Smart Portable Church AVL – Video

Video is designed to enhance the audio of your worship experience; video helps make the audio experience better. And, since the spoken word is the most important piece of your worship experience, video acts to create interaction and connection between what is being spoken and those listening. By visualizing scriptures, lyrics or even just simple designs, the content of what is being heard is bolstered. The range of choices that a church has when it comes to their video can vary all the way from a basic TV to an LED wall, a triple screen setup or video editing and edge blending, just to name a few. We have worked with churches of every size to figure out ways to deliver video that makes sense for each one, specific to their individual needs. Here, we address some of the top things to consider while planning out your video… 

Pricing

Video can become the most expensive piece of AVL very quickly. The reason for that is the amount of gear needed to pull it off and the associated costs of all of that equipment. Video control could potentially have many pieces to it such as converters, switches, monitoring, playback devices, computers and more. It takes a lot of engineering on the “inside” for the “outside” visual to work seamlessly. Here at PCI, we go to great lengths to ensure all of the gear is not only packaged for durability and functionality, but also as efficiently as possible. That includes the making the right choices the first time. 

Brightness

Concert venues, movie theaters and now, even more so, with the advent of 4k TV’s, people are becoming increasingly familiar with high lumen/high end video, often increasing expectations. While the brightness of your video doesn’t need to match these multimillion dollar events or venues, it is important to know what your desired outcome is before factoring in screen size, projector brightness, ambient light, light control, etc. 

Throw Distance

Surprises with the need for short, ultra-short and long throw distances can add price rapidly. For budgeting purposes be aware of this potential high cost as you are choosing venues. We typically find this a challenge in small rooms or on small stages. We have tested numerous ultra-short throw projectors and not all are great options. If you have good light control in your room, there are some very good priced, lower lumen projectors available at a great price. Costs add up quickly if both a high lumen projector AND short throw lenses are needed. 

LED Wall

LED walls are one of our favorite things to create internally and while quality (high DPI) walls were previously out of price range for most portable churches, prices are dropping. And, the finished product always looks amazing! We have been re-engineering LED walls internally, working with manufacturers to make them incredibly volunteer friendly – simply plug in and turn on. *while we are loving these prices dropping so quickly, they are still currently much more than a more traditional projector and screen setup.

Volunteers

As we’ve mentioned before, volunteers are your biggest determining factor in reproducibility. You want to make sure whatever AVL system you have in place is something that your team is able to manage week in and week out. Don’t forget to design your systems around your least experienced volunteer.

One last thing…

Though the size and cost of full systems can vary, functionality and portable artistry are integrated into every system. Whether it be a larger video rack with laminate desk space or a smaller more compact video rack, the same volunteer experience is designed into every solution we provide. Quick connect I/O panels is just one example of this. These panels allow volunteers the ability to set up a large scale production easily and efficiently without needing to understand the engineering behind the system. The panels take care of the thought process behind the connections (i.e internal wiring) and give volunteers the confidence to set up any system with a low rate of error. 

Designing highly technical systems with a volunteer mindset is the key to providing an efficient portable solution with excellence. This is the desire and is in the skillset of every one of our design consultants at Portable Church®. It is one of the many keys to giving more life to your volunteers who, in turn, can pour more life into the church body.