Church Upgrades to Vaddio Gear with Spectacular Results

CHALLENGE

Heritage Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, Minnesota, records and posts its worship services on its church website for outreach purposes, and also to keep in touch with members who physically can’t attend services.

Their existing system, however, was not reaching the level of video quality they required. Their PTZ camera had difficulties with stuttering when panning or zooming from one location to another. In addition, the existing PTZ camera couldn’t process the complex lighting in the sanctuary, with an abundance of natural light, plus light from the stained-glass windows. In addition, the system was not intuitive enough for volunteer operators to easily catch on.

SOLUTION

A suite of solutions from Vaddio helped the church reach the quality they wanted in their video recording system.

A RoboSHOT® 40 UHD PTZ Camera was mounted in the back of the church near a workstation that holds a computer, a OneLINK Bridge, a PCC Premier Camera Controller and two monitors.

With the RoboSHOT 40 UHD, they can cover the services with just one camera without having to worry about being out of focus during camera movements.

The OneLINK Bridge mixes the in-room audio with the RoboSHOT video into a single USB stream onto the computer where they can stream and archive the service to YouTube. The OneLINK Bridge also keeps them from having to use a daunting sound mixer. Instead, they can use the web interface to adjust volumes of the audio inputs and have a matched video/audio feed to send wherever they need it. The OneLINK Bridge uses a single cable to provide power, video and control to the camera.

The PCC Premier Camera Controller allows operators to access presets throughout the service as well as use the joystick when needed. Clearly labeled presets allow new operators to easily get up to speed on the system. Operators can also adjust the pan, tilt and zoom speeds on the fly.

RESULTS

The church has been extremely pleased with the results across the board, from the camera to the bridge to the controller. The way the RoboSHOT 40 UHD Camera handles the lighting of the stained glass windows, plus the overall color quality and smooth pan-tilt-zoom movement has made a huge difference in terms of video quality.

“The feature that we appreciate most is the video processing,” said Dave Paulsen, technology director. “This camera did the best in terms of real-life representation.”

“The ability to preset your pan, tilt and zoom speeds is easily the biggest benefit that I see because we can train someone in so quickly,” said Paulsen. “We’ve had users as young as 12 run the camera, and honestly you can’t tell if they are using it or one of the adults.”

In addition to streaming online, they are able to show the service on monitors in other areas of the church when there is an overflow of congregants.

“I couldn’t recommend it more,” Paulsen continued. “For a single camera solution for a congregation that has a limited number of volunteers, it’s a perfect answer to enable them to stream and record.”