Amarillo South Church

Creating Space Without Building

Turning away people before they can be accepted and loved because the building is full must keep a ministry staff awake at night. Events like "Bring a Friend Day" must give them fits, but what if everybody could be invited in without adding space or adding another service time? Amarillo South Church, in Amarillo TX, wanted to increase capacity without creating more overhead for buildings and service times. They set out to create an HD venue with a virtual pastor.

To evaluate the idea before investing in the equipment Amarillo South called Mankin Media Systems. We suggested renting the gear and utilizing it during the upcoming Friend's Day, and they selected an HD camera, HD pro-jector and screen. We helped set up the temporary venue for the event and trained the team to run the system. Once they saw how successful it was in the overflow environment, and how clear the HD picture was they decided to create a permanent HD installation.

Creating the HD venue required overcoming two challenges. First, the entire infrastructure was outdated and it required overhaul. We upgraded and ran new video tielines, purchased and configured new computer systems, in addition to cameras and projection, and eventually trained the technical staff to use the new HD equipment. The second goal was to ensure the venue in the gym didn't feel like a gym on Sunday mornings. We helped the church design and install removable soft goods to create a flexible venue that can be changed for different days of the week.

The goal and eventual outcome of transforming the gym into an immersive HD venue was accomplished because Amarillo South Church was able to evaluate the idea with Mankin Media Systems before permanently installing the venue. Our expertise in creating immersive environments and utilizing HD technology permitted the church to stop sweating bullets over everybody bringing a friend.