Adding Contemporary Worship Services Meant Advancing AV Systems At A Louisiana Church
Two Analog Way Easy Fades and one Easy Cut feed signals to a projection screen and eight plasmas at Temple Baptist Church in Ruston, LA.
RUSTON, LA—Temple Baptist Church in Ruston, LA, decided to modernize its services by offering its congregation a new space called “The Gathering” for contemporary worship. To accommodate 400 worshipers at The Gathering, Temple Baptist Church decided to use a space that was not finished during the church’s construction.
In order to create a venue for a contemporary worship experience, a complete AV system was installed. American Audio of Ruston, LA installed the sound system. The design and installation of the AV system was handled by Mission Service Supply.
“We have a long-standing relationship with that church,” explained Brent Gay, presentation system specialist at Mission Service. “When the church decided to relocate back in 1997, we were chosen as their video contractor.”
Having a strong house of worship customer base, Mission Service is used to working with churches from the ground-up and beyond as they evolve and renovate. Based in West Monroe, LA, Mission Service manages about 30 projects every year.
To meet the church’s requirements, Mission Service looked for a solution to handle three computers and three video cameras for displaying PowerPoint presentations, DVD, or camera shots. The result was a system with video content distributed to an array of displays, including a Stewart Filmscreen AeroView 70 projection screen fed by a Christie LX900 projector with a short-throw lens, and eight LG Electronics 50- inch and 42-inch plasmas.
“The church needed the ability to feed different signals to the plasmas and the projection screens,” Gay said. “They wanted to be able to do seamless fades and switches as well as lower thirds on both the projection screens and the plasmas, and to have separate signals sources on each of those. The price point was important since the customer didn’t want to spend too much money.”
Mission Service decided to integrate several units of Analog Way’s seamless switchers: two Easy Fade and one Easy Cut. The existing sanctuary, which can accommodate up to 1,200 for worship service, is equipped with Analog Way’s Octo Fade, so Temple Baptist operators were already familiar with Analog Way solutions and layouts.
“I typically use Analog Way on majority of my installs of this size because they are easy to use for operators,” Gay noted. “Most of the time, volunteers are operating the system, so they need something they can quickly look at and see how to use it. We have been Analog Way dealers for the past six years, and the Analog Way menu and the way the buttons are laid out have been much easier to operate for the end-user.”
The Analog Way units installed also helped to make the conversion between the existing sanctuary’s 4:3 format and The Gathering’s 16:9 format. With the new system, operators can insert titles, such as a specific message or lyrics, over live video images of the pastor and the band on its various screens.
Another advantage of Easy Fade and Easy Cut is the integrated audio stereo switcher, which allows switching audio without having to raise a specific channel. “Many switchers may switch video, but not all of them switch audio,” Gay observed. “The possibility to switch audio with the same product has been very beneficial.”
Now fully equipped, The Gathering is used as a contemporary worship room and church meetings. Furthermore, Mission Service answered the needs of Temple Baptist Church on time and on budget.
