The Roland XS-82H Video Switcher Simplifies Workflow for the Life-Center Church in Tacoma

	A Roland XS-82H AV switcher, installed as part of an AV rack setup at Life-Center Church in Tacoma, Washington.

The Life-Center Church in Tacoma, Washington, asserts that "It's all about the people," and a recent addition to its AV infrastructure underscores exactly that. The church's Central campus, one of three in the Tacoma area, recently had a Roland XS-82H AV switcher installed. Along with a new Roland HT-RX01 HDBaseT Receiver -- with both components sold and installed by AV systems integrator Rose Media, in Seattle -- the church can now reliably run content from a number of sources across its campus to a multipurpose room that is used as a café and meeting space for the church and its school, and which is also part of a retirement and church-sponsored assisted-living community. Now, with high-definition video and audio able to traverse the campus, Life-Center Church has been able to extend what takes place in the sanctuary, using the cameras there as a source, as well as DVD and Blu-ray players -- or any other digital video or audio source -- and send it to the café, keeping dozens of residents and congregants there a part of the church's activities at any time.

"This makes a huge difference for them," says Chad Rose, owner and lead designer at Rose Media. "As part of a larger renovation of the building there, which is used as a common area, they wanted to add AV so it could feel like an extension of the church. The Roland switcher was the perfect choice for this because it can connect to virtually any kind of source, and it's so simple to operate. The Roland HT-RX01 HDBaseT Receiver enables us to connect to the main church building over a single Cat-5e cable, which very much simplifies AV signal transport. And there's a native HDBaseT output built into the XS-82H, which manages the conversion to HDBaseT, and which assures a reliable interconnection to the café's two Samsung flat-panel displays. The church's volunteers have no problems operating it, and the picture and sound quality are exceptional. It's a great choice for any church media system."

Josh Hamm, Life-Center Church's media director and online pastor, agrees: "The reason we bought the Roland XS-82H switcher is because it's so easy to operate. We have a number of different users at the school and the café, and they each have different levels of technical capability. The Roland switcher is so simple to use that we can leave anyone some very basic instructions and they're up and running within minutes. Its operation is clear and simple and fail-proof."

"These two components allowed us to create a complete signal-transport and switching system for the church," says Rose. "It's a great solution for a number of applications."

The Roland XS-82H AV switcher offers features such as seamless switching, a built-in PGM/PST mode for confident switching, enhanced control of settings of PinP windows in multi-mode, stabilized video output when switching modes, a matrix configuration for the audio mixer, expanded lock-out functions, support for maximum resolution of WUXGA and 1080p, eight digital inputs and eight analog inputs, and two, three, or four outputs according to the application.

The Roland HT-RX01 HDBaseT Receiver can be used as a receiver for the HDBaseT output from XS series multi-format matrix switchers. Using the RS-232C signal transmission function of the XS series lets the user transmit RS-232C signals input to the XS series device along with video and audio signals. Connecting an Ethernet cable to the HT-TX01 or HT-RX01 enables transmission of HDMI signals over distances of up to 100m. This makes it possible to connect video cameras, Blu-ray decks, switchers, and other source equipment to LCD monitors, projectors, and other display devices. In addition to HDMI signals, RS-232C signals can also be transmitted, making it possible to send control signals along with video and audio reducing system wiring.