April 14, 2023
4 min read
Houses of worship face increasing challenges to building and retaining membership. In December 2021, the Pew Research Center found that the proportion of religiously unaffiliated Americans had almost doubled from 16% to 29% in the previous decade. Unsurprisingly, religious leaders are looking for ways to bring congregants back to the pews and encourage a new generation of followers among the young.
This requires a new approach to religious messaging — one where audio-visual technology and church AV solutions can create memorable experiences in houses of worship.
Clear Guidance With Digital Signage
Digital signage offers a way to capture the attention of congregants in lobby areas as they file into the inner sanctuary. Signage in your house of worship’s lobby can inform people of upcoming events and service times while cutting the costs of printed material one might typically create and distribute. It also offers more flexibility, allowing for the display of last-minute messages like changes to event details.
With digital signage, one can curtail recurring costs and easily update content, thus allowing for a substantial reduction in annual printing and publicity costs. Digital signage can even help build revenue by communicating fundraising information directly at the location where congregants can make cash donations and by providing a place where local businesses can easily advertise to a known demographic gathered in one place.
Panasonic Connect offers fully integrated digital signage solutions for public spaces, enabling houses of worship to effortlessly deliver engaging content to congregants. The solutions are available with professional displays for indoor or outdoor settings, wall or ceiling mounting configurations, and display, mount or IP power controllers for an all-in-one church AV package.
Capturing the Word With Sound Systems
Your house of worship needs quality audio equipment that picks up every nuance of the service, while blocking unwanted background noise in sometimes challenging acoustic spaces. Microphones must focus on the voice of speakers and capture every note of vocalists’ singing while minimizing echoes.
One’s choice of microphone should reflect style of worship. Some religious leaders might prefer to stand at a podium with a fixed microphone, while others like to stride on a stage or move among the worshippers.
Panasonic Connect offers a range of microphones supporting all styles of worship. Cordless microphones include gooseneck systems for podium-based speakers, while both handheld and lavalier-based systems work best for vocalists and speakers on the move.
The wireless microphone systems pair with wireless receivers that can be placed discretely around large spaces, accommodating even the most cavernous of sanctuaries without losing clarity. Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) can communicate digital audio between microphones and wireless access points, minimizing interference from any other electrical equipment in the space.
Highlighting Speakers and Vocalists with PTZ Cameras
High-quality video is a crucial component of your church AV solutions. Congregants inside and outside the worship space must be able to see vocalists and speakers in clear detail. With modern services often including spectacular lighting effects and fast-moving performances, flexible exposure and coverage are key. With the help of larger broadcast cameras and handheld cameras, houses of worship can capture both wide-angle views of a whole stage and close-up action showing the expressions of speakers and singers.
For example, Panasonic Connect helped Compass Christian Church in Chandler, Arizona, create a video production solution for indoor events with their rapidly-changing colored lighting as well as sunlit outdoor events in the baptismal pool. The flexible exposure settings and convenient portability of the company’s handheld cameras, combined with the eye-popping color capture of its Panasonic UC4000 broadcast units, provide perfect coverage.
Panasonic Connect also offers point, tilt, and zoom (PTZ) range cameras that can follow speakers around a room, making them perfect for teaching sessions. Speakers can add a teleprompter that integrates seamlessly with nimble PTZ cameras to allow for easy communication from the control room.
With many houses of worship relying heavily on volunteers, easy-to-use video control systems and live streaming services for worshippers who cannot attend services in person are crucial. Control room systems are helpful when recording special events like weddings, too. A video controller that integrates with the rest of one’s church AV infrastructure and features IP capabilities for live streaming is ideal.
Illuminating your House of Worship with Projectors and Video Walls
Inside sanctuaries, religious leaders can employ large-format projectors and video walls to deliver bright, crisp 4K-resolution images that can present both live action from stage performances and text for following liturgy and singing.
Panasonic Connect offers projectors with a range of brightness options, including its 50,000-lumen PT-RQ50KU model, which can illuminate even the largest worship spaces. The projectors offer long periods of maintenance-free operation thanks to dust-free construction, and some even include backup video inputs to keep relaying services even if a primary signal goes out.
Church AV Connects Your Congregation
Now more than ever, religious institutions must focus on providing clear, powerful communication with an audience that is increasingly distracted by everyday life. This means investing in audio-visual tools to help keep services relevant, accessible, and engaging in a rapidly changing world. Looking for the ideal church AV solution for your house of worship? Panasonic Connect is here to help!
