Churches: Visual Aids Transition From the Overhead Projector to the Video Projection System

Master Antenna Television System

Another bonus to using a video projection system for lyric projection is the ability to feed the visual aid video source to a master antenna television (MATV) system. Televisions are so inexpensive today; an MATV is one of the best investments that a church can make to prevent volunteer isolation. For churches that stage large scale drama events, the MATV system provides the ability for waiting actors to watch the performance and know when to report backstage for their scene.

The MATV system is used at many churches to provide a live video feed of church services to peripheral video ministries located away from the sanctuary, such as baby sitters, church kitchen workers and ushers. Traditionally, a camera is pointed at the stage and a mixing console output is fed to the MATV system, where the modulated audio and video are distributed to a multitude of televisions located throughout the facility. This is a good start and provides basic functionality.

Inexpensive video switchers provide the ability for picture-in-picture (PIP) video image combining
(shown: Videonics MX-1).

However, reasonably priced effects devices by manufacturers permit a picture-in-picture (PIP) multiplexing for the transmission of both the camera image and the image projected to the screens. With the PIP, church members working during the service might see lyrics or scripture in 75% of the image, and a picture-in-picture with a camera image of the stage in the bottom right corner.

PIP Framing Fundamentals

Aesthetically, it is important to note that Americans read left-to-right, top-to-bottom, so the PIP naturally falls in the bottom right quadrant for minimal graphic competition. If you must place a podium on either side in a facility where a PIP system is implemented, place the podium on the stage left side and the onstage video image on the stage right side. Should the presenter look at OVM, the PIP video image will have the appearance of the presenter "looking" at the visual aid, when in fact the presenter is merely looking at an OVM image.

Priorities

Video-savvy houses of worship are implementing multifaceted video projection systems in recognition of today's visually oriented society. Scaleability means that you can start with a computer, a video projector on a cart and a video projection screen, and grow from there. But all this comes at a price, in both hardware and maintenance.

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If a facility purchases projection equipment thinking that the system will take care of itself or that volunteers can be counted on to maintain the system, disaster can be predicted. Projector lamps burn out, troubleshooting needs to occur, and volunteers need to be trained. Smart churches that implement video projection and distribution to a large degree have at least one video engineer or Media Minister on staff. Audio-visual that the church depends on for worship is infrastructure, and churches should have a professional on staff to keep the visual presentation sharp and on cue.

Greg Hertfelder (ghertfelder@cerner.com) is a Video Specialist for the Cerner Corporation, and a volunteer audio-video engineer for the Sheffield Family Life Center www.sheffieldflc.org.