2020 was a crazy year full of lot’s of change, especially in the world of Church Technology and Production! Livestreaming has traditionally been an extra tool to expand the reach of a Church or engage members when they are away, but overnight it became a top Priority! We have enjoyed every opportunity to help our clients navigate these crazy times and improve their streaming systems, but our favorite of 2020 was certainly this system at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in downtown Tampa!
Prior to the Lockdown, St. Andrew’s did not have any livestreaming of their services. As an emergency solution, they began using a congregants iPhone on a tripod to stream, and had a small speaker set up next to the phone to boost the volume. They also felt like the overall Sound System needed some love. So our task was to install a new streaming system, improve the overall Audio quality, and Train the team. The Church also asked for a secondary monitoring system for the Organist to be able to choose between cameras so they could have a better view of what is happening at the Altar and of the Choir. Prior to our install, they were using a series of mirrors to see around the corner!
After working with the staff at St. Andrew’s on the best solution for their Church culture and budget, we settled on a system using PTZOptics NDI cameras, a VMIX system, and a separate Marshall SDI switcher and monitor so the Organ system could have extremely low latency.
We chose to use PTZOptics NDI Cameras as a cost-effective solution and to keep cable at a bare minimum in order to preserve the Historic appearance of the church. With NDI HX, we were able to use one Cat-6 Cable to feed Power, Control, and Video Data over one line per Camera! The cameras are controlled over IP using PTZOptics mobile app, as well as the built in Camera Control in VMIX!
The team at St. Andrew’s have been loving vMix and it’s simple functioning with lot’s of powerful features. Later after the initial install was done, their team chose to create position presets within vMix, so they can tap a camera and position and then immediately send it to the Stream! This system is set to Stream to Youtube and Facebook.
Our team got creative finding the best solution to fit the needs of both the Livestream and the monitoring system, without getting into an expensive secondary production monitoring system! Using the PTZOptics NDI Z-Cam we were able to send 2 completely separate broadcast quality video feeds of the Altar from one camera! The main feed is over NDI to vMix, with a secondary output over HD-SDI directly to a Marshall SDI switcher mounted near the beautiful Fisk pipe organ. The Marshall Camera goes directly to the switcher as well, with a wide angle lens focused on the choir directors position. With the Marshall Switcher, we were able to use a small production monitor mounted to the organ and a remote switch so the Organist can remotely switch between the 2 camera views, each with roughly 1 frame of latency so there is no issues staying on beat with the Director!
On the Audio side of things, we installed a new Allen and Heath mixer and did a full system re-tune along with a updated gain structure and base settings for each of their inputs! Later we installed new Sennheiser wireless systems.
We are thankful to St. Andrew’s for the opportunity to work with them on this project in such a Unique and Historic church in our hometown, Tampa Bay (or should we say Champa Bay??). The system has been working great, and their team is thrilled with the end video quality! Take a look at their Facebook page to see the latest service!
Here’s the gear list for our fellow Church Technology nerds out there:
2x PTZOptics 20x NDI-HX
1x PTZOptics 30x NDI-HX
1x PTXOptics NDI Z-Cam
1x Marshall CV-503
1x Marshal VSW-2000
1x Windows Touch-screen PC for vMix
1x A&H QU-16C
Is your Church or business looking for a system like this? Drop us a line and let’s talk about what options are best for your needs! We are proud PTZOptics dealers and would love to help you choose the best equipment or design and install a full custom ‘turn-key’ system built exactly to your needs!