The LED-versus-projection video debate seems long resolved — in terms of luminous firepower, LED clearly won that smack down. Yet that discussion still continues to those extremely budget minded … like a house of worship.
Abundant Living Faith Center’s Jimmy Salas notes that while it’s easy to see the benefits of an LED screen, it was hard to get their head around the expense.
“One of things we’re conscious of when we approach something like this is that our congregation works hard for their money, which they generously share to support us,” he says. “So we don’t want to come across as frivolous, and we don’t go after something just because it’s the biggest or the loudest.”
But after literal and figurative soul-searching, their journey ended with wall of Elation EZ6 LED panels. And no one with the church is looking back.
From Projection to LED
“We knew switching from projection to LED would be a big change, but this went even beyond our expectations,” Salas says. “It changed the service. When we first switched it on, you could hear the people gasp. Our worship experience was amplified, and the ministers were able to invoke so much more emotions on this screen then you could ever get with a projector. [This screen] draws people into the worship … the way it changed the atmosphere of the service was something we didn’t expect.”
The Abundant Living Faith Center (ALFC) is situated on the outskirts of El Paso, and its history of growth is impressive, considering the town is of just 700,000 people. The ministry started humbly enough in 1977, holding services in a small union hall. They expanded several times through the years, but most impressively, in December 2007, they unveiled new 3,600-seat auditorium just in time for their 30th Anniversary. Today the 23,000 member nondenominational church continues to grow as they plan for a satellite campus on the opposite side of the town.
A Work in Progress
Michael Garrison Associates (MGA) just celebrated their 10th year serving ALFC, having been called on as a consultant and design/build system integrator for their audio, video, lighting, and acoustic systems in 2004. Then they put in a Stewart Filmscreen — a flown UltraMatte 150 front-projection center screen measuring 32 by 18 feet.
Although MGA’s Michael Garrison finished up the initial project including the major auditorium just in time for New Year’s Eve service in 2007, the work has never stopped. “Like so many churches, they didn’t have the budget to do everything they wanted to do at once,” he explains. “So we’ve had eight or nine additional projects since we ‘finished’ up the initial major work.”
The Ticking Clock
Salas got a taste of his future career working with his high school drama department (on Sundays, he attended ALFC). He would graduate from Full Sail and return to El Paso where, six months later, he got a phone call from ALFC, as they were finishing up their new auditorium. Since 2007, he’s been their lighting and video director.
He worked with the original video system … until it was clear that it needed to be replaced.
A great deal of research was started, yet the clock was ticking. “The projector models were discontinued and spare parts had dried up, so there was pressure to [make a purchase].” Then within a couple of weeks of each other, two of the three projectors had gone down. “It was time to ramp up my efforts.”
“Projectors have a successful lifespan of five to seven years, and even if they last a bit longer, technology has moved on,” adds Garrison.
Both credit the church’s leaders for not rejecting the possibility of an LED screen outright because of the cost. Because the pastor, Jared Nieman, “gave the okay to consider,” Salas says, “it was always in the back of my mind.” Then, he adds, “I really got into LED technology and could see the big differences, especially in resolution. And MGA bent over backwards in giving us the information on the options.”
Competing LED Bids
Interestingly, it came down to Elation and two China-based LED manufacturers, one of whom had a representative right there in El Paso who was known and respected by the team at ALFC. “The one here in El Paso was intriguing, especially since Elation’s bid was 20 percent more, but we were unable to get a demo,” Salas says.
“The church was tempted to buy a different product, and MGA even became a dealer with the local person for them to do that,” Garrison adds. “It’s hard to argue with a distributor/importer that is right in town and offers a great deal.”
The trust AFLC had with MGA was critical. “What did MGA think about it? Well, 20 percent more is a lot of money,” Garrison admits. “But we told them our biggest concern is that China is a long way away. If something catastrophic goes wrong, can they take care of things? It’s one thing to take a chance on a $100 microphone — nobody gets hurt and that’s easy to remedy. But a system like this … the investment has to last a long time, and whoever you buy it from needs to be counted on for support.
“In the end, the church made the choice of spending a little more money in exchange for the guaranteed support,” Garrison says.
A Huge Canvas
Elation got the nod, and once MGA got the green light, the design process began, running from June to late September 2013. The solution they chose consisted of 220 EZ6 6mm LED video panels, each measuring 11 by 20 inches. That was enough to create a 37.83-feet by 20.81-feet (1920 x 1056 pixels) flown LED wall, with an extra 10 panels available as spares. Along with the panels, the church bought 20 EZ6-RB1 rigging bars, two EZS VSC2 DVI controllers and an EPV DVI 4 four-way DVI signal splitter.
The church does several big productions a year, and the new Elation LED screen has already made a big difference, Salas says. For Halloween 2013, the church staged a Christian take on the Wizard of Oz, and their Christmas show incorporated a cast of 400. In both of those productions, the church was able to sharply cut back on its need for sets, reducing set building by a total of 40 percent. Along with the reduction in the cost of set building materials, fewer church volunteers were needed backstage.
“It’s now such a huge canvas we were even able to create scenes where an actor was on the screen interacting with those on the stage,” Salas says. And they were able to do things they couldn’t otherwise. They put the witch on the screen and digitally had her grow from 5-foot-nothing to 19 feet tall. Special effects were easily incorporated as well, like a dungeon blowing up and turning into a palace. “The screen is practically a character in itself, and word-of-mouth had people talking about these productions because of it.”
Service and Support
Some issues have arisen, but Garrison and Salas both remark about how the team at Elation took care of them. “They have spent many hours with us, and we found them to be a respectable company that does what they say will do,” says Salas.
Next up is a package of roughly 16 to 22 moving lights they want in the main facility, but like all previous purchases, they will be moving relatively slow at that. In addition, the church is planning a second campus on the opposite side of town. “We’ve talked about that with Elation, and we’re appreciative of what they are able to offer us,” Salas adds.
