NEWPORT BEACH, CA — St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church features a terrarium roof that fills the space with the most energy-efficient light source available – natural daylight. The problem, however, is that the ambient light weakens the power of the church’s video presentation during its services. Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, provided a solution.
More details from GC Pro (www.gcpro.com):
Drawing on the wide array of high-end projector products now available to GC Pro since having been named an authorized Panasonic dealer in 2013, GC Pro Account Managers assessed the situation and determined that a solution could be found in two new DaLite 10×13-foot screens lit by a total of four Panasonic PTDZ21KU 3-Chip DLP projectors, achieving 40,000 lumens per side, more than enough to cut through the bright Southern California sunshine. “We have most of our services in the daytime, and with so much light inside the church from our glass ceiling, it can be a challenge getting the screens to be readable,” says Dustin Laemmlen, the church’s Director of Production. “We wanted to achieve a real cinematic effect for our testimonials and announcements, so we needed to find a way to increase the necessary contrast.”
Church leadership wondered whether projection of LED displays would work best, and GC Pro set up demonstrations on site at the church of both types for comparisons. Once it was determined that dual-stacked projectors were the best solution, GC Pro Affiliate Program member FirstFire AV was assigned the installation phase of the project, with Olsen AV, Inc., of Fontana, California, engaged as the installation subcontractor for the projects.
“There is a huge amount of ambient light inside the church that would not have made for a good viewing experience without the projectors that GC Pro were able to source,” says Arthur Olsen, Operations Manager at Olsen AV. “GC Pro was able to make sure we had everything we needed, including custom projector lenses, the mounting hardware for the screens and the custom enclosures from Panasonic that enabled us to mount two projectors atop each other per side, as well as over 300 feet of cabling for all of the projectors. The images are crisp and clear, even in the bright sunlight inside the church.”
GC Pro also coordinated with Panasonic Sales Engineer Randy Moreau on the installation, to provide exact alignment for all four of the projectors. “Everything was pretty much where we needed it, when we needed it,” says Olsen, “and if there was a question, GC Pro was there to answer it.”
Laemmlen adds, “Our experience with GC Pro was super smooth. What they can do that most other vendors cannot is really search out the absolutely best solutions and be able to negotiate pricing directly with the manufacturers. We even had Panasonic corporate right here at the church.”
Olsen notes that all parties will be back at the church to renovate the sanctuary’s podium area and install even larger projection screens. “We’re looking forward to working with GC Pro again on that,” he says.
For more information, please visit (www.gcpro.com).
