Church of the Highlands selects Barco for major A/V expansion
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: Barco recently teamed up with Clark, an audio-video-lighting company dedicated to the house of worship market, to significantly upgrade the visualisation platform at Church of the Highlands’ Grants Mill campus in Alabama. Over the past four years, Barco and Clark have outfitted four of the 10 campuses with a wide array of Barco video presentation solutions.
‘We worked closely with Barco back in 2011 to develop a prototype A/V system that could be rolled out to all of the campuses as the church continued to grow, which has served as a solid foundation for each site,’ commented Brandon Byrd, project manager for Clark. ‘Their breadth of product line and easy configuration allowed us to design high value yet economical solutions that really elevate the church’s production quality. We’ve developed a trusted partnership with Barco based on their ability to deliver consistently great products and excellent customer service.’
‘Our ministry drives the church’s technical needs, and our job is to execute our leaders’ vision to create a top-notch experience for our members,’ added Scott Waldrep, production systems coordinator at Grants Mill, Church of the Highlands’ main campus. ‘We also understand that we’re engaging a media savvy audience these days that’s accustomed to viewing high-quality HD programming, so we knew we needed to step up our game.’
For its latest upgrade at Grants Mills, the church installed a Barco FLM-HD20 for the centre screen, flanked by two FLM-R22+ models to create a panoramic visual experience in the 2,400-seat sanctuary. ‘We were so impressed with the excellent crispness, colour and contrast of the images – the projectors cut right through the ambient lighting and worked flawlessly from the first night,’ enthused Mr Waldrep.
The Grants Mill project marks the fifth A/V installation jointly completed by Clark and Barco for Church of the Highlands, which began with a brand new system for the 1,000-seat theatre in 2009, and features an FLM-HD20 projector with four RLM-W8 models to round out the presentation screens. This was followed shortly by projects at the church’s Riverchase, Greystone and Auburn campuses, which utilise varied configurations of HDX-W18 and RLM-series projectors, as well as Barco ImagePRO-II 3G presentation switchers.
‘We have enjoyed growing with Church of the Highlands as they have continued to embrace Barco’s latest technologies, which not only offer enhanced presentation quality, but also provide the flexibility, control and ease of use that houses of worship need for a successful, worry-free A/V experience,’ furthered Scott Stremple, vice president sales, venues and hospitality, projection division for Barco north America. ‘We are also fortunate to partner with Clark who brings vast experience and in-depth knowledge of the house of worship A/V market, which enables us to deliver the best solutions for these unique environments.’