Case study · Church · Downtown Los Angeles · 2024
Screen, sound, lights, cameras: the whole room, in two weeks
A Korean church in downtown Los Angeles was renovating its sanctuary and replacing its AV at the same time. Not only the screen: sound, lighting and a four-camera livestream, fitted around the renovation schedule.
In May and June 2024 PixelPro Productions fitted out the sanctuary of a Korean church in downtown Los Angeles during its renovation: a Gloshine P2.5 LED wall of 72 cabinets (12 × 6, about 25 × 9.4 ft) on a custom aluminium frame, driven by a NovaStar MX30; four RCF HDL 6-A active line array modules; eight front lights; and four 4K PTZ cameras through a Roland V-160HD switcher for the church’s YouTube livestream. Everything went in over two weeks on site from 29 May 2024, timed against the renovation contractor’s schedule. It is the one church project so far where PixelPro supplied every system in the room.
At a glance
- Client
- A Korean church in downtown Los Angeles
- On site
- From 29 May 2024, two weeks
- LED
- Gloshine Blade P2.5 (BD2.5), 640 × 480 mm cabinets
- Size
- 12 × 6 cabinets: 7.68 × 2.88 m (25.2 × 9.4 ft), 72 cabinets
- Resolution
- 3072 × 1152
- Processor
- NovaStar MX30
- Structure
- Custom aluminium frame, legs through the stage to the concrete slab
- Sound
- 4 × RCF HDL 6-A active line array modules, two stacked each side
- Lighting
- 8 front lights
- Cameras
- 4 × 4K PTZ, Roland V-160HD switcher, livestream to YouTube
- Our scope
- LED wall and frame, sound, lighting, cameras and livestream
The brief
The church was renovating its sanctuary, new finishes and a new stage, and wanted the AV replaced at the same time. All of it: the screen, the sound, the lighting, and a livestream for the members who watch from home.
Most of our church work is the LED wall. This is the one project so far where we supplied every system in the room, which meant every system had to fit the same two weeks, inside someone else’s renovation.
Challenge 01
A door under the screen
Below the stage wall is the door to the baptistery, and the church needed it to stay in use. So the LED wall could not start at the floor: its lower edge sits 1.5 m up, high enough for the door to open beneath it.
The wall behind was part gypsum board, part timber, not built to carry 72 cabinets, and out of flat by about half an inch either way. So nothing hangs on it. We built a custom aluminium frame whose legs pass through openings cut in the stage and anchor to the concrete slab underneath with expansion bolts. The frame carries the weight and sets the flatness; the wall carries nothing.
The screen starts 1.5 m up, and the door beneath it still opens.
Challenge 02
No lift could get in
The sanctuary’s access ruled out a scissor lift, and the ceiling is high. The wall went up from heavy-duty scaffolding instead, which is slower and demands more care at height than a lift would. It was planned into the two weeks from the start.
Challenge 03
On the renovation contractor’s clock
The church was being redecorated around us. Install the equipment too early and the decorators risk damaging it; too late and we risk damaging finishes that are already in. Timing each system’s arrival against the renovation schedule was the real management job on this project.
This is where holding a General B contractor licence helps in practice: we read a renovation scope and programme the way a builder does, so the conversations with the contractor were short and nothing had to be done twice.
No rework, on either side.
Challenge 04
Four cameras, set up the way the church actually uses them
The livestream runs on four 4K PTZ cameras through a Roland V-160HD switcher to YouTube. Where each camera goes, what each one is for and which model suits each position all came from sitting down with the church’s own team to learn how they run a service. Once installed, each camera was given presets for the church’s real scenes, so an operator moves between them with one button.
Challenge 05
A long, narrow, stepped room
The sanctuary is deep and narrow, with tiered seating. We used RCF HDL 6-A active line array modules, two stacked each side, which throw evenly down the length of the room rather than filling the front rows and fading at the back.
The result
- The whole room from one contractor: LED wall, sound, lighting, cameras and livestream, in two weeks on site.
- A 25-foot P2.5 wall on its own frame, with the baptistery door beneath it still in use.
- A four-camera YouTube livestream with presets the church’s own team can run.
- Line-array sound that reaches the back of a long, stepped room.
- Installed mid-renovation, with no rework on either side.
How we build, level and finish LED frames is covered step by step in our Good Stewards Church case study.
Questions churches ask
Can an LED wall go above a door?
Yes. The wall does not have to start at the floor. At a Korean church in downtown Los Angeles the baptistery door is below the stage wall, so the 72-cabinet LED wall sits with its lower edge 1.5 m up on its own aluminium frame, and the door still opens beneath it.
Can you install an LED wall where a scissor lift cannot get in?
Yes, from scaffolding. At a church in downtown Los Angeles the access ruled out a lift and the ceiling was high, so the wall went up from heavy-duty scaffolding. It is slower and needs more care at height, and it is planned into the schedule from the start.
How does an AV installation fit into a church renovation?
By timing each system against the renovation schedule: too early and the equipment is at risk from the decorators, too late and the new finishes are at risk from the installers. At a church in downtown Los Angeles we coordinated with the renovation contractor throughout, and nothing was installed twice.
What does a church livestream need?
Cameras placed for the way the service is actually run, a switcher, and presets a volunteer can operate. At a Korean church in downtown Los Angeles we installed four 4K PTZ cameras through a Roland V-160HD switcher to YouTube, with presets for the church’s real scenes so shots change with one button.
We design and install LED walls like this across Southern California: structure, power and control, from one licensed contractor. LED video wall design and installation →
