Request for our media department

[Keith1971]

Hello,
My name is Keith. I work in the media department at Cross Faith Church in Molino Florida. We have recently began to stream live on the internet. We are in desperate need of a (3 Chip Wide Angle Video Camera With A 20X1 Zoom). We are on a very tight budget so we are in prayer that an existing ministry that may have recently upgraded their video system would donate or loan us this type of camera. Thank you all in advance for your consideration.

Keith Garrison
Cross Faith Church

[tdangelo]

Originally Posted by Keith1971

We are in desperate need of a (3 Chip Wide Angle Video Camera With A 20X1 Zoom).

Hi Keith, welcome.

Do you mean that you are looking for a 3 chip 16:9 wide screen camera with a 20x zoom lens?

[Keith1971]

Yes Sir. That Is It. I Just Worded It Wrong.

[Keith1971]

Mr Angelo,
We are currently using a small Canon Mini DV camera. Approximately 1 month ago on a Wednesday night service we were called back for a special Saturday night service. With just a 3 day notice our church was filled to capacity. Also a Church in Ohio opened its doors that night to watch our live stream. They contacted us the next day and informed us that an estimated 250 people attended and we had video but no sound. 2 weeks ago a church in Queens New York allowed our Sunday Morning service to be their Sunday morning service. They have around 100 members. They contacted us and said they couldn't understand everything that was being said. This is because we cannot get our sound properly run through our sound board. Our sound is currently picked up by the external Mic on our camera.We also have been contacted by Christians in Pakistan telling us they are tuning into our services. This is why we have reached out for help resolving this issue. We have worked on this issue and determind the issue is in the Camera. So we are prayerfully asking for a better quality HD video wide angle camera that we can plug into our sound board. Thank you for any help or advice that you can give us.
Keith Garrison

[tdangelo]

Keith,

If I didn’t say it before welcome and God Bless you for helping your church and your work in their media ministry.

If I understand correctly you are doing a live-webcast of a church service and based on a quick look at the church’s website and description above are also doing some “video on demand.” I watched a few minutes of the August 10th service from the website and based on what I saw & heard there is definitely audio on the recording.

The audio does sound like it’s from a camera mic in so far as it is “indirect.” The good thing about “indirect” audio is that during the praise & worship it is easier to hear the congregation and essentially the totality of what is happening “in the room.” “Direct” audio (from an audio console) tends to be more intelligible, but at the expense of being dry. You may find that the preaching sounds a bit better “direct” as it will be intelligible but the praise & worship may sound worse.

Furthermore if the nature of the preaching is interactive with the congregation (for example: laughter, applause, recitative scripture reading) the “dry” audio direct from a audio console may miss all the ancillary audio content. For example in the 8/10 recording after the Pastor prayed the entire congregation said “Amen.” Is that important to your webcast & recording? If yes, you may lose that if you only use direct audio from the audio console.

In broadcast TV “the standard” is to mix together direct dry audio with audience (or “nat-sound” e.g.: natural sound) microphones. The balance is adjusted during each segment of the programming based on the needs of that segment’s content. Albeit what I just suggested to you is not the way most church prepare audio for webcast or VOD, but I think if given the chance I could give many compelling arguments for churches to mix their audio for webcast and VOD with broadcast standards & practices.

Now getting back to your recording, at about 8 minutes 20 second in the audio drops much lower in volume than it was previously. At this point I cannot understand what the Pastor is saying (although I know that he is talking). I wonder what happened. Did the camera operator touch something?
Another important comment is that in most webcasting scenarios (that I have seen or been involved with) the signal path has not been audio from the console, to a camera, to whatever encoding device you are using. The following would be more typical:

Video:
Camera #? ---------->
Camera #? ---------->
Etc ---------------->
Pro Presenter ------>
Other video source ->
----------------------> Video switcher - >
--------------------------------------------> Video spigot input on encoder
----------------------------------------------> Computer
Audio:
Pastor’s mic (fed to PA & web) ---------------->
Worship leader’s mic (fed to PA & web) -------->
Band mics (fed to PA & web) ------------------->
Video/audio playback device (fed to PA & web) ->
Audio only playback device (fed to PA & web) -->
Audience mics (fed to web only) -->
-----------------------------------------------> Audio mixer - >
--------------------------------------------------> Audio spigot input on encoder
--------------------------------------------------------> Computer

OK, now to address some of the original requests.

Originally Posted by Keith1971

We are in desperate need of a 3 Chip … camera

Note that for lower budget cameras in very general terms 3-chip cameras are better than single chip cameras. On the ultra high end of the scale however single chip cameras are better than 3-chip cameras. Most recently with the advent of DSLR cameras, single chip cameras are now giving middle range cameras a run for their money. The point here is that for where you are at right now a three chip camera may be better than a single chip … but three is not always better than one.

Originally Posted by Keith1971

Wide Angle Video Camera (meaning 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio) with a 20x1 zoom.

After viewing your webcast VOD the items I would suggest you work on are the following in this order:

First) Lighting, illumination level and artistic design
Second) Smooth camera operation (may require a new tripod)
Third) Video switching between the existing camera & existing graphics content on projection (may require buying a switcher)
Fourth) Direct dry audio feed mixed with nat-sound mics as a special webcast audio mix
Fifth) This special mix fed directly into the webcast encoder (not necessarily the camera)

I realize that the advice I just gave you may not be what was expected, however I would suggest that you consider the advice given on this website, pray about it, accept what you can use and trust God to fill in the gaps.

God Bless,

[Keith1971]

Mr. DeAngelo,

Thank You For The Advice. I Have Printed It And I Will Share It With The Rest Of Our Team. I Would Like Permission To Contact You Back In The Future As We Get Our Media Ministry Off The Ground.

Thank You Again,
Keith Garrison

[SterlingAug]

I work on the technical support for all media/computers/telephones/etc for my church. I have spent the past 7+ months learning and upgrading the video and audio for our weekly service videos that we produce and publish on our website. I would be happy to share any and all info we have learned if you are interested. I have modified our recording process and changed from recording to HD tapes in the camera, then converting them using playback into a Mac mini into a much simpler process of direct capture into the Mac, then compressing the RAW .mov file (18GB per week) into a 1.8GB .mp4 file, then uploading to Vimeo. I can usually have the video available for viewing 3 hours after the service ends.