House of Worship Productions

Video has become an important part of ministry.  Create inspiring live video with Broadcast Pix systems, whether it be for projection inside the sanctuary or broadcast on TV or the Internet. With innovative Fluent workflow tools on every system it's so easy for a solo operator to create a professional "broadcast TV" look with cameras, graphics, animations and clips.  And many of our church installations include integrated camera control, giving the operator complete control of robotic cameras. Join leading churches across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia that create broadcast quality pictures on a Broadcast Pix system.    Click here to download a HOW Solution Sheet.

Broadcast Pix User Reports

Broadcast Pix Granite 5000 Improves Productions at West Angeles Church of God in Christ
 

West Angeles Church of God in Christ, located just west of downtown Los Angeles and led by Bishop Charles E. Blake, is one of the largest churches in California, with more than 25,000 members and seating for 5,000. Recently, the church installed a new Broadcast Pix™ Granite ™ 5000 live video production system, which is used to stream live coverage of Sunday services to an online audience of more than 100,000 viewers per week and provide image magnification (IMAG) for the congregation.

Media director Will Hampton works with a staff of four and a group of dedicated volunteers on the four-camera HD production. Prior to its Broadcast Pix installation, West Angeles Church used an analog switcher and a variety of tape formats. Now, Hampton and his team have adopted a file-based workflow and are creating more advanced video productions.

“Broadcast Pix Granite 5000 has made our workflow much cleaner, and allows us to do other things now that we were not capable of before,” said Hampton. “Now we are able to key words over a picture, such as a live shot of our choir performance, while simultaneously showing song lyrics on the screen. This makes for a more interactive connection with our congregation.”

With Granite, Hampton is also able to incorporate footage from a DVD (16:9 or 4:3) into the production, even if new material is submitted at the last minute. “Additionally, we are now able to include Web sites and PowerPoint presentations with audio. Granite allows us to bring multiple signals into our program on Sunday,” he said. “For instance, our pastor has a major National Denominational Church Service during the first week of November in St. Louis. There is an hour between our Sunday morning services, during which people are just arriving to church and awaiting the start of next service. Now, with the Broadcast Pix, our congregation can view that service here in Los Angeles during that time.”

Laguna Designs, located in Placentia, Calif., provided the consoles for the West Angeles installation, while VMI, based in Garden Grove, Calif., designed and integrated the video production system. Bob Bolling, in-house engineer at VMI, said the Granite system helped keep West Angeles Church of God in Christ on budget. “Granite has 12 outputs,” he explained. “This made a huge difference, since it did the work of a large router.”

With the 2 M/E Granite 5000, Hampton feeds the IMAG screens and five stage monitors for the choir and deaf and hard of hearing, along with monitors for Bishop Blake and his wife, First Lady Mae L. Blake. Additional outputs feed the live Web stream, record decks, and various monitors around the building. For monitoring in the control room, the church uses a combination of Granite’s built-in Fluent™-View and an Apantec multi-viewer.

Abundant Life Family Worship Church Improves Video Production Quality with Broadcast Pix

Abundant Life Family Worship Church in New Brunswick, N.J., has installed a Slate™ 5000 video production system to improve the quality of its multi-camera video production and I-MAG (image magnification) capabilities. Every service at the church is recorded, and one sermon from each week is televised locally on a public access cable station. Abundant Life also streams its services live, and many sermons are available on demand at www.streamingfaith.com.

The Abundant Life control room is located near the entrance of the church and can comfortably accommodate a six-person production team. With volunteer crews, however, audio and video responsibilities are often handled by a much smaller crew. As a result, the built-in functionality of the Slate system has been a lifesaver, according to Dickenson Jean-Louis, sound technician and media director. “It can be a one-man show if we don’t have enough people,” he said. “We love the switcher.”

During productions, Abundant Life relies on Slate’s workflow tools, including the built-in Inscriber CG that is used to produce lower-thirds to identify Bishop George C. Searight and special guests. With Fluent™ Multi-View, the church was able to replace a collection of small CRT monitors with one LCD screen. Plus, Jean-Louis said playing video clips used to be complicated, but Fluent Clip Store has simplified the process. “Now it’s just seamless,” he said. “There’s no problem bringing in video. It’s so convenient.”

Before Abundant Life upgrade d to its Broadcast Pix system, programs were switched using an old Panasonic analog switcher. Entertainment Professionals Collective, LLC, which is based in Somerset, N.J., served as the dealer and integrator for the project, which was completed last fall. While Abundant Life is still producing its video projects in SD, Jean-Louis said the plan is to upgrade to HD – and continue to use the Slate 5000 – when the congregation moves into its new facility, which is currently under construction.

Broadcast Pix Improves Live Presentations, Video Productions for Jubilee Christian Center

Jubilee Christian Center in San Jose, Calif., is using the Slate™ 5000 video production system to produce in-house video presentations during services, as well as video productions for television and Internet audiences. Services are streamed live to Jubilee’s Web site, www.jubilee.org , and later broadcast on KTLN, which serves the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose market (DMA #6), and a leased access channel on the local Comcast cable system.

According to Jordan Forteza, Jubilee media director, the Broadcast Pix purchase was part of an overall migration to a tapeless high definition production workflow. The HD upgrade, co-designed and installed by Ted Foldvary of Dex Systems Engineering, process began last fall, and the new system went live in March. Beyond the Slate 5000, Jubilee invested in five Panasonic AG-HPX500 HD cameras and ProPresenter software for lyric and media presentations during services. Forteza said the upgrade has made a big impact on the quality of their video presentations.

Prior to the upgrade, Jubilee had an outdated, tape-based workflow built around DV and Beta SP formats. Now, three video feeds are recorded directly from the Slate 5000 to an AJA Ki Pro, including a backup recording of the live Internet webcast, a clean feed for the TV program edit, and camera ISOs. Jubilee personnel installed the new Slate 5000, which was purchased through VMI, Inc., in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Video production for each service includes a three-person crew in the control room. An operator uses ProPresenter through one of the Slate 5000’s M/Es to provide IMAG and song lyrics on large screens for the 3,500-seat congregation, while the director runs the live Internet production through the other M/E. The third person on the video crew handles shading, recording, and lights. Audio is handled by a fourth team member, and other team members operate the Panasonic cameras in the main sanctuary – two main cameras at the rear of the church, one handheld in the front, and two on Stanton Jimmy Jibs.

Jubilee uses the HD-SDI output from the Slate 5000 (converted to DVI) to feed the screens in the sanctuary. Forteza said the difference in quality is striking. “It’s like night and day,” he noted. “Our congregation is really dependent on those screens, and all the lyrics and images are so crisp and clean coming from the Slate 5000.”

Forteza said several of the Slate’s Fluent™ workflow tools are used during productions. Instead of a bank of monitors, for example, Jubilee uses Fluent Multi-View to keep track of all cameras, keys, and other sources on a 52-inch Panasonic plasma monitor. Two separate 27-inch monitors are used for preview and program.

Fluent Clip Store is used to manage and play videos, which are frequently used during services. So far, Forteza has only used Fluent Macros to build one picture-in-picture configuration. He literally built the macro during a service; he said it was so easy, he was able to build it on the fly.

“I’m all about efficiency,” Forteza said. “All that automation blew my mind. The Broadcast Pix really fits my world.”

South Hills Bible Chapel Enhances Worship Services with Broadcast Pix

Slate 3016 Live Production System with Integrated Router Provides Images for Congregation, Programming for Cable Access Stations

South Hills Bible Chapel (SHBC), an Evangelical Christian Church in McMurray, Penn., has chosen the Broadcast Pix™ Slate™ 3016 HD/SD integrated production system to present a visually dynamic, large-screen presentation to its congregation, as well as produce DVDs of its services for broadcast on local access cable channels throughout the Greater Pittsburgh area. Worship services regularly feature live music, singing, dance, and other performances that help reinforce SHBC’s mission and message.

Located in the production control room beneath its 1,400-seat Worship Center, the 1 M/E Slate 3016 enables SHBC’s technical director to cut between cameras, add lower-third graphics and on-screen text, and produce a video presentation that enhances the worship experience. The three Panasonic P2 HD cameras, which are operator-controlled from fixed tripod positions around the Worship Center, are used to capture the entire service and provide image magnification (IMAG) of the senior pastor and worship teams as they lead the congregation.

The Broadcast Pix Slate 3016 was installed in February 2009 and includes a 16x16 integrated router that handles a mix of HD-SDI and SD-SDI signals. The Slate’s auxiliary outputs feed a DVD recorder and hard drive, plus provide a live feed of worship services on a large-screen display on the stage and other monitors around the facility.

“After looking at many of the switcher brands and models on the market, we chose the Slate 3016 because it was best suited to our needs and budget. And it was very intuitive and easy for our volunteers to pick up and use,” said Simon James, SHBC technical arts director. “Unlike the 10-year-old production equipment we replaced, the new Broadcast Pix switcher enables us to offer more polished, HD-quality video within our Worship Center and on community cable–and eventually on video podcasts we plan to offer in the future.”

While all aspects of the video production can be managed by a single operator, the technical arts crew includes a video producer and volunteers that manage the theatrical lighting and sound systems for both the video production and house sound. The SHBC regularly utilizes the Slate’s built-in Inscriber CG, video clips server, and multi-viewer during production.

“Because of this high-quality video capability, our congregants are more engaged and attentive during worship,” said James. “We really like our Slate switcher and definitely recommend it to others. It’s a powerful, flexible, intuitive system that will enable us to build and expand our use of video well into the future.”

Immanuel Baptist Church Chooses Broadcast Pix to Answer a Variety of Production Prayers

Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, KY., broadcasts its Sunday service to thousands of households live on WLEX-TV, the local NBC affiliate. In June, the church installed a Broadcast Pix™ Slate™ 5000 integrated production system to ensure the program looks as polished as possible.

As director of I-Tech ministries at the church, David Probus oversees broadcast, audio, video and lighting for the Immanuel campus, and serves as executive producer of the live television broadcast. He said the church purchased the Slate 5000 in a bit of an emergency situation. One Sunday, the old analog switcher they had been using for the past 15 years locked up on them – while they were on the air.

Probus had been creating a very expensive proposal to upgrade the facility’s video equipment in phases. “It was a messy situation and it sent my proposal ideas into hyperdrive,” he recalled. “We were looking at buying a separate CG system, switcher, clip player, and playback system. Then we happened upon the Broadcast Pix. It had all of that together. It was perfect.”

The reliability of the Slate has been a welcome change for Probus, who took a “let’s pray it comes on today” approach with the old system. “It’s been great to be able to walk in on a Sunday morning and know that everything is going to work,” he said. “I can make any changes I want during our broadcast almost immediately.”

Probus is also enjoying the built-in clip player, which provides easy access to the broadcast’s open and close. “We used to run those through a DVD player,” he said.

“It was a constant battle of ‘Is the DVD cued up?’ With the clip store on the Slate 5000, it’s at my fingertips. We use still store for sermon graphics and general graphics for transition. We even use the logo system to put our logo in the bottom right corner.”In-house video is kept separate from the broadcast during regular services. However, if the church has an event that Probus wants to run from up in the broadcast booth, he has an SDI feed from the Slate 5000 to the projectors. “I can just flip a switch and we’re off and running from the Broadcast Pix system for the in-house,” he said.

The system was installed by Roscor, a Broadcast Pix dealer based in Mount Prospect, Ill. “We’ve been running full force on this system for several weeks now,” said Probus. “I haven’t found anything I don’t like about the Slate 5000. I’m completely sold.”

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