St Andrews Church, Marks Tey.
Another AV hardware reseller approached AV Installs Ltd to assist them in providing a bespoke church projector and screen installation service for a Church in Kent. The Church wanted a large 3M-wide projector screen installed at the front of the church without covering up the entire stained glass window when it was in use. The main Church Hall was very narrow, with a large window exceeding 5 m in height. This meant that bringing a screen with an extra drop-down from above the window was not a possible solution. The Church were keen to avoid using a mobile screen and preferred a fixed installation, so we set about brainstorming ideas on how we could achieve this.
After much deliberation with screen manufacturers, it was decided that we would mount a Draper 3M wide Major Manual screen upside down beneath the stained glass window. This meant that instead of pulling the screen down, the screen needed to be pulled up out of the canister from a pulley system above. When the manual screens are turned upside down, the mechanism that controls the screen stop does not function, and the retraction mode is constantly engaged, causing the screen to return. This meant that the system we used to pull the screen up also needed to be sufficient to hold the screen in place, stopping the canister from retracting. Due to this, a manual pulley system was not suitable, as it would have required an enormous physical effort to pull the screen up, not to mention holding it in place. To overcome these obstacles, AV Installs designed a system utilising a heavy-duty winch and pulleys. This was fixed into the roof cavity 8 m up in a custom-made housing, which held the winch in perfect alignment with the screen and pulleys. The winch was attached to the pulley system, and a rocker switch was installed at the back of the hall, where the other AV connections were located. This made operating the system easy, with everything needed within hand’s reach.
With the flick of a switch, the winch automatically engages and raises the screen into the perfect viewing position without covering the entire stained glass window. When the screen is retracted, the canister is barely visible, and neither is the single length of high-tensile steel cable used to suspend the screen.
The Church Projector Installation also came with its challenges. As with All Church Installations, there are many factors to consider when choosing the correct projector and the best possible place to mount it. In this case, there were only a couple of practical places to put it, which were on the first archway facing the screen. This meant that the projector itself was not visible to the congregation at all. At AV Installs, we always strive to integrate Audio Visual Systems into Churches with minimal effect on the existing aesthetics. Due to the throw distance between the projector and the screen, a long-throw lens was required, which allows installers to use the projector from extended distances. Again, there are many factors to consider when using long-throw projectors in Churches. The Projector was cabled back to a standalone, dedicated PC using VGA over Cat5, allowing us to extend the cable length over far greater distances than regular VGA cables.
St Andrews Church Projector & Screen Installation
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