Illinois church: Forerunner of a new LED trend?
Nov 3, 2004 3:48 PM
Two large, moveable LED displays are a central feature of an ambitious new auditorium that opened in September at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill. -- and might be a preview of many more LED installations to come in houses of worship.
Mark Foster, general manager of Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision, says declining prices are a big reason why more churches are expressing interest in LED displays as an alternative to projection. “LED prices have come down considerably in the last five years,” he says. “We’re talking to more churches, and seeing a lot of interest now.” In addition to Willow Creek Community Church, Foster cites Lakewood Church in Houston, where a new International Center is under construction that will include LED displays in a 16,000-seat main auditorium.
Willow Creek has installed two Diamond Vision 10mm LED displays (5mm dot pitch), each 25ft. wide by 14ft. high. The substantial investment required by large LED panels was justified by the prominence of video IMAG and other high-quality content that features in the church’s creative strategy, says Craig Janssen, a principal in the Dallas office of Acoustic Dimensions, which worked with Willow Creek to develop the auditorium design and specifications for video, audio, lighting, and other systems.
The main factor that drove the choice for LEDs, he continues, was the layout of the 7,300-seat facility itself. Willow Creek Community Church was designed with major theatrical and worship production needs in mind, he notes. It has major backstage and fly spaces, and the building itself ranges from 350 to 380ft. wide.
Moreover, the auditorium design stressed bringing worshippers as close as possible to the action. Rear projection would cut into the backstage and fly areas, Janssen explains, while the sheer size and ambient light of the auditorium made front projection problematic.
“We couldn’t get a front projector bright enough,” Janssen says. “We would need to triple-stack 25K projectors, and it would be out of control.” Heat evacuation alone from such a high-powered projection array would pose a major challenge, he adds.
One of the most striking features of the LED displays at Willow Creek is their mobility. The church production staff designed and engineered a system that enables the two large walls, beginning from a center-platform position, to move up to 90ft. apart and fly up to 12ft. above the floor.
Thus, the displays can get entirely out of the way of whatever is happening on stage while continuing to display their video images -- something that would not be possible with conventional projection, Janssen says.
The sheer brightness of the LED displays affects how Willow Creek handles things like IMAG, Janssen says. To keep the brightness from overwhelming the audience, the LEDs can be run at as little as 40 percent of their maximum output, he explains. This also helps reduce the heat that needs to be dissipated, enabling the systems to run without fans much of the time. “LEDs also affect how you deal with IMAG,” Janssen says. “The contrast ratio is so vibrant it’s almost over the top.”
In addition to high brightness, Foster says, LEDs can compete more effectively today on the basis of low ongoing maintenance costs, particularly contrasted with the high expense of frequent lamp replacements for very bright projectors. “LED is becoming a more viable alternative,” Foster says.
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