- Barco recently teamed up with Clark, an audio-video-lighting company dedicated to the House of Worship (HOW) market, to significantly upgrade the visualization platform at Church of the Highlands’ Grants Mill campus in Birmingham, Alabama. Over the past four years, Barco and Clark have outfitted four of the 10 campuses with Barco video presentation solutions.
FLM-HD20: 20,000 lumens, 1080p HD, 3-chip DLP projector
When Church of the Highlands made the decision in 2009 to invest in a campus-wide audio visual technology upgrade, they looked to Clark and Barco to bring their religious programming to life with professional projection systems. They decided that Clark’s experience with modern technical worship environments and Barco projectors and presentation switchers were the right combination to fulfill the church’s objective to boost the production quality and visual impact of its sermons and events.
“We worked closely with Barco back in 2011 to develop a prototype AV system that could be rolled out to all of the campuses as the church continued to grow, which has served as a solid foundation for each site,” said Brandon Byrd, Project Manager for Clark. “Their breadth of product line and easy configuration allowed us to design high value, yet economical solutions that elevate the church’s production quality. We’ve developed a trusted partnership with Barco based on their ability to deliver great products and customer service.”
“Our ministry drives the church’s technical needs, and our job is to execute our leaders’ vision to create a top-notch experience for our members,” said Scott Waldrep, Production Systems Coordinator at Grants Mill, Church of the Highlands’ main campus. “We also understand that we’re engaging a media savvy audience these days that’s accustomed to viewing high-quality HD programming, so we knew we needed to step up our game.”
For its latest upgrade at Grants Mills, the church installed a Barco FLM-HD20 for the center screen, flanked by two FLM-R22+ models to create a panoramic visual experience in the 2,400 seat sanctuary. “We were so impressed with the crispness, color and contrast of the images – the projectors cut right through the ambient lighting and worked flawlessly from the first night,” said Waldrep.
The Grants Mill project is the fifth AV installation jointly completed by Clark and Barco for Church of the Highlands, which began with a brand new system for the 1,000-seat theater in 2009 and features an FLM-HD20 projector with four RLM-W8 models to round out the presentation screens. This was followed shortly by projects at the church’s Riverchase, Greystone and Auburn campuses which utilize varied configurations of HDX-W18 and RLM-series projectors, as well as Barco ImagePRO-II 3G presentation switchers.
“We have enjoyed growing with Church of the Highlands as they have continued to embrace Barco’s technologies,” said Scott Stremple, Vice President Sales - Venues & Hospitality, Projection Division, for Barco North America. “We are also fortunate to partner with Clark who brings experience and knowledge of the House of Worship AV market, which enables us to deliver the best solutions for these unique environments.”
