United Methodist COR Chapel
Leawood, KS

History

The original chapel for the Church of the Resurrection (COR) was built in 1990. As church membership grew, the church added a slightly larger sanctuary, and so converted its original chapel into a gathering hall. By 2004, the church had grown to such a degree that a larger, 3,200-seat sanctuary was opened. This allowed the original chapel to be converted back to a small, intimate space used for weddings, funerals and other special-event services that wouldn’t require the space of the larger sanctuary.

Challenge

Having grown accustomed to the audio visual and lighting technologies available in the larger sanctuary, church members came to demand it in the smaller chapel as well. To meet this expectation, AVI Systems was tasked with designing a solution to support audio visual reinforcement, event video recording, and theatrical lighting for this small, intimate setting.

Solution

AVI Systems began by working with COR facility personnel to establish a budget through AVI Systems Executive Overview process. We then worked closely with the contracted architect and general contractor, KC Heritage Construction Company, through the system design engineering phase. This step allowed the architect to incorporate full provisions for the audio visual and lighting (AVL) plan.

Project Details

AVI Systems designers established locations for the floor boxes, positions of lighting instruments, power requirements, audio visual functionality and much more. This process allowed the speaker cluster to be placed in an unobtrusive location and painted to match the rest of the architecture. In addition, it allowed for rear projection screens to be installed in a high ambient light environment with projectors re-tasked by the client.

The projection system was intended for visual support materials during the service, such as for words in songs or scripture, and illustrations during sermons. These projection screens would also act as banners during more solemn events such as funerals.

Since this space would also be used for weddings, recording capabilities were another requirement. AVI Systems installed small remote-controlled cameras that were seamlessly integrated into the architecture. One camera was strategically placed above the altar area, allowing excellent close-up shots of couples at the altar from positions that would not be available to wedding videographers.

In addition to the altar camera, two additional cameras were set up to view the room from the back center and from one of the sides halfway between the back door and the altar. These positions offered shots that differed from the back camera and provided the best angle for special music.

A single control panel in the back of the room was set up to control the cameras and the projection screens. This would enable one operator to separately control all camera positions for recording purposes, and all aspects of the projection screen feeds and content, from a single location.

The system was designed to source content from a DVD/VHS player, a dedicated computer-based graphics system, a laptop computer input, 3 remote controlled cameras, an AV feed from the main sanctuary for overflow purposes, and any combination of the 24 audio channels available in an automated or traditional manual control mode.

The ability to provide manual or automated control of the audio was instrumental in allowing the space to be used by novices without staff or technical support. The automated audio feature was set to activate the wireless microphones and the lectern microphone with a preset, standard audio level. The control features were presented on a touch screen interface that also gave the novice user a basic volume control. In this automated mode, the chances of audio feedback were eliminated through the use of an audio processor that provided for audio mixing, equalization, compression/limiting, and/or feedback extermination.

Results

This project demonstrates AVI Systems' ability to provide a detailed design-build proposal to deliver projects for audio, video and theatrical lighting.

The budget originally established for this project was met with the client requesting additional features to be added that allowed the project to be completed within 4% of the original budget.

Beyond

The COR chapel is just one example of how AVI Systems implements our full range of audio visual integration capabilities. From hotels and convention centers to colleges and universities, and from broadcast and production studios to corporate facilities around the world, virtually every industry benefits from using leading-edge technology.

Contact us to discover how our engineers and technical support team can design a seamless, integrated system for your organization, too.