GearCast - House of Worship Projector Guide: What You Should Know Before You Upgrade

The use of projectors in Houses of Worship (HoW) continues to skyrocket, but so does the proliferation of new projection technologies and capabilities. To help our HoW friends make sense of these new amazing choices, we’re providing this helpful guide to provide clarity on your next projector purchase.

The projector market has seen impressive changes and growth as manufacturers push the limits on projection technology. From sub-$800 portable projectors for small meeting rooms to 60,000 lumenDefinition:
A measure of the amount of brightness of a lightbulb. The higher the number of lumens, the brighter the lightbulb. laser projectors projecting at 4KDefinition:
3840x2160-pixel video resolution. This is also often called Ultra HD or UHD. Also resolution of 4096x2160, which is popular in the film industry. , keeping up with the projection trends and the surrounding marketing hype can be confusing, as everyone’s needs are different.

Each HoW has a unique set of challenges when it comes to audiovisual technology. What you do have in common with other houses of worship are some shared pain points when it comes to projection. Because we hear from our customers day in and day out about the unique challenges of portable venues, high-brightness rooms, and the need for better quality projection, we understand that these technology purchase decisions are important for you. At Full Compass, we de-mystify the technology to make sure that you have not only the projectors you need today, but have an upgrade path for the future, too.

Resolutions

Every projector has a native resolutionDefinition:
The actual number of pixels in a display device. that is able to display a certain number of pixels. The benefits of higher resolutionDefinition:
1. (video) The measure of pixels horizontally and vertically. For example, 1920x1080 is considered HD, or high-definition. 2. (audio) The combined bit depth and sample rate of a digital audio signal. projectors for houses of worship are improved clarity of text, graphics, and videos for every seat. In technical terms, the audience members furthest from the screen are called the “least favored viewers”, but by combining high-resolution with higher brightness, every seat is a good one.

Some common resolution terms:

• 4K resolution is 4,096 x 2,160 pixels
• WUXGA means 1,920 x 1,200 pixels
• High Definition (HD) is 1,920 x 1,080 pixels

For most of our house of worship clients, WUXGADefinition:
(Wide Ultra Extended Graphics Array) Graphics standard with 1920×1200-pixel resolution (16:10 aspect ratio).  is more than enough resolution for the majority of their video projection needs. Some of our largest clients in extremely large video venues have chosen 4K both to ensure great images on extremely large screens and to future-proof their video upgrade path.

To find out which resolution is best for your venues, our house of worship market specialists will help guide you through questions that create the best possible outcome for your venue and your budget.

Projector Light Sources

Over the years, projection has improved and innovated to create a variety of projector types. But the biggest changes have been in the light source. Today, lamp-based projectors have become standard and continue to provide good value for long lifecycles. Generally speaking, lamp-based projectors are still the most economical and will continue to be a staple of projection for some time to come.

There have been a number of light sources including lamps, LEDs, and lasers. There are advantages and trade-offs with any technology, so we’ve included a helpful primer to clear the clutter from the marketing hype.

Lamp-based

From single lamps to dual-lamp to even some quad-lamp projectors, there’s a huge variety of lamp-based projectors to fit just about any application. The differences here the quantity of lamps (more lamps for better operational redundancy) and the type of lamps. Generally speaking, UHP lamps are the longest-lasting lamps for projectors.

LED-based

Today, LED-based light sources in projectors are not bright enough for installations. Instead, they are found in very small, portable projectors.

LCD/laser hybrid

Lasers are the light source and LCDDefinition:
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display): A display that uses fluid crystals that can block, reflect, or transmit light from a back illuminator, and uses very little power. panels provide the Red, Green, and Blue primary colorsDefinition:
1. (lighting) Adding varying proportions of red, blue, and green produces a wide variety of colors.  2.(painting) Adding varying proportions of red, yellow, and blue produces a wide variety of colors.  3. (printing) Printing uses a subtractive model due to light being filtered through absorbing materials. The subtractive primary colors are cyan, magenta and yellow. for creating images.

LED/laser hybrid

Combining the LEDDefinition:
LED (Light-Emitting Diode): A semiconductor light generator used in displays, television, pointers and for general illumination. It is a low-power replacement for incandescent lamps. to help with secondary colors, this is an affordable combination of technologies found in many of the lower-brightness laser projectors.

Laser Phosphor

These projectors use laser light to excite a phosphor on a ‘phosphor wheel similar to the color wheels used in DLPDefinition:
DLP (Digital Light Projection): A video projection method that uses a device with thousands of micromirrors. projection for high brightness (white) and high color brightness. This requires only one type of laser (typically Blue) and the phosphor wheel creates other color combinations with other blue lasers.

Direct laser/phosphor hybrid

Higher-end direct laser/phosphor hybrids use 3-chipDefinition:
(slang) Integrated circuit. systems of phosphor wheels and dichroic mirrors to create exact Red, Green, and Blue colors combined in a prism, similar to the DLP 3-chip projection systems, but with lasers as the light source.

Direct laser

At the high end, these are extreme brightness laser projectors using a direct laser system that illuminate the screen without needing intermediary phosphors. It is now possible to achieve over 60,000 lumens with this type of laser projection.

About those laser lifetimes: The 20,000-hour figure assumes an auto-dimming duty cycleDefinition:
1. The amount of time a device is on, compared to the amount of time a device is off.  2. With pulse waveforms, the amount of time the waveform voltage is at maximum compared to the amount of time the waveform voltage is at minimum, expressed as a percentage ratio. of 5% of projection time at 100% brightness, 85% of time at 85% brightness and 10% of time at 5% brightness.

Also, the rapid on/off capability is a differentiator for lasers, which do not require the ‘warm up’ or ‘cool down’ cycles of lamp-based projectors. It is not uncommon for a laser projector to be on and running in less than 10 seconds!

So which projectors are right for your different HoW venues? We can help with that question by having our specialists connect with you to understand your budget, venue sizes, and projection locations. Quite often, the solution centers around if your venues need a certain projection lens or a minimum amount of brightness. With our deep expertise and large inventory of all projector types, we’ll make sure your next projector purchase meets and even exceeds your expectations.

Before you buy your next projector, spend a few minutes with our House of Worship experts to help guide you through the unique challenges and opportunities for your unique needs.

Suggested Models

To get started, we’ve included four different projectors that showcase the best combination of technologies we’ve covered in this article. We think these projectors represent some of the best values for many of our clients. (Links are on the sidebar to the right.)

• Optoma ProScene ZU720T WUXGA Laser Projector Enjoy virtually maintenance-free operation from the whisper-quiet advanced thermal design optical engine for up to 30,000 hours in eco mode.
• Panasonic PTFRZ60 6,000 Lumens 1 DLP Laser Projector With the Rich Color EnhancerDefinition:
  An audio processor that brightens sound using a combination of equalization and harmonic generation. See also: Exciter. and Quarter Color HarmonizerDefinition:
  A term trademarked by Eventide to describe their series of pitch-shifting signal processors. See also: Pitch Shifter. functions, you have more control to achieve deeper colors than you would with other projectors in this price range.
• Sony VPLPHZ12 5,000 Lumens 3LCDDefinition:
  A projector engine with 3 LCDs for each primary color, combined with a prism. WUXGA Projector An advanced laser light source combined with powerful signal processingDefinition:
  Alteration of sound or video signals by using a hardware device or software. Typical signal processing devices include equalization, compression, reverb, color correction, blur, glow, etc. ensures exceptional picture quality with advanced contrast and beautifully accurate color.
• Epson POWERLITE-L615U 6,000 Lumens Wireless WUXGA 3LCD Laser Projector Compact and affordable, this projector produces bright, vivid images with 6,000 lumens of color/white brightness, along with a dynamic contrast ratioDefinition:
  Contrast ratio describes the video dynamic range of a display device as a relationship between the brightest color (white) and the darkest color (black) that the system can produce. Two methods are used to specify contrast ratio; the full on/full off method describes the dynamic contrast ratio and the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) method measures the static contrast ratio. of up to 2,500,000:1 for extraordinary sharpness and detail.