Choir Monitor Help

[vetman1]

I am trying to help a small country church in choosing a monitor to display the hymns for the choir. I have tried to read as much as possible in the forums and tried to answer my own questions, but I have gotten more confused. I am not a church staff member and only somewhat knowledgeable in computers and video equipment.

My initial thoughts were to purchase an LED Television and mount it on the front wall of the balcony above the main auditorium. My understanding is that the LED television should provide the longest lifetime of usability. The little church does not have a very large budget or membership and I am trying to get them the best product for their money. I tried to get some measurements and plug them into the suggested formulas, but became quickly lost.

The choir loft is 40 feet wide, so in my mind the angle of viewing should not be that great of a concern, but I might be incorrect in that assumption. The distance is around 50 feet from the choir to the front wall of the balcony where I suggested they mount the television.

What are some suggestions that would work for this situation? I am unable to understand how we could use a projector in this situation and I believe it would also be way out of their available budget. I appreciate any help in trying to head me in the right direction.

Thomas

[Brad Weber]

Would the content be the same going to other displays or could this display have unique content? The legibility of any text is based on the size, and especially height, of the characters. If you can generate content just for that display then you can often use larger fonts for it and thus increase how far away the text is legible. If it would be displaying the same content as other displays then that may not be as practical a concept.

50' is a fairly large viewing distance for a flat panel unless you can use rather large fonts. Standard 'rule of thumb' might suggest 6' to 8' high image, although with large fonts that may be able to be pushed to 5' high or even 4' high. That is the image height and for a 16:9 display equates to a 98" to 122" diagonal display. As you can see, a 55" to 65" display that may seem large in your living room is rather small with a 50' viewing distance. I always suggest that people try to go to a local electronics store and stand that distance away, they're usually surprised at how small such 'large' displays seem at the viewing distances involved.

Another potential factor is where and what you plan to purchase. If you are looking at online or large box store retailers and/or at consumer displays then chances are good that the warranty excludes 'commercial' or 'professional' use or essentially anything other than personal use in a home. You may also encounter little or no technical support other than what the manufacturer offers online. There are professional LCD and LCD/LED ('LED' displays are simply LCD displays that use LEDs for the backlight) displays but you would have to purchase them through authorized professional dealers and you will pay more for them.

[vetman1]

I am going to try and give a little more information on what we are trying to accomplish.

The church is set up with a projector and screen for the congregation. They also had a projector for the choir that has given up the ghost. The screen for the choir projector is mounted in the rear of the balcony about an additional 20 feet from the front of the balcony where we were considering mounting the new monitor.

The two separate screens receive their output from the same source in this case being a laptop. The program used mainly is Easyworship software.

As far as measurements go, the 50 foot distance is from the front balcony wall to the very back choir pew. I hope this information helps in providing a more thorough idea of the church's setup and needs.

Thanks once again.
Thomas

[andrewf]

Our choir "loft" is around 55' wide. The distance from the choir to the center balcony, is approximately 75'. We have a 55" LCD TV mounted here as the confidence monitor.

We use this same monitor with pro-presenter to coach the different pastors, and musicians thru the service. (Instructions on what is next, etc) We also present the musical notes/words for the band and choir on this monitor.

55" is plenty big, so long as you size your text accordingly you should be fine.

In our case, 42" might be too small.

[vetman1]

Thank you for heading me in the right direction.

My next question is which type to buy? My understanding is that a LED television has a longer lifespan, but will it satisfy our needs?

Thanks to everyone on helping with this project.

Thomas

[Brad Weber]

Originally Posted by andrewf

55" is plenty big, so long as you size your text accordingly you should be fine.

A 55" diagonal, 16:9 display is an image that is just under 27" high, thus your 75' viewing distance equates to a ratio of over 33:1, which is well above what would be recommended and that probably requires much larger than 'normal' text in order to have it be legible 75' away. It sounds like they are using a single output from EasyWorship to both the congregation and choir displays, thus it may not be practical to make the text that large or to limit what is displayed.

On the budget and lifetime, if you're looking at consumer devices you might want to verify if 'commercial' or 'professional' use is covered under the warranty and if not, consider whether spending a bit more for a display that would be covered might be a wise investment.

An "LED" display is still an LCD display but it uses LED instead of fluorescent backlighting. LED backlighting has several potential advantages including that LED light sources are expected to have longer lifetimes than CCFL light sources (neither technology has really been around long enough to have significant supporting data), but is it actually relevant for the application when the 30,000 to 60,000 hours that seems to be a typical 'half life' for a CCFL lit LCD display equals 8 hours a day for 10 to 20 years?

[vetman1]

I did call Squaretrade which I have dealt with before and they said that a church would not be using a monitor that much during a week and that they would cover the television. I thought that was pretty good of them to look at it that way. Hopefully, they will keep that promise if something goes wrong.

Thomas