Vista Spyder Helps Northside Christian Church Fulfill Mission

From its start in the basement of a house to using the Vista Spyder X20 0808 digital media processor for audiences up to 6,000 every weekend, New Albany, Indiana's, Northside Christian Church has come a long way in spreading the gospel. And experience told Ted W. Roberts, director of communications for the church, that the Spyder was the best choice.

"Having owned an event production company, I was familiar with Vista and used some of its earlier products," said Roberts. "When I came here, the church leadership gave me the latitude to evaluate the equipment we had, what we were trying to achieve, and to make sure we had the right tools for the job. The equipment also had to be user-friendly because we have a lot of non-technical people using it. What we were using was not user-friendly. I felt confident Vista would give us a much higher degree of success than we were experiencing."

Northside Christian Church has a 52' Stewart primary blended screen and two 26' outboard screens in. DPI projectors feed the screens from sources including three cameras (one handheld and two in-studio configurations) for live coverage, and three Mac computers for graphics and digital media content. The equipment is also used for concerts and special events with additional input sources pre-wired.

"Vista was generous enough to send out a technician and Spyder demonstration system, which we hooked up to our screens," Roberts recalled. "In very short order, the Spyder was online and working flawlessly. Vista also did a great job training our volunteers; it was easy for the volunteers to engage with the system and use it in a creative manner. User-friendliness is vital: it defeats our purpose if, every weekend, operating the screen switcher is a miserable experience for our volunteers." Roberts is impressed with Vista's post-sale support. "Vista Systems provided solid documentation and their customer service is excellent. It could take two or three weeks to hear back from the previous equipment vendor we had, but Vista is very responsive."

He sees the Spyder playing a big role in the church's overall goal. "As a church, our goal is spreading the gospel, but as technical individuals it's important to have a tool that integrates seamlessly with what the pastor is saying without being a distraction. That's what the Spyder does - it helps fulfill the church's mission."