Needing to regain valuable seating space for worship attendees in their auditorium, Red Hills Church in Newberg, OR, switched its video productions from using manually operated cameras to Telycam PTZ cameras. The results exceeded the church’s expectations, delivering both practical and team bonding benefits beyond their original goals.
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Red Hills Church hosts approximately 600 people across three worship services every Sunday. With the auditorium of the century-old building holding just 250 people, space is at a premium. To accommodate growing attendance, the church has overflow rooms within its main facility and in separate buildings on the same block. Live video of each service is distributed from the auditorium to TVs in each overflow space.
The church had been using high-end DSLR cameras, with a volunteer operator at each one. “Each camera position and operator took up the space of six seats, but we needed to maximize seating,” explained Chris Hahn, production director, Red Hills Church. “Our main motivation for switching to PTZ cameras was to provide the same high-quality production experience but without taking up so much footprint.”
Red Hills Church purchased three Telycam Vision+ N3 PTZ cameras, two with 20x optical zoom and one with 30x optical zoom as the main camera for following worship leaders and presenters. The cameras are controlled with a Telycam V-Joy+ AT PTZ controller, with SDI output from the cameras routed to a Blackmagic ATEM Production Studio 4K switcher. A Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro then combines the program output from the switcher with ProPresenter graphics content, while an Epiphan LiveScript system applies live captioning.
The Vision+ cameras and V-Joy+ controller have also eliminated difficulties the volunteers had with their previous DSLR cameras, which were frustrating because of manually adjustments to zoom and focus. "With the Telycam PTZ system we have one-touch auto-focus, and zooming in and out is just twisting a knob on the controller. It’s very easy," Hahn noted.
The ease-of-use of the cameras and controller have also enhanced the volunteer experience. “I'm all about trying to create a technology stack that’s really easy for my volunteers so they can feel like they're participating in the worship service, not just doing a volunteer role,” said Hahn. “The way the PTZ cameras work with the Telycam control surface, letting us dial in presets during early rehearsal and then with one person creatively controlling three different shots, lets the operator become a key part of the experience.”
