Skylark AV was recently approached by Southeast Christian Church in Parker, CO, to help find a solution for their older projection system, which we had first installed for them about 15 years ago. That system, which included three screens and three projectors, had done very well for the church, but as it aged the colors became dimmer and the image quality the church wanted just wasn’t there anymore.
After some discussion, it was decided that Southeast Christian Church would keep the two side screens, and just get new projectors installed. However, for the main projector and middle screen, the church decided on creating visual impact with an LED wall. The Absen PL 2.9 XL was chosen to meet this task, for a variety of reasons.
Obviously, the LEDs themselves are very bright and run at about 1,000 nits when turned up to 100% brightness. The small pixel pitch of 2.9 mm means the wall appears virtually seamless. When it’s turned on, you can’t even see the pixel separation. The Absen panels also have an increased contract, so the colors are very rich and vibrant, providing absolutely stunning images. They are also extremely lightweight, and have integrated corner blocks and 90-degree corner screen support, making them easy to hang and also to configure in a variety of different ways.
As well, we are very familiar with Absen, having installed them in several houses of worship in the past, and felt very confident that the PL 2.9 XL panels would be a great fit for the church.
The church itself seats 2000, and the stage is quite wide. Southeast Christian Church wanted to fill that space with a system that everyone in the church, regardless of where they were seating, would be able to enjoy. With that goal in mind, we ordered 140 of the PL 2.9 XL Panels to create a horizontal screen 45 feet across and 16 feet high. The screen is hanging roughly 20 feet back from the front of the stage. Two truss systems from Tom Cat Truss were installed to give the church future options for breaking the wall and creating different panel configurations, depending on what they were looking for.
Each of the 50 foot truss systems were installed with 4 chain motors per truss controlled by the Motion Labs control system. The wide wall is just the first of many configurations that Southeast will use over the upcoming years. Two Nova Star processors offer more than enough power for the current wall, while also allowing for more panels to be added in the future. A remote for the motors at FOH gives the church the ability to raise and lower the wall to the preferred height, and the media for the wall is being driven from a powerful Boreal Hippotizer media server which was tied into their Hog lighting console to give them easy triggers to match content of the lighting with the LED wall.
One of the driving forces for replacing projection with an LED wall was the church’s recent video upgrade. The older system just couldn’t meet the needs of the new video and graphics being created. They had also added a variety of new lights as well, and an LED wall was needed to cut through the brightness of both the ambient and artificial lighting. We were able to set the Absen PL 2.9 XL panels at 40%, which is plenty bright enough to ensure the image is crisp and bright, with no fade. Even up close, you can’t see the pixels – which has made the pastor very happy as he is now able to show maps and images from his travels throughout Jerusalem, without losing any of the fine details.
It took Skylark AV about three weeks to install the wall, making sure all proper rigging and safety needs were taken care. The final product is stunning, and Southeast Christian Church thrilled with the results.
By Travis Warren from TFWM
