PixelFLEX Joins the Washington Seventh-day Adventist Camp Meeting

	Photo: Washington Seventh-day Adventists Camp Meeting

With more than 18 million members, the Seventh-day Adventist church is one of the fastest-growing Christian denominations in the world. As a ministry, the church seeks to enable their community through education and outreach activities which includes their annual Camp Meeting conferences. Working with the Washington Seventh-day Adventist conference, technical director Bryan Shaner was looking to implement LED video technology into a revamped production design at the Auburn Adventist Academy, and he found his solution by using FLEXLite 6.9mm LED video from Nashville, Tennessee-based PixelFLEX.

"I've been working with the Washington Seventh-day Adventists Camp Meeting since about 1998 and we currently have about 110 churches in our organization," began Shaner. "Every year, each state holds their own conference where all the churches, schools, and organizations within that state congregate in one location, and in Washington we hold our Camp Meeting at the Auburn Adventist Academy. During the two-week conference, we have multiple events in various locations held throughout the day and we then use the gym for a general assembly area where this year we introduced the use of the FLEXLite LED video technology into our production design."

Built on the importance of meeting the needs of every client, FLEXLite LED from PixelFLEX is one of the highest resolution and curve-able LED displays on the market; capable of a 15-degree curve in any direction. With its bright, dense display and high refresh rate, FLEXLite LED video tiles are calibrated directly out of the box to help decrease failure and insure perfect color and brightness, plus its preview test button allows for easy viewing of signal and power connections.

"A couple of years back we first started talking about the possibility of using LED video but at that time the pixel pitch wasn't what we needed, so we purchased 10K projectors with a rear-screen mirror," continued Shaner. "Over the next few years we were never really happy with image quality and we were spending a lot of money on replacement lenses and filters. This year, we revisited the possibility of LED video and after looking at a couple of manufacturers we loved the ease-of-setup of the PixelFLEX technology and the fact that the content wouldn't get washed out when we layer in our stage lighting. Plus we would no longer have to worry about bulbs, mirrors, or filters, and the FLEXLite 6.9mm LED video works great."

As the decision was made to implement FLEXLite into the production design, Shaner began the load-in at the Auburn Adventist Academy without the assistance of a typical crew. Needing the video wall assembly process to move as smoothly as possible, he was surprised to find just how quickly the FLEXLite LED panels connect together along with the visual design possibilities they can create.

"Since we were no longer bound by projection technology, this year we decided to create two FLEXLite LED video screens with each measuring about 20' wide," added Shaner. "Once the product was onsite it was surprising how quickly I was able to assemble the walls with the assistance of one of our pastors who just happened to be walking by. I also love how using the FLEXLite technology gives us the ability to create any size or number of screens that we want, and the support from PixelFLEX is outstanding. When you've previously lived life with a projector you are constantly thinking about screen size and throw distance, but when you move into LED video that all goes away and you have so many options to now create dynamic visual content."

With the production design now complete, the 2016 Washington Seventh Day Adventists Camp Meeting opened its doors for the two-week celebration. Throughout the course of the event, Shaner watched as attendees and event organizers all marveled at the performance of the FLEXLite LED video, and he is proud that they have put their past design challenges behind them.

"Going into this design our biggest concern was the image quality and brightness because of our past experience with the projectors," concluded Shaner. "But on the contrary, when I turned the stage lighting on full, it didn't affect the image quality or brightness of the FLEXLite LED video wall at all. Everyone was extremely pleased because no matter if you were in the front of the house or the back, the image quality was crisp, clean, and consistent. When you consider the ease of set-up and the maintenance costs of LED video versus projection, there really is no comparison, and our PixelFLEX LED video wall looked phenomenal."