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Worship
Chapelwood United Methodist Church: Making the
Most of Technology
Chapelwood United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas, has grown
from just 19 committed members in 1948 to a congregation of over 5000
today, yet they still consider themselves a ”neighborhood friendly
church”. The facilities are state-of-the-art and include extensive
education areas, a large sanctuary, fellowship hall, chapel, and
library.
When Chapelwood decided
to implement digital signage, they approached Front & Center
Technologies, Inc. “We had an issue with some plasmas installed by
another provider and Front & Center took great care of us. When we
decided to expand our system we wanted to give them our business,”
comments Toby Dagenhart, Director of Communications for the church.
Chapelwood had clearly
defined objectives for the new system and knew it had to (1) deliver
dynamic and timely information throughout the facility; (2) serve a busy
environment and reach out to a varied audience; (3) handle a variety of
production-grade content; (4) be accessible, flexible, expandable and
easy to use; and (5) fit the available budget.
Each of these
requirements was satisfied with a solution built around Visix’s AxisTV
digital signage application. “We chose AxisTV because it met all of our
communication needs. Our IT Manager saw a demo of the product at a
conference and brought me some literature. When I researched our
options, I knew we wanted to go with AxisTV. We actually insisted that
each integrator include the AxisTV product in their solution,” furthers
Dagenhart, who manages the AxisTV system.
Dagenhart runs a group of seven people, four
of whom create and manage AxisTV content. The talented communications
team produces AxisTV bulletins, videos in MPEG format, Flash® animations
and sophisticated graphic designs – all of which are broadcast over 20
flat panel displays ranging from 27” to 42” in size. The displays are
placed in common areas throughout the facility, as well as the nursery
and some meeting rooms.
Front & Center supplied a unique design that
includes an AxisTV Professional Content Server running version 6.2 of
the software, CAT-5 distribution, and three Visix Rack-Mount Channel
Players routed through a matrix switcher that allows any content item to
be delivered to any of the displays in the church. Todd Green with Front
& Center elaborates, “We’re known for being network-centric and for
being creative in our integration designs. What goes on behind the
scenes is much more important than just hanging a plasma on a wall. Our
knowledge of networks, production gear, distribution and audiovisual
support combined to offer Chapelwood more than the typical AV supplier.”
Chapelwood was also attracted to Front &
Center because of their focus on client relationships. Toby Dagenhart
notes, “Other integrators that we approached seemed to be focused on
much larger projects. We didn’t want to be the ‘little fish’ on their
roster. Front & Center took a sincere interest in our business. We’ve
worked with larger integrators in the past, but they would send out a
different person each time and there didn’t seem to be any project
management or oversight. Front & Center sends the same team to our
facility each instance and they have always been on top of our needs.”
AxisTV was the logical choice for the
project for many reasons. The combined hardware and software solution
and the extensive features of the application appealed to both Front &
Center and Chapelwood. Green explains, “The client wanted quality as
close to hi-def as possible. AxisTV’s delivery quality for both video
and audio is very good. Also, AxisTV’s integration of Dean Evans and
Associates scheduling software is unmatched. This was a key selling
point. The fact that we had their EMS Professional® schedules updating
automatically in just a few minutes was really impressive.”
The simple, flexible AxisTV software
appealed to everyone on the integration team. “The product is designed
to be user-friendly. The fact that it is Web-based means it can be
accessed from anywhere within the facility. The flexibility to manage
communications so effortlessly was extremely attractive to Chapelwood,”
comments Green. “Also, their graphic designers are able to import
complex designs while other users can easily create attractive bulletins
within the system. The range of features the software provides combined
with its competitive price allowed us to come up with a tailored
integration solution that made everyone happy.”
The church is taking
full advantage of their AxisTV system. In addition to videos and
graphics, they also use their digital signage to provide overflow
coverage (IMAG) of worship sessions and special events. Informative
tickers reinforce announcements and keep viewers
up to date. “This is a unique situation where a church is really
thinking outside the box in order to reach every person who comes
through their doors. They’re using every available feature of AxisTV for
the greatest impact. As a systems integrator, I’m happy to see a client
maximizing the technology they’ve purchased,” furthered Green.
Flexibility is the key
to Chapelwood’s communications. The system may be broadcasting
information for school classes in the morning, running announcements for
meetings and groups in the afternoon, and providing coverage of worship,
concerts and community programs in the evening. With so much going on,
timely delivery of information is critical.
“Prior to this system,
we used to take our graphics and print posters to be hung throughout the
facility,” Dagenhart explains. “AxisTV saves us time and printing costs.
We’re able to post information well in advance of when we had to print
notices and we don’t have to worry about when to take the posters down.
AxisTV takes care of all of that.”
“The fact that we have
dynamic content verses static images is important. We often see people
standing in front of the plasmas just taking in all of the information.
You certainly never saw someone standing and staring at a poster for
very long.”
In the future,
Chapelwood hopes to create a library of backgrounds for each ministry
and allow other contributors to create and submit content for publishing
using AxisTV’s built in approval hierarchy. “The various ministries are
enthusiastic and always excited to get their content published on the
system,” notes Dagenhart. As the church continues to grow their
facilities, they hope to expand the digital signage system as need
dictates and budget allows. Dagenhart predicts, “AxisTV is very
effective. We’ll turn to Front & Center Technologies and AxisTV for our
future needs.”
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