Video/Audio Distribution Setup & Recording

[Bat76]

I aplogize in advance that this thread is probably similiar to many others but I guess all setups are unique. Plus, I am new to this so personlized advice will be much appreciated. My pastor has asked me to research the setup/costs associated with video recording the sunday service, distributing the video/audio from the sanctuary to 2 other locations (Live) and recording it (he would like the audio from the PA system used vs the camera audio) so that it can either be accessed via website or burned to DVD. Below are the details of our current audio system in the sanctuary.

Yamaha EMX 5016CF Powered Mixer that is supporting 3-4 microphones during service. It is feeding several Bose speakers at the front of the room.
Canon HD Vixia HF200 camera with 15x Optical Zoom (flash memory) This is my personal camera so I would prefer to purchase a piece that could remain at the church for when I can not attend services.

TVs: May have some older TVs that support composite A/V. I would prefer to upgrade these to flat screens that can be easily mounted on the walls.

We are not currently doing any video or audio production/distribution. I would be starting from scatch with the above components. Budget, none yet so let's shoot for straightforward, dependable, do not need a lot of bells/whistles.

All advice is welcome.

Thanks,

[petereit]

For the 2 other locations, how far are they from the main sanctuary? Are they in the same building? Fairly easy to run cable to them?

[Bat76]

Mark- Thanks for the reply. The 2 other locations would probably be around 150-200ft from the sanctuary and we should easily be able to run cable to both locations.

Chris

[petereit]

OK. My first recommendation would be to try to avoid DVDs. Doing DVDs quickly always results in a really cheap-looking clunky product. Doing DVDs right takes a TON of time. In today's on-demand, digital society, DVDs are rapidly becoming obsolete. Cutting DVDs out of the picture will also save you a bunch of money, since you won't have to buy a DVD recorder and all the blank DVD media.

Next, look for a quality used pro-sumer level HD camera. I suggest a JVC GY-HD110U. (There are other comparable brands/models -- I suggest the JVC because it's what I know.) That particular JVC camera can be found for around $2,000 used yet provides a very nice 720p HD picture. Along with that, make sure you buy a stable tripod with a nice, fluid head. We use Manfrotto tripods with 519 fluid heads and they work beautifully!

I suggest running the composite HD signal out of the JVC camera, pull audio off your Yamaha board and run everything through a composite video/audio distribution amplifier (D/A). From the D/A, run a high-quality 5-conductor composite A/V cable (3 conductors for video, 2 for audio) to your other rooms. All modern HDTVs have composite video connections and it will look extraordinary!

For recording, you have two options: record the service to DV tape on the camera, then transfer the recorded sermon to a PC or Mac after the service via a Firewire connection. This gives you a cheap and easy archival, the DV tape your recorded to. The JVC camera has two XLR connections for audio. I would suggest running a "clean feed" from your sound board into one channel, then use the on-camera shotgun mic on the other channel. Once you transfer the video to your computer, you will then have the ability to mix the "clean feed" from your board and "ambience" from the shotgun mic so your recorded videos have both clarity and "room presence."

The other option is to buy a video capture board (Such as an Aja Kona or BlackMagic Decklilnk card) and record video live right into the computer. This is typically more expensive, since you really need to invest in a good quality computer and fast hard drives. We bought an 8-core Mac Pro with three internal 1TB drives striped together in a RAID0 configuration. It gives us plenty of capture space and striping the drives gives it enough write speed to capture HD video.

We're all Mac, so we use Final Cut Pro to edit our recorded sermons. There are comparable PC products (Sony Vegas, Adobe Premier, etc.) We also strip out the audio and upload it to SermonCloud.com for our audio podcast.

Once you have edited your video, compress it to H.264 and upload it to Vimeo.com. I like Vimeo because they have TREMENDOUS quality for an unbelievably low price. Their totally free service will more than likely serve you well when you're just getting started. Their Vimeo+ subscription is only like $60 and increases your weekly upload limit to 5GB (enough space for two to three complete HD video sermons). Once uploaded, you just embed the video right into your church's own web page. Vimeo also automagically creates mobile versions of your videos suitable for playing on smart-phones.

That should be enough to get you started. I'm sure you'll have plenty of questions. Please don't hesitate to ask!

[jonack]

I agree with everything that petereit said in his post. I am just going to add my two cents on there and ask a few questions.

1. Do you want to mix message slides or lyrics with the video?
2. Is there going to be someone who is manning the camera to adjust focus and keep the pastor in proper framing?

The goal is to keep everything HD and digital if possible. One thing that I would suggest is converting your analog component HD signal to HD-SDI. You can get a Black Magic converter for $500 for analog to SDI. This would eliminate running a larger cable that has three component cables and two audio lines in the snake. You would then DA the signal (via AJA HD5DA) and run a cable to each room and use a Black Magic converter box to break out the signal from SDI to analog.

This is similar to what petereit said, but if you have the money combining the video and audio into one cable will cut down on cabling cost and headaches as it would be a smaller cable. This is strictly a personal choice and neither one is right or wrong. With petereit's way you are going to spend more on cables but a whole lot less on converters. With my way you will spend less on cable and more on converters.

The total cost for the converters and cable my way would run you approx:
Black Magic analog to SDI: $499
Black Magic SDI to analog: $499
Black Magic SDI to analog: $499
Aja HD-SDI Distro amp: $300
HD-SDI cut cable lengths: $200
Total: $2000

Then include the cost of the camera and tripod. Just a different viewpoint for you to think about...

[petereit]

LOL! Jon, you're preaching MY sermon now.

Yes, if you can swing the money, ABSOLUTELY go HD-SDI. And that first converter right out of the camera might be the swing point between going with a cheaper JVC GY-HD110U or stepping up to the more competent JVC GY-HD250U, since the 250U has HD-SDI built-in (so you wouldn't need to spend an additional $500 on a component-to-SDI converter.) In fact, we upgraded our 110U camera to a 250U and added two more 250Us.

I've said it many, MANY times before (so I don't know why I didn't say it this time) if I had it all to do again, I would have insisted on running HD-SDI cables from the very beginning. They are just so, SO stable, clear and bullet-proof, not to mention that, for HD video, it's just the "right way" to do it.

(BUT!! I'm keeping a sharp eye on the new Thunderbolt technology. The optical cable has the potential to replace SDI for >5 meter digital cable runs. And I like the idea of using a $35 displayport-to-HDMI converter at each TV as opposed to a $500 SDI-to-HDMI adapter.)

[luecjennifer]

i agree with you this is the best way of video production and distribution