Kansas Church Upgrades Production Workflows With Hitachi Cameras

Hitachi's Z-HD5000 cameras have been deployed in a Kansas church as part of a major production workflow upgrade to high definition (HD).
 
"Through the years, video has changed the face of what people know of as church," said Ben Brandfas, Technical Ministries director at Central Community Church. "When you walk into our Worship Center, we have large projection screens that become an element of the service. We try to make our big room feel smaller by showing people closer-up."
 
Hosting the national Church of God Convention in the summer of 2017 required Central Community Church to stream the event live in HD. "We had already wanted to upgrade to HD to make our streams and on-site video look better, and the upcoming convention further motivated that initiative," Mr Brandfas recalled. "We held a campus-wide campaign to update our video systems and other upgrades around the buildings."
 
Mr Brandfas had been very satisfied with earlier HITACHI standard definition cameras, and the experience of other houses of worship led him to consider the Z-HD5000. "Other churches I knew of were really happy with both the Z-HD5000's price point and the quality that they bring,"he said.
 
"My NAB experience was an eye-opener, as Hitachi Kokusai was far more willing to take time showing us the cameras than the other manufacturer," he explained. "We realized that was indicative of which vendor would give us better customer service. With Hitachi Kokusai, we could talk to real people who truly valued our business."
 
Four Z-HD5000s are now used in Central Community Church's sanctuary, with one on each side of the stage, one in a center-rear position, and the fourth either on-stage or used as another center camera. In addition to the live stream and image magnification (IMAG) on two 16-foot by 9-foot projection screens, video from the HITACHI cameras is also distributed to large displays throughout the campus. Each camera feed is also iso-recorded, with footage incorporated into the church’s yearly Christmas television special.
 
"They're just a great-looking camera, and they were really 'plug and play'," said Mr Brandfas. "We just turned them on, and they looked good right away. A HITACHI technician came out to commission and adjust the cameras, but they looked great right out of the box."
 
He also highlighted the cameras' ease of use as very beneficial for the church's all-volunteer production crew. "The Z-HD5000s are very volunteer-friendly. Using the joystick on the RU-1500JY remote control, they can quickly and easily shade the picture, and the operational consistency with our old SD cameras meant they needed very little training."

"People in the congregation have been amazed at how good the screens can look," Mr Brandfas concluded.

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