7 Ways to Brighten Up Your Church’s Projector

Replacing video projectors can cost thousands of dollars. But you may not need to replace your current projector. Here are seven ways to squeeze the most from your current video projection system.

Address Ambient Light IssuesChange Your Screen SurfaceThink Smaller & CloserCheck Your CablesMaintain Your Video ProjectorClean Your Projector ScreenConsider Your Content

Address Ambient Light Issues

Any light in your auditorium that’s not coming from your projector will reduce the projector screen’s effectiveness. That’s why the fancy movie palace ushers back in the day used flashlights to guide people to their seats rather than using overhead lighting to show the way. The darker the room, the brighter the screen image.

Controlling or diminishing external lighting can make the difference between needing an $8,000 projector or a $28,000 projector in the same exact room! This is especially true with light entering through doors and windows — no projector can outshine the sun. Control external lighting sources with curtains, shades, blinds, or static window tint. Consider reducing room overhead ambient lighting as much as possible. Eliminate spillover on the screen from direct light or reflections by adjusting light fixture positions, reprograming light movement, or using lighting fixture barn doors. Heavy haze can reduce the screen’s intensity and contrast.

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Change Your Screen Surface

Your projector screen’s material can make an incredible difference in the screen’s brightness, contrast, and viewing angle clarity. Some screens are specifically designed to address ambient light rejection, reflectivity, acoustic transparency, throw distance, or maximum peak intensity. You may be amazed by all the options available.

Sweetwater offers at least 20 different screen material options to help with brightening text, deepening color contrast, reducing ambient lighting, and passing audio. Your Sweetwater Sales Engineer can answer all your screen option questions.

Think Smaller & Closer

If your projector screen is oversized for your room, then consider repositioning your video projector closer to the screen and using a smaller screen. By concentrating the projector’s light into a smaller area, you will see a noticeable brightness increase. Keep in mind that the height of your screen’s dimensions should be 10% to 17% of the distance from the screen to the back row seats (12.5% is most common). This option works best if your projector uses a standard lens with adjustable screen size controls; otherwise, you may need to purchase a different lens. Talk with your Sweetwater Sales Engineer about whether this option will work for you.

Pro tip: If you’re thinking about changing your video projector, then wait to update your screen size until you’re ready to buy the new projector. This will ensure that the screen’s format size, projector distance, and lens all match.

Check Your Cables

If your video projector is over 50 feet from your computer, then the longer cable run may reduce your signal strength. This hinders your video projection quality. An HDMI extender helps to deliver an optimized, non-degraded signal. Check out these extension sets.

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Maintain Your Video Projector

Help your projector reach a ripe old age by cleaning its air filter and air vents according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. When it’s time, replace the air filter.

If your projector’s light source is nearing the end of its life, then changing the bulb can brighten the screen.

Traditional bulbs only last 2,000 hours to 6,000 hours and have the most noticeable rate of decline. (Outdated bulbs can explode, which voids your projector’s warranty, not to mention the possibility of creating a shower of red-hot glass shards.)LED lamps may dim up to 50% when approaching their 20,000-hour to 30,000-hour end of life.Contrary to popular assumption, laser video projectors actually do dim over time by up to 20%; however, the transition is so gradual that the naked eye may not even notice.

In addition to dimming, other light source end-of-life symptoms include inconsistent brightness, flickering, color shifts, hot spots, and image artifacts.

Pro tip: spike your projector feet with tape so you can more easily reposition it after servicing.

Clean Your Projector Screen

Even if you only drop your projector screen during services, your screen will accumulate room dust and residue from some hazer fluids. That growing layer makes your screen’s special surface less effective and becomes increasingly difficult to remove if not regularly cleaned. Wipe non-coated screens using a damp, soft cloth with a small amount of soap. Gently wipe coated projection screens with a clean, dry microfiber cloth, shaking off dust after each stroke.

Consider Your Content

Here are some tips for modifying the graphic design of your video content to help your text pop as much as possible. Typically, houses of worship keep the main thing the main thing by focusing on clear, bold text with high-contrast backgrounds that forward the mood and message of their content. (Think of large, white lettering on a dark background.)

Bright backgrounds and fast videos tend to overpower text.If you use ProPresenter presentation software, then darken and slow down the speed of video backgrounds to reduce distraction from your words.San serif fonts (fonts without feet or small strokes) are the easiest to read from a distance and should be large enough to be legible to everyone in the room.Allow plenty of margin around the text to help the words breathe and to reduce a sense of clutter.Keep font size consistent throughout each song.Dividing large blocks of text or lyrics into bite-size pieces will give you room for larger text sizes. The rule of thumb is one to two lines of text per slide with a maximum of four lines.Using all caps can feel like visual shouting, so consider using uppercase and lowercase.

Sweetwater Has Your Next Projector

We all know that gear doesn’t last forever. If your video projector is nearing the end of its life or you simply need to expand your worship experience visually, then there’s one more way you can reduce the cost of a new projector. Rather than setting your old projector in a closet as a backup or handing it down to the children’s department, put it to work for you by selling it, along with any other music gear that you’d like to offload, on Sweetwater’s Gear Exchange. There are zero seller fees when you use your proceeds to fund a brighter projector or other gear purchased through Sweetwater.

When it’s time to shop for video projectors, call us at (800) 222-4700. Our Sweetwater Sales Engineers are trained to help you maximize your projection system. Leverage their expertise to answer your questions as you design a video projection system that will engage your congregation and share your message with impact.

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