Hitachi Projectors Help Montana Church Bring its Mission to Life

	Evangelical Free Church of Bozeman, Montana

Each Sunday, nearly 1,500 people attend services at the Evangelical Free Church of Bozeman, Montana, known locally as E Free. To ensure worshippers a clear view of the pastor as well as the lyrics to the worship songs, technical ministry director Kyle Blackmore relies on a lineup of Hitachi projectors he's purchased through CCI Solutions of Olympia, Washington.

At the front of the sanctuary, two Hitachi CP-WX8265 projectors display words as well as live video of the sermon in progress; at the rear of the sanctuary, another Hitachi projector is used as the confidence projector, beaming sermons, lyrics, and whatever else the person behind the pulpit needs to see in order to stay in synch with the worshippers. Those three projectors do the bulk of the church's heavy lifting, often operating for 12 consecutive hours on Sundays, beginning with the 8:00am service, but they constitute less than half of E Free's Hitachi inventory.

"It's the quality," said Blackmore. "When you're talking about projectors, there are distinct categories. We're not in the rock concert realm but we are at the high end of the business use category. We need HD and we need the lumens. Hitachi has that nailed."

While the three projectors in the sanctuary play a critical role, Blackmore uses Hitachi equipment throughout the building to help deliver on the church's mission to serve a community beyond its own membership. Whether for men's or women's ministries, recovery group meetings, an organization for home schoolers, summer camp organizers and attendees, or a worship group for students at nearby Montana State University, the church currently has three projectors mounted in classrooms and two projectors that are each stationed on carts and moved where they're needed.

Blackmore cites the many benefits of Hitachi projectors as the reason he plans to invest in additional units in the near future. Thanks to the self-cleaning components on the two ceiling-mounted projectors in the main sanctuary, he only has to go up on a ladder once a year. And, since Blackmore has the projectors networked, he knows exactly which groups are using which projectors and for how long, information he says could be useful should the church ever have to charge for space. Having the projectors networked also enabled him to program each unit to generate an email if it's left running, which prompts someone in the building to shut the computer down, saving power and extending the life of the bulb.

Blackmore's favorite benefit, however, is that Hitachi projectors can operate at a higher temperature without generating additional heat. "Our church was built in 1986 with a vaulted ceiling," he said. "That causes a big problem because the heat rises up and gets condensed right where the projectors are." Larger intake/outtake ports and better filters that don't clog as easily are two of the design features Blackmore credits with ensuring that excessive heat near the peak of the sanctuary's ceiling does not cause problems. "In addition to being affordable, requiring minimal maintenance, and having the high lumens that provide a great picture, our Hitachi projectors keep operating even in higher temperatures," Blackmore said. "All of which helps us continue to deliver what our members and people from the community have come to expect of us."

For more information on the Evangelical Free Church of Bozeman, visit www.efcb.org