systems high on many churches wish lists. Steve Rubery, manager of new business development at Eiki International, includes these on his list of advancements. "First, the change to Inorganic LCD panels increases lifespan and also increases contrast ratio-that means a much higher ROI for churches," he says. "Secondly, 3LCD+1 adds a yellow color control device to the standard red, green and blue LCD panels that increases color purity by 20% and really makes the images pop."
Some of the latest developments, though, are not necessarily anything that relates directly to the projected image. A potential surprise for many projector owners is what is referred to as TCO or "Total Cost of Ownership," and this is particularly important for churches that employ multiple projectors. Oftentimes lamp and filter replacement is not considered in the initial purchase cost, until the time comes for these items to be replaced. Then it's a shock since replacement lamps can sometimes run in the hundreds of dollars. Getting a longer life from the consumable elements in a projector is an area of focus. Sean Gunduz, product manager, projectors, for Epson Americas Inc., notes, "Recent technological developments enable manufacturers to introduce lamps and filters that can last twice as long, significantly reducing replacement part and labor costs." Additional advancements will further provide "more efficient lamp technology that delivers greater numbers of operating hours, more brightness and improved TCO," says Scott Wellington, product marketing manager, projectors, Panasonic Solutions Co.
And as Chuck Westfall, technical advisor for the professional engineering and solutions division of Canon U.S.A. Inc., points out, "Other specific developments currently impacting projection in the house-of-worship market involve incorporating features that improve installation convenience and simplify maintenance." And that includes things such as providing options for mounting or making filter and lamp access more convenient.
Using projectors to help provide the aforementioned immersive experience requires creative application of projection technology by using multiple projectors or alternative placement and projection surfaces. Wayne Kozuki, product manager for Mitsubishi Electric Visual Solutions America Inc., notes, "One of the latest developments is newer algorithms that are built into projectors that allow geometric corrections and edge blending. This enables projectors to shine images onto traditional flat screens, as well as curved walls or many other surfaces." This allows for creative application of projection and the ability to add projection in facilities that might not otherwise have been able to use projection.
Neil Wittering, marketing director, Americas for Projectiondesign, counts improved color accuracy, high brightness, and innovations that provide the ability to blend images from multiple projectors to create an "immersive video experience."
No More VGA Connections
Connectivity, or how you get the signal from the source to the projectors, is an extremely important feature. On any given projector, there is often an array of input/output (I/O) connections from which to choose. One recent development is High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), which is capable of transmitting uncompressed digital HD video and audio signals. Roger Chien, projector product manager for ViewSonic, suggests, "A majority of the mainstream projectors come with HDMI as a standard input now. A few high-end models come with Display Port. For the next few years, we will see more projectors equipped with digital inputs as analog VGA slowly gets phased out around 2013/2014."
The ability to network projectors for monitoring and control, either with proprietary hardware and software or with control systems from manufacturers such as AMX, Crestron and Extron is also becoming more important. This provides the wherewithal for remote management of the projectors from a centralized location on the campus and even offsite access through a web interface. Gunduz says, "The biggest shift I foresee will be about content, which is moving towards video streaming, whether pre-recorded or live."
He continues, "For this reason alone, network connectivity is a critical component when buying projectors today-you want to make sure your investment is future-proof."
On the Horizon
"As far as the future," predicts Kozuki, "I think when it comes to the house-of-worship market, we will start seeing brighter and brighter projectors being developed in smaller and smaller form factors, making them more manageable when it comes to installation. We are also researching alternative light sources for the future, such as LED."
Along with the previously mentioned TCO, environmental considerations are factoring more and more into projector design, as well. Tim Brooksbank, chairman of Calibre UK, says, "The next five years will see a continuation of the emergence of LED lamps within projectors, effectively making projectors maintenance-free for the life of the installation." Chien concurs, adding, "Conventional mercury lamps are high energy consumers, running very hot over a period of time. They are not environmentally friendly. The industry has started looking into other light source technologies like LED plus laser and LED plus phosphor that promise long lamp life (20,000-plus hours vs. 5,000 hours), low energy consumption (less than 100 watts vs. 300 watts) and environmental friendliness."
Technology marches on and prices fall. As recently as 10 years ago a low-resolution projector would have cost several thousand dollars. Nowadays an SVGA projector runs in the neighborhood of $350. While prices for projection technology continue to drop, for many churches they may still seem high, and to save money many facilities will try to plan and implement a projection system with in-house resources. Unless you have staff or volunteers with direct expertise in the area of projection technology, and depending on your goals for the system, it's probably best not to take this on as a DIY project. Projectiondesign's Wittering advises, "Work with a company that specializes in this market and can deliver a complete integration of products that are future-proofed and technically viable for future upgrades."
James Chan, vice president of marketing for Mitsubishi, says, "The main benefit of projection technology can be summed up in two words: better choices." Whether you are looking for a basic system to project verses or lyrics, or an advanced system with HD resolution, there are a multitude of options available that can provide high quality performance now and well into the future."
Rubery adds in closing, "Predicting the future when electronic technology is involved is next to impossible, considering that just eight years ago social networking did not exist. And now look at its prominence." The outlook for the future is that change and development will be ongoing and the results will be dynamic.
