By Laramie Minga, Music Pastor

Woodlawn Baptist Church is a community church with a congregation of 250. When its 11-year-old projectors came to the end of their life, we decided to upgrade the entire projection system in the sanctuary to provide a better experience. With the help of Shepherd Multimedia, Woodlawn Baptist Church has become home to two new Hitachi CPWX-8750 7,500-lumen projectors.

Inside the sanctuary at Woodlawn Baptist Church, we have an AV set up complete with two new Hitachi CP-WX8750 projectors and screens, one on each side of the stage, for the congregation to be able to follow along with song lyrics, Scripture readings, testimonies, and announcements before and during services. Because of the A-line shaped ceiling, we have permanently mounted the projectors on the side walls near the back of the sanctuary, which also allows for easier access to change out bulbs. Equipped with long-throw lenses, the two new projectors have integrated into the entire AV system for easy control.

The projectors that we were using before the upgrade to the new Hitachi projectors were eleven years old. The picture at that point was so dim we had to turn the lights completely off in the sanctuary to see images. With the increase from 4,000 lumens to 7,500, the new projectors are a great improvement. On top of that, we installed two larger screens above our platform, which really helps with visibility when compared to projecting onto the wall. As well, with the Hitachi Perfect Fit feature, we can easily fine tune the image to the screens week to week.

As we’ve settled into using the new projectors over the past few months, the Perfect Fit feature has been incredible in helping us match the projected image to the screens. We are able to adjust the screen size depending on our needs and use Perfect Fit to quickly adjust the projectors appropriately. On top of that, we were able to hardwire our projectors to the board, and now instead of having to walk out and aim the remote, we can control the projectors from the AV booth. It has greatly simplified the process for us.

As an added benefit, we received two free lamps using Hitachi’s House of Worship promotion, which means we not only have back up lamps available, we won’t have to worry about the budget for a new lamp in the future.

*as seen in the February 2019 digital issue of Technologies for Worship Magazine