Church House Westminster, a historic and iconic multi-purpose event and conference venue, recently upgraded the AV system for its largest room that can accommodate more than 600 people. By enhancing the AV installation, Church House Westminster aimed to increase its client diversity through the highest quality system. According to Ian Locke, Audio Visual Manager at Church House Westminster, “Our goal was to improve both image size and quality, and offer clients 4K projections, varied screen options and great flexibility.”
In terms of gear, Church House Westminster invested in a 6 x 3.375m curved, single-screen stage. To be able to create soft edge blending, they also added two Panasonic PT-RQ13K 4K Laser projectors. For video processing, they chose various Analog Way solutions such as: an Ascender 48 - 4K, a powerful multi-screen seamless switcher that is part of the LiveCoreTM series, a LiveCoreTM Output Expander 48 - 4K, an expansion module with four additional Program outputs and one Operator/Aux output for Ascender 48 - 4K, and two Secure Power Units to ensure safe shows in case of loss-of-mains or unstable power.
To guarantee top-notch presentations, Church House Westminster intended to offer prestigious AV solutions supporting full 4K resolution. Ian Locke comments on their expectations, “We wanted to deliver many layers in combination with 4K resolution content. We needed four to five layers: two outputs of live content, one for slides and two or three for logos. The idea was to animate these layers through transitions, as flexible as possible, while displaying many layers. The Ascender 48 - 4K was the only unit available to do the job.” The switcher was chosen for its capability to cope with 4K moving graphics and true seamless transitions between layers and scenes. The Ascender 48 - 4K and the LiveCoreTM Output Expander 48 - 4K were connected directly to the two 4K projectors. A 4K video player, two 4K laptops, a TriCaster unit, a live video system, and a media server in the future are input into the Ascender 48 - 4K. Locke adds, “It is mandatory to maintain certain flexibility if everything is going to move to 4K in the future. We also tend to vary display configurations and run the two projectors in, whether dual screen, overlay or the edge blended ultra-screen solution. The Ascender 48 - 4K makes the handling easier.” The Ascender 48 - 4K is operated by the VertigeTM, a premium controller for large events and multi-venues.
Locke appreciates the great versatility of Analog Way’s devices which offer a large variety of input plugs. He states, “The Analog Way’s equipment, above all, can adapt to any kind of installation and has the ability to be used with legacy equipment as well as the latest developments in technology; and that is what I appreciate.” He concludes, “With our new AV installed into the Assembly Hall, we’ve taken an historical building and blended it with the latest technology.”
