Adventist Television Network – Africa Office
Guidelines for acquiring satellite downlink equipment for Africa
General statement regarding purchasing of all equipment
Since the establishment of our satellite downlink network in Africa some years back, there have been many changes. Equipment that previously had to be imported is now available in many countries. Prices have come down. In the light of these changes, we advise the following:
1 Give preference to purchasing in your own country. There are important reasons for this.
a) You want good service and availability of these products over many years.
b) You need “after-sales” service (e.g. warranty, spares )over a long period from local suppliers in your country.
c) Imported items can often turn out to be more expensive because of some "hidden costs", such as documentation, transport, customs duties, etc. which must be carefully taken into account to arrive at the “true cost”. If the true cost is at least 20% below that of a local product, it may be worthwhile.
Ideally these should be persons who have qualified as trainers for ATN. Their task would be to:
a) Investigate equipment available locally
b) Compare the specifications of such equipment with the minimum specifications on the ATN website
c) Request ATN Africa Office for advice, if required
d) Limit the range of receivers to not more than 2 or 3 different brands, to ensure better buying power and technical support.
e) Make a recommendation to the Union Satellite co-ordinator regarding what equipment should be purchased
f) If required, such teams should be responsible for facilitating the installation and testing of such equipment to be available at the required time.
g) During the campaign, such teams could offer a “Help Desk” service to viewers (separate document available on this) by telephone in each Union.
Please note that very precise specifications for all items of equipment are provided in the Technical Section of the ATN web site
These should be at least 2.3m in diameter and conform to the requirements for C-band reception. Your technical team should inspect dishes available, looking for the following points:
a) Demonstrated ability to receive a good strong signal
b) Ability to stand up to storms and wind
c) Adequate rustproofing
d) Strong construction (able to withstand wind & storms, etc.)
a) Conformance with minimum specifications. Check especially that Left and Right side of channels can be selected for language choice
b) Where warranty support will be obtained
c) Time taken to repair
d) Whether another receiver can be lent to you during repairs
e) Whether a swop-out agreement is included
f) Where spares and maintenance will be obtained
For Africa, Asia & Europe, the Manhattan Skyline receiver can be purchased from the UK under a world-wide purchase agreement with ATN. However it should be noted that for warranty & later repairs the receiver would have to be returned to the UK, which could be costly and take time.
To order via the church purchasing network, see "How to buy" n the Technical section of our web site.
Benefits and reasons to purchase projectors:
a) Big Impact – Your broadcast will have a much greater impact on your audience than using even large TVs.
b) Professional image – Research has shown that those who use high quality visual materials and equipment are perceived as being more professional. This attracts the upper classes in each society.
c) Expandability. You can usually expand your audience and continue using the same projector (assuming that it is powerful enough).
d) Presenters (Pastors, Elders, Teachers, etc) in future will want to use PowerPoint and other computer-based programs in churches, as research shows that people learn better through their eyes than their ears.
|
Thinking
about the costs
|
|
When thinking about the cost of a projector, people naturally think of the purchase price. However, what they often forget are the benefits (listed above) which extend over usually 5 or more years. For example: A new projector costs $1800 and has 1000 ANSI Lumen rating (the small Sharp Projectors we previously obtained were 100 ANSI Lumens, and a lamp life of 2000 hours (if treated with care). Assume that a church uses the projector for 4 hours every week for 50 weeks in every year. That is 200 hours per year. The projector lamp could last 10 years! If we assume it last 6 years, the original cost of $1800 can be spread over 6 years, making it $300 per year, or $180 per year if spread over 10 years. From the above it can be seen that your church reaps major benefits by having a video projector – it is a long-term asset, and that the cost per year is relatively low in relation to the benefits. The problem is usually in finding the money, which is dealt with in the next section. |
Ideas for funding projectors
1 Loans
Churches may be able to obtain these from their Conference / Union, or business persons in the church, for repayment over a period of time.
2 Donations
If your church is involved in community welfare or education work, it should not be difficult to obtain donations from Aid agencies and Donor countries towards a “package” for such work, which could include a video projector. See proposal at the end of this document.
Specifications for purchasing
BRIGHTNESS
The most important feature is the power or brightness
of the projector, which is measured in ANSI Lumens. The best method of comparison
between projectors is by doing a "shoot-out", side by side. Low powered
projectors will be from 100 - 300, while the medium powered ones will be from
400 - 900, and high powered 1000+. Get advice from your Satellite Co-ordinator
or ATN Technical Adviser who will have experience with this.
COMPUTER INPUT
A further consideration is whether only video
input will be used (from VCR, Satellite Receiver and DVD player), or whether
data input is required (for computers using Power Point presentations,
for example. We strongly recommend that, you buy a projector which has both.
Sources for purchasing
|
USED PROJECTORS
|
NEW PROJECTORS
|
|
a) Local dealers – keep in contact with them. Offer to buy “trade-ins” directly from customers wanting to buy new projectors b) ATN Africa buys used projectors in South Africa and can ship them to you at cost. Contact us for details. |
a) Local dealers – be sure the brand names are well known (Sony, Sanyo, Panasonic, etc.) b) ATN Africa can arrange beneficial pricing for quantities of 5 or more. |
Feel free to consult with us before buying projectors.
If you are offered a used projector, you can check its specifications on www.projectorcentral.com
Objective: To empower our churches to serve and uplift their communities by the use of audio-visual technology to inform and educate regarding health, lifestyle and other topics of interest to such communities.
Introduction: Our churches can significantly enhance and expand their service to their communities by offering attractive, well-designed, audio-visual programs covering many topics relating to “life issues” which meet real needs. In this way the church can increase its involvement in the life of the community, and make more friends.
Existing strengths: Our churches have many members who care about their community and have the motivation to be involved in programs to educate and uplift them.
Existing weaknesses: Such churches do not have the financial resources to acquire the audio-visual equipment and materials to serve their communities in meeting felt needs in their own languages.
Sourcing of Audio-Visual materials: In addition to existing materials from Adventists sources, such as ATN programs, some research needs to be done to locate Video / DVD materials from other sources to meet local needs.
Proposed plan to empower churches:
Donors
should be approached to supply the following “package” to participating churches:
1
Sets of Video or DVD materials
which can be presented in the local languages
2
Video / DVD player
3
Video Projector able to be used
in daylight
4
Projection screen
The
cost of such a package would be in the range $3000 - $3500 USD assuming that
Video /DVD materials can be purchased.
Qualifying conditions
Churches are more likely to be successful in their requests for such packages by meeting the following conditions:
1
Research into the needs of the
community by surveys, seeking the advice of health & welfare officials,
and carefully documenting such needs.
2
Undertaking to operate these
community programs for a minimum period of 2 years.
3
Reporting on programs given,
attendance and tangible evidence of their success.
Suggested donor organizations: ADRA and countries / organizations interested in improving the level of health and education in Africa
Written by Errol van Eck, Africa representative, ATN.
Press BACK to return