Sending Video to Multiple Screens

If you don’t have experience in video ministry and are planning to install multiple projectors or screens of any kind in your church read further. A common mistake among those starting out cold turkey with video equipment is to take a primary video feed and split it between two screens without amplification. When you split a cable into two cables, the signal does not remain 100% strength on each. It splits the strength of the signal and divides it between the two. The screens will display your video feed, however the picture will be dimmed to 50% of the original output.

The old school way was to install an amplifier on each line after the split. This was cost intensive and hard to maintain. Today, you can purchase one distribution amplifier that can meet most or all of your needs for $150.00 or less. The distribution amp takes an input signal, splits it and amplifies the signal to 100% on multiple outputs. There are plenty of these devices out on the market. Beware of spending too little or too much. I try to stay within the $100-$200 range for longevity and good quality.

Sample Distribution Amps by Cable Type

• RCA – Video/Audio – 7 Outputs – $99.00
  • If you’re on a tight budget, use coax cable with RCA adapters for long cable runs. Coax is cheap, shielded and carries a good signal for hundreds of feet.
• S-VIDEO + RCA – Video/Audio – 4 Outputs – $149.00
• VGA – Video Only – 2 Outputs – $154.95
• HDMI – Video Only – 2 Outputs – $129.99

This is not a comprehensive list, but simply a means to get your feet wet. Make sure to do your own research for your specific system. Read customer reviews and try to speak to a local church who has a system installed.

One Last Note

Beware of video to CAT5 converters as they place two devices inline from your video room to your screen. My rule-of-thumb is to keep a solid cable from output to input if at all possible. The more gadgets you use to get your signal to your screen, the more headaches you will have when one of them goes bad. If you have any questions, please email me. I am not the video expert, but I’ve been through the school of hard knocks setting up a video ministry cold turkey.