The Peoples Church in Franklin, Tennessee, known for its strong use and support of creative arts and media, has invested in a Vista Systems Spyder X20 to take visuals for worship services and events to a new level.
The Peoples Church, which was founded as First Baptist Church of Franklin, Tennessee in 1838, holds two services at the Franklin campus each week plus special events for its congregation of 6,000. The Franklin campus worship center, housed in a building erected 15 years ago, seats 1,750.
"We replaced our old rear-projection video cube wall with a 4 mil LED wall measuring 33x10," says Dustin Lemler, Executive Director of Creative Arts and Production at The Peoples Church. "When we looked for options for an image processor the unanimous recommendation was for Vista Systems' Spyder, so it became the only solution we proposed to our Elder Board."
In exploring a replacement for the videowall, Lemler and his colleagues "didn't just want a screen. We wanted a palette that would do multiple things." The image processing system they chose also had to be capable of handling multiple inputs and offer room for future growth.
"We need to have four or five images on the LED wall at once, and Spyder provided the best option for that," Lemler explains. "We have 16 sources and use eight at a time. We're running HDSDI out of the main switcher, and typically have several Macs running Pro Presenter, a stillstore, DVRs and DDRs for HD playback with some other composite sources left open as redundant back ups."
Lemler and Church Media Director, Mark Hengstenberg went through Spyder training at Vista Systems' headquarters in Phoenix. "We just hired an additional staff engineer, and he loves it - he picked it up really quickly," Lemler reports.
"We recently debuted Spyder in a weekend service, and everyone was overwhelmed with how it worked," he says. "It has enabled us to rethink our presentation. Spyder is proving to be an all-in-one box that can do everything we need and more. It will allow us to expand into all that it can do and has future compatibility for more screens."
Lemler adds that support from Vista Systems has been "excellent. If we had any questions, people got right back to us. We haven't been able to stump them yet!"
About Vista Systems
Vista Systems' switchers have become the industry standard for live multiple-destination video and data mixed signal switching with real-time windowing and composition. For more information on Vista Systems, visit their website at www.vistasystems.net.