# Church media room



## MBD (Nov 21, 2014)

Hello everyone,

I am in charge of putting together the audio/video components for a new room we are currently building in our church in Ohio.

The room is 20 ft. by 20 ft. square, with an 8 ft. ceiling and carpet on the floor.

Here's what we think we would like to have:

TV screen/monitor mounted on the wall - we're thinking 80 inches
Receiver or amp to power the speakers
Speakers
DVD or Blu-Ray player with streaming capabilities
Ability to easily play content (audio or video) from a mobile device (iPhone or iPad, for example)

Maybe most importantly: we would like for anyone to be able to *easily* turn things on and use the remote(s) to play a DVD or watch TV, without much training, if any. It needs to be *simple.*

Some things I'm not sure of:

What size speakers to get
Where to put the speakers (corners of room on wall near ceiling?)
Do we need surround speakers?
Do we need a subwoofer?
The TV doesn't need to be a smart TV, right?

I would love to have suggestions as to the best way we can achieve our goals. I'm tech-minded, but not really knowledgeable about the latest audio/video systems. I have a 20 year old Onkyo system at home.

Thanks.


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

Has the church set aside a specific budget for the electronics?


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## MBD (Nov 21, 2014)

Yes, sorry I forgot to give the budget.

The budget is around $2,500, including the TV.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

MBD said:


> Some things I'm not sure of:
> [*]Do we need surround speakers?


Only if you want surround sound.




> [*]Do we need a subwoofer?


Only if you want low bass output at a substantial level (e.g. like you find in a movie theater).




> [*]The TV doesn't need to be a smart TV, right?


No, not if the blu-ray player streams. However, it’s hard to find a consumer-grade TV larger than ~39” that isn’t a smart TV. IOW, at a certain price level it comes standard.




MBD said:


> The budget is around $2,500, including the TV.


Well, now we have a problem. The cheapest 80” TV at Best Buy cost $3000. Depending on your expectations for sound quality and volume levels, you could easily double your budget without blinking an eye, especially if you go the full surround sound with subwoofer route. 

Regards,
Wayne


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

I'll start with 2 assumptions: the average person is most interested in a nice big picture and an extremely simple user interface. Given your budget, goals, and potential audience, I would suggest getting the biggest TV you can along with a basic model Blu-ray player. The easiest way to add [slightly] better sound while avoiding confusion during setup and operation is to connect a soundbar to the TV. $2000 will get you a very nice TV, which leaves $100 for a capable Blu-ray player, and $400 for a soundbar.

I had the same thought as Wayne when I saw your budget... an 80" TV may be too ambitious. Have you considered a projector instead?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Your room is about 4000 cubic feet in size, a soundbar is not going to fill it particularly if your going to fill it with 30 or more people. You might find a better option is going with a projector and screen. Many multimedia projectors have decent picture brightness but the trade off is poor black levels. The advantage is they cost less than a Home theater projector of the same brightness.

In order to keep the cost down I suggest going with some self powered speakers like these  as they have a built in mixer and amp.


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

tonyvdb said:


> Your room is about 4000 cubic feet in size, a soundbar is not going to fill it


Totally agree... just trying to keep it simple as requested. PA style speakers are a great option... I hadn't thought of that.

Agreed that a projector is a better way to stretch the budget into a larger screen and leave more for better audio.


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