WAYNE, N.J.— With over 30,000 attendees in its main and regional locations and 12,000 viewing online, Calvary Chapel decided to upgrade its broadcast video equipment after it logged 15 years of service.
The church recently invested millions of dollars in equipment, including Fujinon HDTV lenses from Fujifilm North America Corporation’s Optical Devices Division and Ikegami HDTV studio cameras, at its main campus in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Later this month, Calvary Chapel will switch to its new (1080) HDTV control room with dual 2-M/E Ross Vision switchers and an Evertz/PESA routing solution.
“Since the picture quality we produce must hold up when displayed as image magnification on large-screens or when streaming over the Internet, we’ve invested heavily in acquisition gear,” said Video Operations Manager Jack Chew, who explained the chose “a combination of Ikegami HDK-55 studio/field cameras and Fujinon HDTV lenses,” as well as a lens package including two XA77x9.5 box lenses, two HA14x4.5 wide lenses, and one HA22x7.3 for shoulder-mounted ENG style shooting.
Calvary uses five Ikegami HD cameras (three mounted on tripods, one handheld, and one on a Jib), situated around the sanctuary at the main campus, which seats nearly 4,000 people. Video is projected onto a large screen center stage, along with two large screens on either side of the sanctuary.
Regional campuses also request video on demand of the service from the church’s central Omneon video server at the Fort Lauderdale campus. Video files move over dark fiber via the DiVA Hybrid multi track editor to the regional locations for display by Christie digital projectors onto large screens. Three Digital Rapids encoders and Panasas Active Store hard drives deliver a live media stream accessible via the church’s website or for display at its regional campuses. Services are also carried on local NBC affiliate WSVN-TV, Fort Lauderdale. The multi-faceted video distribution strategy enables people to participate in services without having to drive to the main campus.
