I attend a very small Bapt Church and do all of our videography. I don't know much about a/v; I have mostly learned by trial and error. We currently use an OLD VHS camcorder fed into a Sony DVD recorder via a/v cables. We input our audio from our mixer board. We mostly use this feed to send a/v to the nursery but we also video special meetings from time to time. Twice per year we have a "Campmeeting" where other churches come together and enjoy preaching and singing all-day for a week. At this meeting, I connect 4 camcorders from different areas in the room and switch them through a push button input selector like you would use in an entertainment center to switch between differnt feeds (VCR, game, DVD player, etc.) Not professional at all, causing a little "blurb" everytime I switch cameras, but it gives us different angles. Our a/v budget is very slim so for years we have just made do. At this meeting, our nurseries and kitchen are in different buildings and we are running coax several hundred feet. Final signal is not great, but at least nursery workers can see what is happening in the meeting.

The church has realized that we really need to upgrade, and tld me to see what I can find out. We want to upgrade to HD cameras, a true video mixer, HD monitors, better quality recording media, better way to send signal to other places on the grounds (maybe some type of local broadcast), and better tripods (one is manned and the others are stationary but would like to nvestigate making them remote). We still have to watch our budget, they just want me to get some ideas together. I am open to suggestions.

Thanks for any help you can give.

hi, i am on literally the same mission. (needed one more post to post urls)

hi, i am on literally the same mission.

so far, we have cameras:

cannon xh-a1 (overall a great pro-sumer camera, but costs $$)
and i bought (for personal use as well) a sony hdr-sr11 (great quality and alot cheaper)
use this site to help http://reviews.cnet.com/best-camcorders/


as far as mixers go

this is the worst as prices go. most, if not all go for >$3000.
i found this site tonight http://www.vtx.co.uk/product.aspx?id=140 and will check it out further in the morning.(it costs alot)
i am thinking of doing this and having 2 (5 input "push button" switch boxes) in parallel (with the same inputs, so input 2 can be on either input a or b on the easymix box.) if you want, i can draw a picture, i am not that great with words ;)
of course there are software mixers available, but that would require a new quad core computer with multiple HD video capture capabilities (firewire is nice for this or blackmagic (ironic for a use in a church computer i know) which needs a pcie 1x slot and costs >$200 but can capture HDMI and Component), 3+ sata II hard drives in raid 0, and a newer, high end graphics card.


now for cable runs. monoprice.com has some great deals.

they sell 100' svga vga cables for $25 (i am not sure on the quality of these. they are rated for in-wall use, but if you run them in conduit, they should be fine.) vga can run a length of 200ft before it needs a booster, also sold cheap on monoprice,
we used 7 quad shielded coax cables (RGB+HV+LR) for our runs, which is cheaper. it works well enough for a 400' run
also
with long runs you need to be careful about ground loops.


camera automation

this can be done by using remote control servos (sold at any hobby store and ebay)
or for cheap by using syringes (with non luer-lock tip), light weight oil, and vinal tubing (the larger the diameter, the faster the response)


and finally monitors

we got some nice 50+ inch HD (720p and 1080i) CRT Rear Projection TVs on craigslist for cheap. looks great
also, i am going to try taking off the front screen, reversing all three HV coils' polarities, refocusing and calibrating , and using it as a front projector. along with some body work of course.


that is all i can come up with tonight

MFuqua,

It would help folks to advise you by knowing what your budget is ? There are many different levels of production value with different levels of pricing as well.

HD in any form (consumer & prosumer) levels can be very expensive. True broadcast HD is out of sight. You may be content with standard definition (SD) system instead, it's cheaper. Why are you wanting HD ? Once you go HD that changes the pricing level alot on everything; cameras, switcher, monitors & recording devices. If you will be submitting tapes for broadcast, you'll need to know the formats they need for playback & let that determine which format machines you purchase ?

:) I would suggest you get with a local professional video product dealership & run your budget by them for advice.
There may be some web based AV resellers who deal mostly with churchs. They may sell packages designed for live video shooting in church. Be sure you understand what you are getting & how they will stand behind what they sell & will they come install it if needed.

I used to sell pro AV gear, a lot has changed since I've been away, but I am sure it is still expensive! The Canon HD camcorder "Silverhawk184" mentioned is $3000, you buy four of them & that's $12,000. Now you need an HD switcher, HD monitors, tripods &/or remote control pan & tilt units & intercom equiptment & it keeps adding up.

Panasonic & JVC Pro both used to make some great box cameras (small HQ 3-chip cameras). Pan sold their own great P/T units & controllers. JVC used third party P/T & controllers from the ESI company back in the day. Key things about P/T units; smoothness of operation & quietness. Neither may be had in cheap setups aimed at security needs for dept stores. Go to some local churches in your area to check out what they have & sit in their services & control rooms to see what goes on & watch their tapes or TV programs to see how it all looks in the end.

There are products that can send TV signals over unused twisted pair phone lines to other buildings at your campus, so you don't have to fish, string or run more video cables. I can look that up if you want me to ?

Sorry to ramble on so long, just some ideas for you.

John :D

the reason our budget is so flexible is because our church hasn't bought anything new since the 1980s, besides a 100 sq feet of parking lot and a projector. now that we have a new pastor (they change every 15 years or something like that) he has big plans.

the cheapest route i can think of for you is to record in hd (using the cameras' built in media) but broadcast live in sd. then edit and burn hddvds/blurays later. which reminds me of another cost ... decent computer, hd editing software, and burners and maybe a duplicator.

yes, the xh-a1 is $3000 but the quality of the sr11 is so great, that i wouldn't buy another a1. ($450 ebay, if you have enough time to wait to find one) this "depression" is good for something. they were selling for $1500 earlier last year and bestbuy still has them for $1100

probably the best method for distributing the video would be to setup your "new" mixing computer as a dedicated WME server during service. and have receiver computers with ati radeon hd cards or the nvidia 8600 and up (i believe) decode the stream at locations. all this has to be on a gigabit ethernet network, for optimal quality. sd capture cards are on ebay really cheap now because people are confused about the digital transition.

i wouldnt go buy a computer... i would build one with parts from newegg.com and zipflyzoom.com. i am sure there is a teenager in your congregation that can do it.

Thanks for all your input! Most of it is Greek to me but it gets me headed in the direction by finding out what some of the terms mean and so forth. We don't have an actual budget at this time because we have no idea what a realistic budget would be. And we may find that we have to start with the bare neccesities and build up.

We don't have any plans to broadcast any services so that is not a concern. We mostly record them for people who could not make it to the meeting. The whole HD thing came from all these new HD TV's that it seems every one is using. Our old vhs camcorder hooked to a Sony DVD recorder has made a decent copy for everyone, but no that everyone is getting big screen HD's we have been noticing the picture isn't as good as it was on the older TV's. I need one of those "Video for Dummies" books because I know so little. With what we were using I didn't have to know alot, but know I need to figure this stuff out because other churches are asking me what to get and how to set up their systems and I'm thinking "uhhh, well...."

I am mostly looking for options. Where to start and which way to go. My pastor wants to go to HD cameras, but we will most likely need to start very cheap. We only do live mixing 3-4 times per year - twice are campmeetings where several churches come together and the others are weddings of members of these churches. They usually ask me to video their weddings and with the set-up I've got now, most of it is post-production mixing on my personal laptop and takes hours and hours of cutting and moving scenes and addind background and editing dark scenes, etc.

I am sorry, I just keep going on and on...

Ultimately what I hope to one day have is one manned HD camera and 3-4 remote HD cameras (mostly for panning the congregation or getting better angles on the preacher); a simple mixer that can take video from each of those cameras and audio from our sound board; a monitor that can show all cameras plus the broadcast shot; some recording media whether DVD or Blu-Ray(which ever would be most compatable); and some way to send this signal around the campus some 300-400ft.

As for budget, since we are not looking for broadcast quality, just home/church viewing on large screen HD TV's or video progector, I need to find the cheapest possible way to get the best picture for that.