Sound and Video Upgrades greatly improve worship experience
Floor to ceiling stained glass windows and beautiful hardwood surfaces add to the ambience of worship space but pose serious audio/visual challenges. Located in the center of downtown Greenfield with the original building established in 1895, Greenfield Christian Church is designed in a wide semicircle pattern that allows the congregation to be close to the altar. When Fairchild Communication Systems, Inc. sales engineer Matt Ranft saw the hanging central cluster of speakers hung nearly 25’ above the congregation he knew that his team could design a system to greatly increase the sound quality for worshippers. He also saw a video projector that was trying and mostly failing to blast through the brilliant light from the stained glass windows to project music lyrics and other images.
Rev. Frank H. Everett, Pastor, relayed that many members of the congregation and especially the older members complained that they couldn’t understand his speech. Fairchild Communication Systems, Inc. researched options, consulted with manufacturer partners, and proposed the installation of an advanced speaker line array solution. The low profile column speakers were located much closer to ear level thus requiring less volume that would just end up bouncing off walls and surfaces to hinder audio intelligibility. The overall speaker is actually composed of 12 individual speakers that are pointed and acoustically shaped to deliver clear quality audio. Fairchild Communication Systems, Inc.’s senior technician and audio specialist, Pat O’Neill, installed with the goal that there should be minimal difference in volume or quality from the inspired worshipper in the first pew to the straggler in the last row.
For video, Fairchild Communication Systems, Inc. reviewed the types of images to be displayed and learned about some other applications the church wanted to add. Fairchild Communication Systems, Inc. technicians Pat O’Neill and James Goebel carefully installed 75” television monitors in the front corners of the room and smaller monitors were installed in an adjacent overflow area and in the back of the church. A robotic camera can be used to zoom in on altar activity and viewed by all on the monitors and it can also record and stream worship streams.
Systems Installed by Fairchild Communication Systems, Inc.:
- Renkus Heinz Iconyx series speakers
- Biamp digital signal processing
- Williams listening assistance system providing audio feed to headphones worn by those with hearing difficulty
- HDMI video distribution with FSR matrix switching
- Robotic camera and video switching
- Extensions of sound and video systems to nursery and overflow spaces
