Dallas-based worship organization enhances services, reduces costs with Renewed Vision software 

Watermark Community Church, a prominent biblical community with a worship presence in three Texas cities, has chosen Renewed Vision’s ProVideoPlayer 2 (PVP2) to create dynamic, high-impact multiscreen video presentations at its 3,500-seat Dallas worship center.  The PVP2 installation is a significant element of a larger technology upgrade, which includes a dedicated fiber network to connect its Dallas location with a 500-seat worship center in Fort Worth; and a third worship center opening in Plano in early 2015.

Les Brown, technical director for Watermark Community Church in Dallas, was seeking a reliable and affordable solution to replace a six-year-old Green Hippo media playback server, which reached end of life and could no longer be upgraded.  He researched PVP2 following recommendations from media technicians at other houses of worship and drew on his experience using another Renewed Vision product, ProPresenter 5 software.  Brown notes that ProPresenter has performed flawlessly for years, displaying biblical passages, song lyrics and other media content during services.

“We were confident that PVP2 would perform reliably to foster an inspirational worship experience for everyone,” Brown said. ”PVP2 has played a significant role in our overall upgrade plan, and offers us tremendous cost-savings.  It is a fraction of the cost of competing solutions.”

Beyond its reasonable price point, Watermark Church benefits from long-term cost-savings based on its simple configuration and interoperability.  Watermark Church has configured PVP2 to run on a Mac Pro, which outputs five video signals to a bank of digital video projectors, including two Christie and three Barco units.  PVP2 can be programmed to deliver a different display to each of the five screens or a single display that spans all five screens, as well as a combination of displays in a single presentation.

The decision to buy PVP2 followed a successful software trial that Watermark conducted on Easter 2014.  The special musical performance, which featured the house band, soloists, and back-up singers, leveraged PVP2 to project a single video across five separate large displays above the stage.  The video, which featured song lyrics, graphics and particle smoke, was created in After Effects to allow the visual elements to use all five screens as if they were one display.  Since the band was performing to a click-track, the lyrics would appear on the video in perfect synchronization with the vocalists.

Brown currently controls PVP2 using a Barco FSN router during services, but plans to integrate PVP2 with the church’s DMX lighting control system.  This will enable the lighting director to control and synchronize the PVP2 video displays with other staging elements, like theatrical lighting and music, according to pre-programmed cues.

“The Mac Pro’s ability to output five streams at once saves us considerably on additional computer hardware, and we can make the most of our PVP2 investment since the system is easy to maintain and upgrade,” Brown said.  “Reliability was a chief concern as we’ll use a DMX lighting board will control the PVP2, and won’t have a second system to cut to in the event of a technical problem.  It’s been running reliably since deployment, and we’re confident we can transition to DMX integration.”

PVP2 now sits alongside a professional array of gear across Watermark Church’s infrastructure, including a professional production switcher and multi-resolution broadcast cameras.  Viewers can access streaming media of the Dallas worship services at www.live.watermark.org from anywhere using their connected devices.

For more information on Renewed Vision, visit:  www.renewedvision.com

For more information about Watermark Church, visit: http://www.watermark.org/dallas/