Bayside Community Church is a fast-growing church with six campuses across the Florida Gulf coast from Sarasota to the Tampa Bay area. Having met on a Bayside production crew, Crown Design Group founders Ben Graham and Garrett Walker have been taking care of the church’s AV needs ever since.

In 2018, Bayside approached Crown Design Group with two challenges. The church had begun construction on an office building in Bradenton, FL and was ready to outfit it from top to bottom with leading equipment. A key component in the leading-edge design would be easy, centralized control throughout the building.

“We planned out a foolproof way of controlling everything over Ethernet,” said CDG Owner/Partner Garrett Walker. “Audio, music players, display, timers, source selection – everything needed to work seamlessly and with centralized control.”

The complex build-out include a massive array of AV equipment. On the display side, Bayside wanted a large-screen display and laser projector for their central command room; multiple large-screen displays for meeting rooms and offices; and touchscreen monitors for tactical control of media players and recording decks.

“We decided on the Q-SYS software platform as our central control unit,” said Walker. “We needed displays that would work seamlessly with the system. We needed it to be foolproof.”

What’s more, said Walker, the displays needed to be top-notch commercial quality that could handle 24/7 workloads without fail. The final requirement: a high-quality laser projector with enough lumens to shine brightly in rooms with lots of ambient light. And of course, it all had to meet their budgeted price points.

Never having needed to integrate display functionality over LAN, Crown turned to their distributor for ideas. The top recommendation: ViewSonic.

“ViewSonic had a variety of display sizes with the LAN control capability we needed,” said Walker. “And they were good, commercial-quality displays we could count on handling the demands of the job.”

“It’s one of the closest short throw projectors that I know of at that brightness,” said Walker. “And the price point for the brightness output was outstanding.”

Crown chose a selection of 20 ViewSonic CDE Series Commercial Displays for use in offices and meeting rooms across the installment:

• ViewSonic CDE4803 48’’ Full HD LED commercial display
• ViewSonic CDE5510 55’’ 4K Ultra HD commercial display
• ViewSonic CDE6510 65’’ 4K Ultra HD commercial display
• ViewSonic CDE7500 75’’ 4K Ultra HD commercial display

The 55” and 65” displays were installed in offices and meeting rooms. Those destined for walls mounted securely with the ViewSonic WMK-047-2 commercial display wall mount. The 75” CDE7500 was installed in the pastor’s office, which was furnished with a conference table and used for presentations as well as viewing services.

Along the way CDG encountered a small stumbling block. Two rooms slated for projection had trickier requirements than anticipated. Ambient light conditions mandated high lumens. But the placement was tighter than expected, and ultra-short throw became a must. The client wanted the long lifespan and quick on-off of laser projection. And the budget was tight.

ViewSonic once again presented the solution: The ViewSonic LS830 laser projector paired with the ViewSonic BCP120 BrilliantColorPanel™ projection screen.

“It’s one of the closest short throw projectors that I know of at that brightness,” said Walker.
“And the price point for the brightness output was outstanding.”

Designed to enhance ultra-short throw projection, the BCP120 BrilliantColorPanel™ projection screen added important benefits in rooms with hard-to-control ambient light. By diffusing ambient light and fully reflecting projected colors, the BCP screen delivered vivid images, accurate color and consistent brightness across the screen. Wide 160-degree viewing angles delivered consistent image quality for side viewers as well as those directly in front of the screen.

“That screen along with that projector was really the only way of making quality projection work in the tight space in the screening room,” said Walker. “And projection was critical because the client wanted the room to look and sound like content displayed via projection during services. It was important to be able to make the final edits and color correction in a similar environment.”

Also used in a multipurpose room with loads of ambient light, ViewSonic LS830 plus the ViewSonic BCP120 BrilliantColorPanel projection screen enabled efficient meetings and meaningful presentations. The ViewSonic J-WMK-304 Universal Wall Mount Kit enabled easy install of the LS830 laser projector inches away from the wall.

Rounding out the project, CDG used several ViewSonic desktop-sized displays across the facility for a variety of purposes, including multiple source viewing in the control room and controlling the recording deck.

These included the:

• ViewSonic TD2220 - 22" multi-touch Full HD LED monitor 
• ViewSonic TD2421 - 24” dual-point optical touch monitor
• ViewSonic VG2248 - 22” SuperClear® IPS panel technology with 1080p
• ViewSonic VG2748 – 27” SuperClear® IPS panel technology with 1080p

The offices, said Walker, turned out beautifully. The control over Ethernet worked like a charm, enabling easy centralized control over every component. The tech was such a great fit, in fact, that Bayside Community Church used nearly the exact same ViewSonic products when outfitting its new West Bradenton campus later that year.

“In addition to many of the same uses, at the church we used the ViewSonic CDE5510 55’’ 4K displays backstage with multiview from several sources so the musicians can see what’s happening before they come out on stage,” said Walker. “We used the smaller displays for the tech team.”

It was another massive integration task, this time a retrofit of a building formerly occupied by a grocery store.

“We covered lighting, display, control, and everything in between,” said Walker. “We worked with the client from concept to reality, working with the architects, producing the equipment list and installing it all.”

Once again, ViewSonic products played an important role in the installation’s success.

“Feedback has been great. The client loves the way the displays look, especially the thin bezel and overall minimalist look,” said Walker. “The control over LAN feature was again very important. Having the central control, not having to mess around with remotes, is incredibly helpful for them.”

As for the ViewSonic LS830 Laser Projector, said Walker, they can hardly believe that it can work so beautifully so close to the screen.

“They also love that it turns on quickly and delivers such great images in the classroom with large windows and lots of ambient light,” he said, adding that, “It was again that terrific combination of BCP120 projection screen and LS830 laser projector that works so well.”