-
You are here:
home
>
projector advice
> church projectors
Church Projectors
Projector Point can help you select the right projector for your church or other place of worship.
Just give us a call to find out just how easy it is to select the right
projector package along with projector screens, projector mounts and cables to make your installation professional but also cost effective.
When choosing a projector for your church you will want to take the following points into consideration:
| Screen size Brightness Keystone Correction Contrast Connectivity Resolution Bulb Life Mounting Options |
 |
Screen size
This is probably the most important place to start, as if your preferred projector can't produce the right size image for your church you can eliminate it from your shortlist straight away. See our screen size calculator for help on screen sizes. If the projector you're considering is not listed, please call us with the dimensions of your room, and we'll check the screen size for you.
Brightness is an important consideration in selecting the right projector for your church.
Churches tend to be very bright environments, without the ability to control or dim the light entering the room.
It is therefore recomended that you choose a bright projector that will be able to cope with this.
Projector brightness is measured in ANSI lumens. Projectors suitable
for churches are typically rated from 1500 lumens to 4500 lumens.
If you have very low ambient light...
If you can control the light entering the church, you save money buying projector with a
low ANSI lumens rating. As a guide, 1500 lumens is generally suitable.
If you can't control the ambient light…
If you've got a lot of ambient light in the room and can't do anything about it,
you could opt for a high brightness, high contrast projector. In really bright
conditions, though, we would recommend you opt for a projector over 2500 lumens.
Nearly all of the projectors at Projector Point have a Keystone facilty.
('Keystoning' is the name given to the effect on the projected image when the projector sits
below or above the centre of the screen. Keystone correction counteracts this effect by stretching
the image at the bottom or top, resulting in a squarer, more professional image.).
The most common form of 'Keystoning' is vertical keystone correction. This is necessary if you are thinking
of placing the projector directly infront of the screen either pointing upwards or downwards.
It may not always be convenient to place the projector in front of the screen, with the need to position the projector
slightly off centre. To enable you to do this, you will need to look for a projector with both vertical and horizontal
keystone correction. This is sometimes called '3-D reform' or 'side shot'.
Most projectors have different degrees of keystoning, although the average is around +/- 25 degrees. If you are unsure
how this will affect your installation please give us a call.
Contrast isn't a major factor when deciding what projector you need for your church. It is measured as a
'contrast ratio', e.g. 400:1. This tells you the difference in brightness between a
'fully on' pixel and a 'fully off' pixel. For instance, on a projector with a 400:1
contrast ratio, and (for simplicity's sake) a 400 lumen brightness rating, 'fully off'
pixels would actually be 1 lumen in brightness.
(Incidentally, you may be wondering why a 'fully off' pixel has any brightness at all.
Unfortunately there is some 'leaking' of light with all projectors which means black is
not actually pitch black, which is why we keep putting quotation marks around 'fully off'!).
So that's the technical explanation over. What does contrast actually mean to you?
Essentially, the higher contrast on a projector increases the perception of depth in the image, and means
subtle colour variations show up more clearly. Hence subtle textures are more visible. It also means
that dark scenes don't look washed out.
Looking for a projector with a high contrast ratio wouldn't be too
important if you are running song sheets through a computer, although it could be a deciding factor if you are
looking to run 'film nights' from time to time.
Nearly all of the projectors we sell come with the following 'essential' connections:
- VGA (for connecting a PC)
- S-Video
- Composite
See our Connections article for more information on this subject.
Some times it may not be convenient to trail long wires from your PC/DVD player to the projector so you may be interested in wireless projectors
When looking through the specifications of projectors available at Projector Point,
you'll notice they're generally classified as having either SVGA or XGA resolution.
The resolution you opt for determines how many pixels the projector can display at one
time, which in turn affects the smoothness of the image.
XGA resolution is inherently superior to SVGA, as it displays about 63% more pixels.
Of course, this also means it's more expensive.
See our article 'Projector Resolution' for more information on this subject.
You might have noticed how expensive replacement bulbs are for projectors. With
this in mind, a long bulb life is a definite advantage.
2000 hours is about average. Some projectors go up to 6000 hours. With a lamp
module costing about £350, a 2000 hour bulb works out under 20p an hour of usage,
relatively cost effective, but may be a price consideration.
We should also stress that bulb lives quoted are typical and there does tend to be
variation in how long they last.
There are many options available to you and your place of worship. Churches tend to have very high ceilings so there are
several ways to complete your installation. Our ceiling mounts can be made to order, catering for most drops. If its not convenient
to ceiling mount the projector there are a range of wall mounts available, or special mounts that can connect to girders or rigging.
If you are unable to mount the projector in front of the screen, another option would be rear projection. Our sales staff have
extensive knowledge in getting the right solution for you.
Still confused?
If you need help, we're here to deliver it. Just give us a call for expert advice on choosing a projector suitable for your church.
SongPro - song/bible management software for churches
ZionWorx - powerful, professional yet easy-to-use song display program
Presenter - Easy to use song presentation software for churches
Snap Projection provides a fast and reliable solution for churches projecting song lyrics and PowerPoint™ slide shows
Presentation Manager- designed for Churches to display images, movies, live video feed, songs, Bible passages etc.