Church Digital Signage – HD Not Required

The consumer television market push to HD (High Definition) displays has spilled over into the commercial display market, with the term "Digital Signage" becoming an actual industry unto itself. This technology is a boon for churches eager to drive information and compelling content to every area of their church facilities. The options for flat-panel displays providing inexpensive, clear and bright images for high-traffic areas of the church are numerous.

The cost-to-size ratio of display technology has been an interesting study in large-scale supply-and-demand, pushing the technology curve at an astonishing rate. Research firms Pacific Media Associates and TFC Info have both continued to keep a hawk's eye on the flat-panel and projector market. Their studies find that increases in HDTV sales are still up despite the economy and that the growth rate of flat panel sales still exceeds 80% annually.

Scientific research has shown that churches tend to adopt LCD over plasma technology when it comes to flat-panel displays. Though the technology to reduce burn-in (a ‘ghosting' effect leaving a pattern, such as text, forever present on the screen) on plasmas has changed drastically, many early adopters of plasma technology have been burned (sorry, bad pun) by the ghosting of burn-in on their expensive displays and have since adopted the safety of LCD.

Though LCD does not yet compete with the size of plasmas, enough interest in the consumer market continues to drive LCD manufacturers to try and meet demand and expectations for large LCD flat panels with brighter pictures and better fast-motion rendering. The latest crop of 240 Hz refresh LCD's are, visually, often compared to the best plasma models. But for many digital signage applications basic "PowerPoint" (or Keynote for the Mac fans out there) slide presentations have required little more than a large, bright display to share information in public spaces.

A point of confusion is that not all flat panels are high-definition (HD). The widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9 leads many to believe that widescreen equals HD. The truth is that the resolution, that is, the number of pixels that make up the image, may not be much higher than their current old-fashioned TV. This is reflected in the price, with many of these non-HD displays selling for under $800.

The digital signage market continues to be a major business initiative in retail, with advertising revenues quickly paying for the cost of the technology. Innovations in both the content creation and delivery systems continue to provide digital signage users, including churches, with strategic ways of sending the right information to the right demographic at the right time. This kind of highly intentional communication far exceeds the 8 1/2" x 11" papers tacked to a corkboard in a church hallway.

Still, the underlying cost of HD content creation, distribution and display is more than many churches are willing to spend; opting instead to live with either Standard Definition (SD) video or computer-resolution content for venues where ultimate picture quality is not necessary for greater viewing distances. Many churches are finding inexpensive ways of leveraging these low-cost displays, including sending a simple PowerPoint slideshow over Ethernet cable to multiple displays.

With the increased affordability and better quality consumer models that are now available, the opportunity for churches to leverage this technology has never been better.