When people think of projection mapping they often envision large-scale high-resolution extravaganzas. But Village Chapel Church is demonstrating that immersive projection can be used with a modest budget and some imagination.
At the beginning of the year, Village Chapel Church in Ashville, OH had a mission to use modern technologies to visually enhance their worship services. After evaluating its AV setup, Jeremy Scoby, Director of Worship, created a more immersive experience for the congregation with the use of AV. He decided to use environmental projection to visually set the church’s worship space apart from all other areas. Now, with three new Hitachi CP-WX8750 projectors, Scoby and the rest of his team have transformed the church’s Family Life Center and significantly enhanced the worship experience.
Village Chapel Church is a community hub with activities for all ages including The Way Skatepark, youth groups, encounters and trips, preschool, Life Groups, and more.
Every week, the church hosts three different services for its 500 congregation members, one service on Saturday evenings and two on Sunday mornings. The space is used for more than worship, so Scoby and his team mounted and concealed the three new Hitachi CP-WX8750 projectors in the back wall of the space.
“We cut a hole in the back wall and built a structure inside to support the projectors,” says Scoby. “One of our congregation members owns a construction company and they designed and created a custom piece to cover the projectors that still allows the light to come through. It’s become a favorite feature in our weekly services.”
Scoby designed images using palm branches and introduced the new environmental projection designs at the Village Chapel’s first service during Holy Week. The effects enhanced the message and heightened the overall experience for all attendees.
When looking for new projectors, Scoby closely examined the cost and evaluated the feature benefits available for the church. “I knew when I started looking that we wanted full 1080p resolution and at least 6,000 lumens. We have a few windows in the space and we do adjust our lighting during services to make sure that our congregation can see the projections well. We knew that in order to visually set our worship space apart, we were going to have to use a product capable of performing at a high level. Hitachi offered everything we were looking for at a price point that was affordable for the church.”
