In January, the Oregon City area was closed down because of heavy snow, but that didn’t stop Oregon City Christian Church from holding its Sunday services thanks to its new video streaming capabilities made possible by JVC Professional Video.
Based in Oregon City, Ore., OCC has a growing congregation and attracts about 650 people across three Sunday services each weekend. Before the JVC installation, OCC had been using only a single camera in the back of the church to stream its services. The church pastors wanted to improve the online presentation with multiple cameras, but did not want the church to feel like a TV studio.
Shari Scherschel, director of media and communications, was tasked with finding an affordable solution. Scherschel was initially skeptical about installing PTZ cameras instead of using traditional production cameras and operators.
“I didn’t want it to look like security footage,” Scherschel said in a JVC Professional news release.
OCC now has a four-camera setup, with the JVC KY-PZ100s mounted in the back and on the side of the sanctuary, plus two unmanned cameras locked down to capture shots of the band.
The cameras also needed to be able to smoothly follow pastors as they moved across the platform during sermons.
After a demo in the church, Scherschel chose to implement two KY PZ100 PTZ network video production cameras and JVC’s RM-LP100 remote camera controller.
“I liked the control, plus I liked the picture quality and the zoom speed,” said Scherschel.
Scherschel debuted the new system on Christmas Day, and OCC now has a four-camera setup, with the KY-PZ100s mounted in the back and on the side of the sanctuary, plus two unmanned cameras locked down to capture shots of the band.
Knowing bad weather was on the way and services would be canceled for the weekend, Scherschel recorded a service on the Friday before a storm that occurred in January. More than 500 people viewed the service online on Sunday, and several members of the congregation shared photos of their families watching the service at home. [related]
“We’ve had really great compliments from the congregation,” she added.
Available in black and white housings, the KY-PZ100 features a 1/2.8-inch CMOS sensor and 30x optical zoom lens, and its f/1.6-4.7 maximum aperture delivers excellent low-light performance. It streams up to 1080p/60 video at a variety of bit rates, and supports on-board HD recording at up to 50 Mbps to a MicroSDHC/SDXC media card.
The RM-LP100 provides IP control of up to 100 cameras, with a joystick and zoom rocker for smooth and precise camera movements. Its seven-inch touchscreen panel provides control of camera groups, presets, and PTZ speed, as well as white balance, shading, iris, and other camera settings.
