CHAGRIN FALLS, OH – When Parkside Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio decided to renovate their sanctuary, they had a very specific goal. “Our pastor’s vision for the remodel was ‘Building Into the Next Generation,'” states Parkside’s Technical Director Bruce Coffy. “We wanted to make sure that what we implemented would extend us well into the future.” Part of the renovation was replacing the video display system in the sanctuary. Therefore, with the guidance of their AVL consultant Idibri (Dallas, TX), Parkside chose an Aeson LED video display solution-but with a twist.
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“We ideally wanted one seamless screen across the upper back of the platform,” describes Coffy. “We considered edge-blended projectors, but with the addition of glass windows at the rear of the auditorium, we found that the advantages of an LED wall outweighed projectors in both overcoming ambient light levels as well as in future maintenance considerations.”
“The room is a wide, clamshell-shaped space with sight-line issues for those sitting in the far left or right areas of the room,” comments Steve Reed, senior design consultant for Idibri, “Additionally, the rear wall of the platform is curved. For both aesthetics and the sightline issues, an ultra-wide curved LED video wall would be ideal. The curve would enable those at the far edges of the room to see the opposite side of the display clearly.”
Several LED display options were considered, but Aeson stood out to both Idibri and the church as a good fit for both the project as well as the church. “Idibri made sure that the selected vendor’s product and the personality of the people within the company would be a fit for our needs and our church,” says Coffy.
“We approached Aeson with the idea of mounting the LED displays to follow the arc of the back wall,” comments Reed. “They created a custom jig for joining the edges of the panel with a slight splay angle to accommodate creating the curve. From the normal viewing distance in the room, it looks like the entire display is curved.”
“The challenge with creating a display with the unusual aspect ratio of 5:1 is managing the content for the display,” Reed continues. “A Coolux Pandora’s Box media server is used to composite live video and graphics onto the screen, and enables the church to subdivide the screen into whatever virtual shapes would meet their needs for a given segment of a service or event.”
“Aeson was excellent to work with throughout the installation process,” adds James Koelliker, senior project manager for Zenith Systems who handled the AVL installation for the project. “They sent samples of the mounting brackets so we could see how the wall would be rigged. Aeson was on site for the start of the installation process which was very helpful. It actually took less time to install than we anticipated.”
“When the system installation was complete and we powered it up,” Koelliker continues, “it just took off. It was like looking into the future-the image was true and brilliant. I was impressed!”
“The Aeson LED video display looks amazing, and everyone is blown away by the color and black levels,” adds Coffy. “Additionally, Aeson’s support has been superb.”
