The Team
AV Integrator: Mankin Media Systems
Architect: Luna Architecture
There are big AV systems … and then there are church-big AV systems. For example, Spotlight Award–winning entertainment venue the TIFF Bell Lightbox has an impressive 3D-capable theater with very high-end sound that holds 550 patrons. The sanctuary at the Palm Valley Church in Mission, Texas, on the other hand, used to hold 600 worshipers—and it wasn’t nearly big enough. So when the church started expansion into a newly constructed, 2,000-seat auditorium, it brought in two-time Spotlight Award winner Mankin Media Systems early in the design process.
Because the church wanted its services to be more visual than in the past, the entire building was designed around the stage—or more specifically, around the giant video screen that would stretch above the length of the stage. Working with the architect, it was crucial to the client and to Mankin that the auditorium be crafted to maximize the sight lines between the worshipers and the custom-built, 50-foot-long Da-Lite screen.
When a service starts, intelligent lighting kicks in, with Martin Audio MAC575 and MAC TW1 fixtures taking cues from a High End Systems Road Hog lighting console, while economical Nexo GEO S1210 line arrays belt out the sound. Live video from three JVC ProHD cameras, or canned content prepared by the church’s staff, is fed through a Vista Spyder multiwindow processor and sent to the screen via a trio of high-brightness, 14,000-lumen Barco FLM HD14 projectors. Using a Ross Video Vision production switcher, church engineers can also send video and content to flat-panel TVs in the lobby, the Web, or a recording system that captures services for posterity. Now the 1,999th and 2,000th worshiper in the back row feel like they’re up front.
