Church Projectors Buyers Guide

Choosing the right projector for your business.

What brightness level do I require?
What Resolution is right for me?
What do the PC Free and Wireless features mean?
Is there anything else to look for?
What projectors do you recommend for church use?

What brightness level do I require?

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Brightness with digital projectors is universally measured in ANSI Lumens. Typically the brightness level for church projectors ranges from 4000-6000 lumens but as always your ambient lighting and image size will effect what brightness level you will require. For small house of worships with an image size around 100", and minimal natural light, a 4000 lumen model would easily do the job. If your room has lots of natural light we recommend going for a brighter unit to ensure the image remains vibrant enough for the congregation to view. The larger the screen, and the higher the ambient light is in the room, the more powerful the projector will need to be. If your church or house of worship is very large (ie groups of 100-200 people) we would recommend a projector with a minimum 5000 ANSI Lumen rating.

What Resolution is right for me?

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A native resolution is essentially a measurement for the number of pixels being projected. Usually this is represented in a number of pixels width to height e.g. 1920 pixels width and 1080 pixels high. Projectors may accept signals higher and lower of the native resolution but will have to convert or compress the signal to display in the native resolution.

The most common measurements for education projectors are

SVGA - 800x600 - For basic PowerPoint presentations with large font sizes. Okay for small groups. Is slowly being phased out.
XGA - 1024x768 - Great for basic Powerpoint and video presentations. Also being phased out.
WXGA - 1280x800 (HD) - Enough detail to handle smaller text or HD video e.g. Excel Spread Sheets
WUXGA - 1920 x 1080 or 1920 x 1200 (Full HD) - Great detail, perfect for all presentations and high quality video's
UHD - 3840 x 2160 (4K) - The newest and highest quality resolution. Great for very high quality projection such as CAD or highly detailed architectural drawings. Primarily this resolution is used for home theatre but there are some high-end business projectors starting to utilise this high resolution.

Projectors with the WUXGA resolution are now available below $1000 so have been becoming increasingly popular for religious services. If you are on a low budget the WXGA resolution tends to be a few hundred dollars cheaper so great value.

What do the PC Free and Wireless features mean?

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PC Free and Wireless functions are two relatively new technologies to be included in select presentation projectors. PC Free allows the unit to project a presentation, image or some video files without the need to connect a computer or any other AV device. The correctly formatted files can be loaded onto a USB flash drive or SD Card, which is then connected directly to the projector. The projector can only read certain file types, some projectors may only be able to display a picture file while others can display some Microsoft PowerPoint slides or PDF files. PC Free is a great option for teachers that have many sessions or presentations a day and do not wish to carry around both a projector and a computer.

Wireless connectivity allows the projector to connect to a computer without the need for cabling. Wireless typically transmits at a low frame rate so is only suitable for presentations and photo's, not for motion (video/movies). There are several types of wifi technologies in use with Miracast currently being one of the most commonly used. Wireless can be more difficult to set up and has more limitations than the usual cabled connection so we recommend not to rely 100% on it.

Is there anything else to look out for?

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If you plan on installing the projector on the church ceiling or high up on a beam then 'throw distance' will become a factor to be aware of. Many projectors will require around 3.2m distance for a 2 metre wide image, but this can vary so let us know if you need a specific distance for a current image size. Check out our Throw Distance Blog for some further information. Just Projectors usually includes a Throw Distance Chart on the Information pages for each projector to help compare the required distances of each model.

What projectors do you recommend for church use?

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The team at Just Projectors are constantly testing new releases to determine the best projectors for Church and House of Worship use. Below we list a range of models we recommend you consider. As always if you have any queries feel free to get in contact with us.