Grace Church in Bainbridge, Georgia, is a non-denominational community church and home to a weekly congregation of more than 200 people.
Mitch Hines, worship & children’s pastor, has been part of the Grace Church community for eight years and works to help the church provide a worship service that is fun, enjoyable and community based.
In summer 2019, Hines and the rest of the church leadership team decided to upgrade their projector system used to display lyrics and images to help facilitate weekly worship.
After years of dim projections and blurry images, Hines worked with Shepherd Multimedia to specify and purchase two new Maxell MC-WU8701 LCD projectors, which have significantly enhanced weekly services.
Before Hines installed the new Maxell projectors, Grace Church had been using outdated projectors, which preceded his tenure as the worship pastor.
“They were old,” says Hines. “The church had been using the same projectors since before I started. The brightness had significantly dimmed over time, and we needed a higher resolution to ensure our congregation could see the videos and other visuals we were using during our service.”
Hines worked closely with Shepherd Multimedia to find projectors featuring superior brightness, SDI connectivity, and full 1080p HD resolution that also fit Grace Church’s budget.
In the end, the Maxell MC-WU8701 LCD projector offered everything Hines and the team were looking for. The new projectors feature blending and warping capabilities via manual or automatic adjustment, as well as 16 input terminals for compatibility with practically any device. MC-WU8701 projectors deliver a 10,000:1 contrast ratio to deliver crisp and dynamic picture quality in various lighting conditions.
Grace Church shares its facility with Grace Christian Academy, an affiliated K-12 school. Sunday services take place in a gymnasium and require weekly set up and tear down so the school can use the facility during the week.
Although the gym requires constant reconfiguration, the new MC-WU8701 projectors remain securely mounted in place surrounded by custom-built metal cages to simplify set up and take down and ensure the projectors are protected.
“We built custom metal cages to protect the projectors during the week while the students use the space for gym class,” says Hines. “The cages themselves are mounted to the ceiling with the projectors inside. Most of the solutions we found protected the projector itself but not the mount. We worked with one of our members who is a metalworker, and he designed custom cages that would completely protect the entire installation while still allowing us access to the projector.”
Since installing the new MC-WU8701 projectors, the Grace Church congregation reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.
“It’s a night and day difference from what we had to what we have now. We’ve received a lot of good feedback from the congregation. Someone recently approached me and said, ‘We can actually read the words!’” Hines recalls. “We’ve put live video on the new projectors and the image looks fantastic. Being able to run true HD through them makes an incredible difference.”
Maxell MC-WU8701 projectors have transformed weekly worship service at Grace Church and other houses of worship across the country.
With 7,000 ANSI lumens, WUXGA 1920 x 1200 resolution and proven reliability, the MC-WU8701 projector is a great fit for any large venue or space needing a high-brightness solution.
Maxell, Ltd. is a leading producer within the industries of Energy, Industrial Materials, Electronic Appliances and Consumer Products including rechargeable batteries, consumer health products, and commercial projectors, www.maxellproav.com.
