How to plan AV for a church or worship space
Worship spaces are deeper and brighter than meeting rooms, and the back row is much farther from the screen. That changes the sums.
This guide covers screen size, projector brightness and speaker coverage for sanctuaries, fellowship halls and classrooms.
Screen size for lyrics and scripture
Size the picture for the back row. For text, the picture should be at least one sixth as tall as the distance to the farthest seat. A back row 60 feet away needs a picture 10 feet tall, about 20 feet on the diagonal.
That is beyond any TV. The usual answers are a projector, an LED wall, or two side screens with extra displays partway back for the rear seats.
Projector brightness in a bright room
Sanctuaries have windows and stage lighting, so plan for a lights-on room. A 200-inch 16:9 screen is about 119 square feet and needs roughly 7,100 lumens.
Work out the mounting position from the lens throw ratio. That 200-inch screen is about 14.5 feet wide, so a 2.0 lens sits 29 feet back.
LED walls
LED walls stay bright in daylight, where projection washes out. Choose the pixel pitch from the nearest seat: with the front row 15 feet away, a pitch around 4 mm looks smooth.
Speakers
Ceiling speakers suit fellowship halls, lobbies and classrooms with ceilings under about 15 feet.
A main sanctuary with a high ceiling usually needs loudspeakers mounted at the front and aimed at the seats. Speech is hard to keep clear in a large, echoing room, so have that part designed by a specialist.