When the East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis doubled the size of its sanctuary, it also took the opportunity to enhance its Sunday morning worship services with the latest in audio visual communications. William Sams Acoustics was tasked with designing an audio-visual environment to enable the church to easily embrace both traditional and contemporary worship styles.
William "Chip" Sams selected a Christie Vista Spyder to allow staff members to control the myriad of graphics, text, and video content on the 34 x 10-foot Stewart screen, which is lowered into position for the contemporary services and then retracted out of sight for the traditional. Sams, who earlier was responsible for an extensive audio upgrade at the church, also chose three Christie DS+8K projectors for the sanctuary's large panoramic display.
"I specified the Spyder because it would allow the church to get the maximum usage out of the content," says Sams. "The Spyder is flexible with regard to aspect ratio and pixel space, which allows the church to create many different looks and countless image possibilities." The content is displayed during the services and used to support the delivery of the sermons and play worship music.
The Christie Vista Spyder video processor is a powerful, flexible and easy to use technology. With up to 6.5 million-pixel display capacity from a single frame, it allows for multiple outputs from the same box, with up to 2048 x 1200 resolution on each output. It also accepts virtually any input up to 2048 x 1200 and features 12-bit scaling for the highest-quality images.
An extension of the balcony houses the trio of Christie DS+8K projectors, which edge blend images for the big screen. "The Christie projectors are perfect for this application," Sams reports. The balcony extension is outfitted with special cooling and silencing hardware.
Although the expanded sanctuary at the East 91st Street Christian Church now seats 2,400 worshippers, its AV equipment choices were designed to grow with the congregation as needed. "We designed around the expandable Spyder in the event of a possible move to a bigger auditorium," Sams explains.
The equipment is operated by a number of volunteers, who are all thrilled with the addition to the church. "They are all very happy with the system," he concludes.
William Sams Acoustics is a facility-planning and systems design firm based in Orlando.
About Christie
Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ushio, Inc., Japan, (JP:6925), is a leader in visual solutions for world-class organizations, offering diverse applications for business, entertainment, and industry. A leading innovator in film projection since 1929 and a pioneer in digital projection systems since 1979, Christie has established a global reputation as a total service provider and the world's single source manufacturer of a variety of display technologies and solutions. With the acquisition of Vista Controls Systems, Corp., Christie offers the most complete and advanced solutions for cinema, live venues, control rooms, business presentations, training facilities, 3D and Virtual Reality, simulation and education as well as industrial and government environments. For more information, visit www.christiedigital.com.