Looking for a Projection System

[Pete Vecchi]

Our little church seems ready to do this. We received our first proposal that would include the entire hardware and software needed. The proposal was in excess of $10,000.

I don't know if the church is ready to do it that bad.

[Keith Isley]

We have a small church, too, and are doing it decidedly low-tech and low cost.

Here's what we did:

- There's a medical school nearby that periodically puts obsoleted computers, components, etc. up for sale. Through that, we were able to get an old (but entirely serviceable) digital projector for $100. No, that's not a misprint...it's about eight years old and the size of two breadboxes, but the bulb still has about 900 hours of life left on it, so we figure it will work fine.

- My wife's laptop (bought for $500 at Best Buy) has a VGA-out port and a DVD/CD-R combo drive. She does her powerpoints there and projects them directly, controlling the laptop from the podium. We also use it to show NCN video shorts as appropriate.

It's certainly not a "professional" system - but it works for us.

- KAI

[Alex Manly]

I'm gonna quess the majority of that proposal was the projector itself. Projector values drop like rocks. I suggest going used. My church just recently bount one on ebay for $800. It's a discontinued model with a retail value of $8000. It is only 3 years old and when it was brand new it was $15,000+. Now I'll admit I received an awesome deal that had to be a gift from God, but a little research can net you just as good a deal. We also bought a barrely used desktop computer for the a/v booth to run it for $500 from a church member. I did have to upgrade the video card in it though but that was only $75. We also had a very nice screen donated to us. All in all our new projector system cost us much less then $2000.

<edit> I found this link (http://www.projectorcentral.com/used_projectors.cfm) very useful in my research.

[Cindi Hammons]

Our little church seems ready to do this. We received our first proposal that would include the entire hardware and software needed. The proposal was in excess of $10,000.

I don't know if the church is ready to do it that bad.

Pete,

When I wrote you earlier, I hadn't seen this thread. For the size of your church, I think the price is very high. You've seen our church, you know how bright the sanctuary is. Well, the brighter the sanctuary, the more lumens you need, the more expensive the projector is. Well, our whole system was around $6,000...that included all the wiring, someone to do the installation and a large motorize screen...which you guys don't need.

Good luck,
Cindi H.

[Larry Osweiler]

After pastoring five churches, my advice would be to get expert professional advice from someone who specializes in sound and video. I've seen too many churches who try to get by cheap and they pay the price. Have at least three outfits come in and give you recommendations.
We made the mistake here of putting in a cheap sound system when we remodeled. We now have people complaining they can't hear anything because we have too many "dead spots" in the sanctuary. We have a state of the art sound board and video system, but if you don't have good speakers and projection equipment, then it's a waste.
Just my advice.

[Cindi Hammons]

After pastoring five churches, my advice would be to get expert professional advice from someone who specializes in sound and video. I've seen too many churches who try to get by cheap and they pay the price.

I agree Larry. We had a national electronics place (whose name I cannot remmeber) sell, install and train us on the projection system. We didn't fool around with trying to install it ourselves for the very reason you posted. It was the best money we ever spent! We've had the system now for almost 2 years, and it is great!

I've seen Pete's church, if they really needed a $10,000 system, I'd be very, very surprised.

Cindi H.

[John Bouldrey]

Pete,

We just started within the last year and our projector and screen cost us less than $3000. I use my powerpoint progaram on my laptop and make it portable that way. We may upgrade to more ocmpex systems later but find this very acceptable for worship.

[Adam Spriggs]

In my experience, if you are projecting from the back of the sanctuary to the front, then you're going to have a lot of $$ tied up in the projector and lens.

We opted for rear projection, which doesn't require such a beefy projector. We purchased a projector (NEC VT450) and a screen (Da-lite Perm-Wall with a translucent Da-Tex screen) for around $3500 (excluding the cabling, computer and software).

It really depends on how your sanctuary is laid out.

Here are some good reference sites, even if you are dealing with a company that will be installing all of this stuff:

http://www.projectorpeople.com/
http://www.projectorcentral.com/

[Alex Manly]

Yes to project from the back will require a pricey lens that will increase the "throw". Most projectors I've seen are hung from the ceiling about 25ish feet from the screen.