Regardless of your church's situation, it's rarely convenient to place your video sources (such as your computer running worship media software) close to your video projector, and long lengths of VGA cable can get expensive. Several companies have created a way to convert the video signals into a format that can be transmitted cleanly over inexpensive CAT5/5e cable. I recently had a chance to look at one of these solutions from Magenta Research.
Magenta's MultiView STx transmitter (MSRP $235) takes a video signal from a standard computer VGA connector and an audio signal presented through a 1/8- inch stereo phone jack, and transmits the signal over CAT5/5e cabling. The maxi- mum supported resolution is 1,920x1,200 resolution, and maximum distance is up to 2,000 feet.
The MultiView 500A receiver (MSRP of $295) is the second piece of the system, accepting the video signal from CAT5/5e cable and turning it back into a VGA video signal. Cable lengths up to 500 feet are possible for this specific receiver, and it has a maximum resolution of 1,366x768 at 500 feet. The only video configuration options are for cable length and signal type. Video signals over CAT5 can be affected by the cable length, and you have to tell the MultiView 500A receiver how long the cable is to allow it to compensate. You also have to tell the unit what type of video it will be receiving: RGBHV, composite, S-video or component.
We used the Magenta MultiView STx transmitter and MultiView 500A receiver in a church environment for a theatrical production where the cable run was approximately 200 feet. The units integrated seamlessly into the system and performed exactly as promised. They did an excellent job of routing our video signals in this temporary application. The configuration process for the Magenta MultiView STx transmitter and MultiView 500A receiver was trivial, and the video signals came through crisp and clean without any need for adjustment. If you're looking for a simple way to get your video signals from point A to point B, the Magenta MultiView systems are definitely worth checking out.
