PITTSBURGH, PA — Christ Church at Grove Farm offers two types of services, traditional and progressive, with about 1,500 attendees every Sunday. The main worship venue, which accommodates 1,250, was recently modernized with the addition of a SmartMatriX Ultra presentation mixer from Analog Way.
More details from Analog Way (www.analogway.com):
Previously equipped with three Analog Way CentriX and facing the increase of digital formats, the church chose to upgrade its control room with the SmartMatriX Ultra, Analog Way’s Powerful multi-screen Seamless Switcher. The SmartMatriX Ultra feeds four projection screens from six inputs, including four for graphic content, one for video, and another one for live camera feeds during special occasions.
Luke Good, Creative Services Director at Christ Church at Grove Farm explains: “Primarily, what we were looking for was an all-in-one box that will do three independent outputs. Most of the time, we send one source to the center screen, a different source to the two side screens and a third source to the confidence monitor, so we really needed something that could feed screens through three independent outputs”. In addition to the technical specifications, the powerful processing capabilities of the device were also a critical argument: “I wanted to be able to act simultaneously on the three screens, hit only one “Take” button to have everything on the screens react at the same time” adds Good.
In terms of operation, three people from the technical staff rotate through services to control the SmartMatriX Ultra, with volunteers helping to run graphics. The device is controlled with the Web RCS, Analog Way’s intuitive remote control software, and occasionally the tech team use the AW Toolbox, the App designed to control the LiveCore™ mixers: “The Web RCS is very useful and I really appreciated all the updates done that have improved its use and functionality. We all use it in different ways, at different times and each of the three of us are able to configure it for our own preferences. When the technical set up and pre-configurations are done, it is really easy to use even for volunteers”, comments Good.
Good sees the advantage of investing in such a system: “The SmartMatriX Ultra completely covers our current needs in terms of inputs and outputs. It also gave us the opportunity to expand into 4K resolution in the future, so we’re confident in this long lasting investment.”
