The Resurrection Catholic Parish Community has recently chosen to upgrade their church in order for members of their congregation to be able to more easily participate in worship. In particular they wanted to do away with hymn books and project the words on a screen for parishioners to easily read. They also wanted to be able to share photos and images with their community.
Resurrection School is a Catholic Primary school that is dedicated to bring it’s vision; “We Care” to life in its students. They strive to meet the needs of children in the 21st century, while creating a community that understands how to express and celebrate its faith.
The space inside the church presented certain challenges. The unique octagonal structure combined with high ceilings made it awkward to install audio-visual equipment. It was also important to respect the floor as a place of worship and the church wanted to ensure that any equipment that was installed would not interfere with the natural light that fills the environment and keeps it feeling warm and welcoming. Finally, the congregation sits in a circular pattern and it was important that every member could see the screens clearly.
Father Noel Brady and John Kremers, the school’s principal, and several members of the church’s Information Communication Technology Group spent a long-time in discussion with DIB and its technicians in exploring the uses of lighting and other technology. An initial plan to use LCD screens was eventually shelved in favour of projection screens in order to get the largest possible projection area for parishioners to be able to read the hymn lyrics. However, in order to get the level of brightness that was needed it was essential to get hold of the latest 10,000 ANSI projectors. Since DIB has a strong relationship with EPSON we were able to get hold of two EPSON EB-Z10000’s as they came off the production line. This level of technology also provides strong-future proofing as today’s advanced models have real longevity.
The church also has an adjacent hall in which they wanted to display the hymns and images and they decided to use the ESPON Z8000WU which is a stunningly high quality projection model. When used in concert with the EPSON EB-Z10000 the images are amazingly clear even in the large space that they are employed in.
There is also an HD camera system installed in the chapel which allows the service to be projected into the hall easily when there’s an overflow of worshippers for mass. The images being displayed in the main hall are also mirrored on a 65” Panasonic LCD screen in the narthex.
It’s now very easy for worshippers to keep pace with the lyrics as any of the 9 different church choirs perform.
During homilies there is an integrated wireless control for iPads so that PowerPoint presentations can be broadcast easily over the screens. This includes any relevant images for the priest homily.
One of the really nice touches that the church has employed is the camera in the baptismal area. This enables the whole congregation to share in the joy of a baby joining their faith, something that wouldn’t have been possible until fairly recently.
Resurrection Church’s committee said that they were very pleased with the use of the space (the projectors are nearly invisible when not in use), and one of the key factors that enabled their decision was being able to have a demonstration of the projector in the space that it would be used in. This gave them confidence that it was up to the task and that no parishioner would be struggling to join their voice with others’.
The Epson EB-Z10000
The HD camera used to capture the mass in the chapel
The adjacent hall with HD camera feed
The projection screen displaying the image from the baptismal area