June 9, 2010
Houses Of Worship Take Advantage Of New Video Switching Technologies
by Carolyn Heinze
Not that long ago, high-definition
video was something that only the
largest churches could afford. As
HD caught on, however, price points
decreased, rendering it more affordable
for smaller congregations.
|
|
Three FSR Eagle 200/HD
switchers were installed
by Summit Integrated
Systems at the Colonial
Baptist Church of
Wichita Falls, TX. An
Eagle is assigned to
each of three 8-foot by
14-foot screens arranged
in a nearly continuous
curve, enabling three
separate images or
one stretched moving
background.
| |
This price decrease has driven
manufacturers to develop HD systems
equipped with more features
that are tailored to specific applications,
such as those employed in the
house of worship environment. “As
the displays and the projectors have
come down in price, the rest of the
industry has adapted to that in trying
to come out with more high definition
equipment and features,” observed
Seth Teates, Mid-Atlantic sales manager
at switcher/scaler manufacturer
Analog Way. The overall video quality
that churches have access to today
has significantly increased, he added.
One common application that
churches make great use of is image
magnification (IMAG), which
enables congregation members seated
further away from the pulpit to enjoy
a close-up view of the pastor and
the worship team. This means that
churches demand good image quality
for a number of reasons, Teates noted.
“Image quality is imperative, because
the pastor wants to look good and it’s
the image of the church that’s being
displayed up there,” he said.
Latency, or lack thereof, is also high
priority, in order to avoid what Teates
labeled the ‘kung fu’ effect, referring
to the old movies where the actors’
lips were not synchronized with the
audio. “If you have a processor, you
might have great image quality but
if it’s delayed by three, four, or five
frames, reality does not match what’s
happening up there on the screens,”
he said. Good products, therefore, are
designed to provide high resolution
and low latency simultaneously.
|
|
A Ross Video Vision 3 QMD Multi-Definition Production Switcher and SoftMetal 3000
Series Video Server are used at Eagle Brook Church’s main campus in Lino Lakes, MN.
| |
Jeff Moore, executive vice president
of sales and marketing at production
equipment manufacturer Ross Video,
noted that many churches have established
satellite campuses, which offer
portions of the service that takes place
at the ‘main’ church, and integrate them
into services that are tailored to remote
congregations. “We are supplying delay
equipment to delay these services by 10
or 15 minutes so that the remote location
has the ability to get ready for what’s
coming up, because things don’t always
go exactly according to schedule,” he
explained. This gives the production
team at the remote site time to react and
adjust their production accordingly.
One of the challenges that the
industry has been forced to deal with is
the non-broadcast equipment that has
made its way into video production,
noted Erik Iversen, product applications
manager in the image processing
department of the video technology
developer Barco. “For example, there
are Blu-ray players and laptops that
are taking the place of big, expensive
title generators,” he said. This has
produced a wide variety of signals
to process—a challenge that Barco
has responded to with its FSN video
switcher. “That is one of the biggest
questions that we’re answering right
now: How to deal with not only analog
and digital signals as well as high
definition and standard definition,
and then converting them all, and trying
to create one picture out of it.”
While HD is becoming more accessible
to a greater number of organizations,
it has yet to be adopted by
everyone. “There are still many congregations
out there today that can’t
afford high definition,” Teates said.
“There will continue to be a reduction
in the price of technology, and we are going to have better image quality,
lower latency and more features, and
the price will continue to trickle down
to open this up to smaller congregations
with fewer financial resources.”
As smaller facilities start to adopt
higher-end technology at a lower price,
the focus is on simplifying it all. “It’s
going the way of the corporate presentations,
where we have a lot of different
things coming in that we need to deal
with quickly and easily,” Iversen said.
People are starting to be less interested
in glitzy effects, and more on simple,
solid presentations. “They don’t need all
of the fancy transitions—they need to
deliver a message. Simplifying the engineering
behind that is a big trend that
we’re going to see, moving forward.”
Tailor Made
Because most churches have a board of
directors, or board of elders, it’s necessary
for systems contractors to navigate
through the powers that be in order to
reach the right person—the one with the
power to sign off on an integration project.
While this applies to almost every
church, not all churches are striving for
the same results when it comes to the
actual technology that they purchase.
Seth Teates of Analog Way noted that
in order to achieve the best results, systems
contractors must spend the necessary
time learning about the church and
its goals. “Some churches cater more to,
for example, deaf people, and they may
need more IMAG and closed captioning,"
he said. "For another church, that
may not be as important.”
Barco’s Erik Iversen encourages
systems contractors to work closely with
manufacturers, especially when they are in
the initial stages of a project. “They should
involve the manufacturer early in the game
before the specifications have been made,”
he said. “We know our products inside
and out and can provide the right solution,
and perhaps suggest some other ways of
enhancing the church’s experience. If we
get involved in the action sooner, we can
provide a much better solution.”
New Heights
|
|
The video production room at The Heights Baptist Church is centered around the FOR-A
HVS-300HS HD/SD video switcher.
| |
As part of its recent upgrade to HD, The
Heights Baptist Church, located in Richardson,
TX, installed a FOR-A HVS-300HS HD/
SD video switcher. Previously, video production
at The Heights was standard definition.
Now, from the camera through switching and
processing, the worship facility features an
all-HD workflow.
About 5,000 parishioners attend two
services each Sunday, plus special concerts
throughout the week, at The Heights.
For presentation within the church, the
HVS-300HS switches between four Canon
XL H1S HD camcorders and one Sony
HD robotic camera for image magnification
(IMAG). There is a different crew of
volunteers for each service, consisting of
five camera operators, CG operator, audio
operator, technical director, and director.
Digital Resources, an integrator based
in Southlake, TX, provided the installation,
and an engineer from FOR-A came out to The
Heights to train the production staff. “With
volunteer crews, the key feature is how intuitive
the HVS-300HS is for a non-professional
to adapt to,” said Bobby Dennis, technical
director at The Heights. “Yet it’s not limited—
we can do anything. The sophistication of the
FOR-A has been wonderful visually.”
Carolyn Heinze is a freelance writer/editor.
|