Video projection has come a long way from the days of thirty thousand dollar LCD projectors. There are several options to do what your pastor wants. You can go to your local national office supply store, insert Depot, Max or Staples here, and pick up an inexpensive projector but then what do you do?

Is it capable of being ceiling mounted?
Where do you purchase a ceiling mount?
What are your options?
What size screen should we buy?

Let us talk more about these questions a little later. Right now, we should discuss what the specifications mean to you. Lumens, throw distance, and resolution are all important things to consider. A foot candle is the amount of brightness of light at one foot from the source. Lumens are the unit of measurement of light and describe the amount of light provided at where you want to light. Lumens are the way you rate a projector. The amount of natural light in your worship center or other locations will assist you in determining how many lumens are necessary. A small conference room with no windows could use as little as 1200 lumens while a worship center with windows on each side should have no less then 3000 lumens. The larger amount of lumens, the greater the price of the unit will be.

Throw distance is the next item to consider when choosing a projector. The throw distance of a projector is the distance your projector can adequately maintain the proper illumination of the screen at a proper screen size. Projectorcentral.com has a great throw distance calculator that has most models of projectors and screen sizes. It allows you to put in the make and model of projector and it provides you with an adjustable throw
distance based on your screen size.

Resolution is the last of the three things to look at when choosing a projector. Most computers are now at least 1024 X 768 and more laptops are adopting a 16 X 9 aspect ratio for screens with a resolution of 1280 X 1024. This is simply the amount of pixels available on screen. The more pixels, the higher quality picture you have projected. Do not limit yourself by purchasing a projector with a top resolution of only 800 X 600. You should look at a projector capable of at least XGA capability. The screen resolution will also help determine the screen size and aspect ratio.

So now that we have determined how bright the projector needs
to be, how far away, and the screen size. The next questions to ask are:
Where will I mount this?
Can I mount it on the ceiling or will a table be an appropriate height with no one walking in front of the image?
The worst thing to create interference in worship or during a sermon is to have a large shadow appear on your screen. Mounting the projector on the ceiling is always more advantageous than on a table. It is generally more secure and can usually
eliminate the possibility of having someone interfere with the image.

This is where we bring in the second item of consideration for a projector, throw distance.
Is there a good spot at the right distance to place a mount for the projector on
the ceiling?
Is there a light fixture or ceiling beam that obstructs the projection of the image?
How high do I need to hang the projector so that heads are not seen on the projection screen?

In public areas, the rule of thumb is the higher the better within reason. You want the screen image to be high enough to be seen but not enough that the front row has to crane their necks to see the praise chorus or sermon outline.

Now that we know where to mount the projector, what screen size and how many lumens, we can decide what brand to use. So what brand do you use? Well, there are many brands to look at. Sharp, Sanyo, Barco, and Panasonic are but a few brands. They are among the largest and have good reputations. There are models that are consumer level and models that are created as professional. The consumer models tend to be cheaper but usually don’t have the same warranty as the professional models. Unless you can only afford a projector from Office Depot, buy it from a reputable AV integrator.

Well, that should do it.
As always, if anything is worth doing, it is worth doing well. To that fact we can add, if it’s worth doing for the Lord, then it should be our absolute best! Take care and email us if you have questions or comments.

Allow me to write a few words of introduction. I am an AV professional that has 18 years experience running sound for large and small scale events and concerts. I also have experience in supervising the design, installation and operation of a University’s classroom technology, performance venues and conference rooms. I have worked with the Gospel music association for the Academy on Campus program. One such event had Casting Crowns as the winner of the event. I have worked with many artists in Christian music at churches ranging from small to large churches. AV is my passion and calling. It is a talent that God has given me and called me to aid others. II love to share how to use it with others and want to be a resource for any ministry that needs help.

Just as LG stated, I hate to see churches make a big deal of using technology, just to use it poorly. I feel that anything that the church does should be the absolute best for God’s glory. Technology is yet one more thing to should be done well.

Thanks,

DC

Face it. We’ve all been there. Nice peaceful Sunday morning worship service, nice hymns, good message and then its time for the Offertory and the guest soloist who you can’t hear because the sound track they are singing with is way too loud or maybe in your situation all you hear is the vocals because the music is way too soft.
Either way this all could have been taken care of with two simple words. Sound Check.
No one expects the use of technology in church to be a full-fledged Broadway Production but the impression left on the congregation when the technology appears to fail is so critical to the success of future attempts to integrate technology.

Regardless of whether you are using audio, video or media via a computer, the Sound Check is the most important part of the preperation stage of the process. If it fails in Sound Check it WILL fail in the service, if it needs to be tweaked in Sound Check you will now have that opportunity. The guest vocalist doesn’t have to sing the entire song, they may want to though, but at least enough to set and note the appropriate levels for both the microphone and the music. If the audio of a video clip or a computer media file is too low the entire pint of the clip will be missed in the illustration point in which it is being used. The Sound Check will allow those levels to be set as well.

Now time for the disclaimer, just because you go through Sound Check doesn’t mean everything will run perfect every time. But it does give you a chance at a head start on how to resolve what issues arise and recover because you already tested the process earlier.

In the next installment we’ll talk about Timing and how important it is on so many levels.

The first thing we need to cover as we start our journey is NOT how to use technology in church. It’s how to prepare to use technology in church. The level and definition of “being prepared” really depends on the congregation of your church or the make up of your Youth Ministry. Following will be a simple list of questions you need to have answered BEFORE you attempt to introduce technology into your program. You know your group so only you will know the answers. Yes I know, it sounds like a dating site form but in a way you can’t expect your application of technology to work if you don’t know your target audience. I’ll explain the need for answers for the qwirky questions as we go along.
Average Age?
Average Education level?
Level of Employment?
Number of families with small children?
Involvement with Church Activities/ Groups?
Do they go to the Movies?
Do they listen to the radio?
Do they follow the local sport teams?
Do they give topical suggestions of what they’d like to see in the service?
Are you a rapidly growing church?
What is the largest demographic growing in your church? (youth, young Adults, young married couples, new families, baby boomers,seniors)

Only you are going to know your group and if you come up with other questions that help you define your target audience, please share those with us here in the comments section.
We’ll go in depth on why the answers to these questions are so important as you strive to integrate technology into your programs/services in the next installment. To be continued…