Lighthouse Church is a non-denominational, spirit-filled church in the beach community of Panama City, Florida. A new sanctuary and video production infrastructure was recently completed, following the destruction of its previous location by Hurricane Michael, which tore through Panama City Beach in 2018, completely destroying the church’s auditorium. Worshipers met in a much smaller children’s building until the new space could be developed. A year-long renovation project broke ground in 2020 to convert a former AMC movie theater into the church’s new home: a 37,000 square foot facility featuring an 850-seat auditorium, half-court basketball, and a child development center.
The relocation provided the impetus and opportunity for the church to implement a long-awaited upgrade to its video production capabilities. Prior to the hurricane, the church had used mobile phones and consumer-level camcorders, but they were not satisfied with the results. “Our video capabilities were fairly primitive,” explains Juili Bailey, Worship Leader and Creative Pastor at Lighthouse Church. “Upgrading them had already been part of our long-term vision, but it hadn’t been a financial priority for us. We were sort of stuck, as we didn’t want to make the investment in upgrading until we could do it the way we wanted to do it. Then the hurricane reset every plan that we had.”
The church selected Z-HD5500 cameras from Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd. (Hitachi Kokusai), which were chosen for volunteer-friendly ease of use and visual quality. Bailey wanted to ensure that the cameras and other equipment they purchased would meet not only the church’s immediate needs, but also longer-term goals. “Video is a key medium for creating and reinforcing connection between the church and our members, so we wanted to move towards better quality,” she says. “We also wanted the option to broadcast our services on television in the future. We wanted to plan ahead now, as it’s often difficult to backfill and retrofit things later.”
Tennessee-based systems integration firm AVLX designed and installed the video, audio, and lighting systems for Lighthouse Church’s new venue. AVLX recommended Hitachi cameras because of their quality, price/performance value, durability, and volunteer-friendly ease of use. The church purchased three Z-HD5500 broadcast camera systems, which are stationed on Cartoni tripods in fixed positions within the auditorium.
Lighthouse Church’s new location opened in June 2021 and now hosts roughly 1200 in-person attendees each Sunday. Video acquired by the Hitachi cameras feeds image magnification (IMAG) through Digital Projection 21000 lumen projectors to the auditorium’s 12-foot by 7-foot Draper TecVision screens and is streamed to online followers via multiple platforms. The Z-HD5500s’ global shutter sensors are designed to capture video without visual artifacts such as moiré patterns or flickering in the sanctuary’s LED-rich environment, which features a 40-foot SquareV Zi3 LED wall as a digital backdrop.
In addition to significantly improving the video quality of the church’s productions, Bailey also notes how easy it was for the all-volunteer crew to learn to operate the cameras. “Honestly, we have been shocked at how well the volunteers have taken to them, and the increase in quality that we got overnight,” she says. “Our area is more tourism-oriented than high-tech, so we’re not in a place where most people are dealing with technology in their jobs every day. Our technology volunteers were still able to get up to speed very quickly. The cameras have also given our volunteers a morale boost, as they’re putting out a result that they can be proud of and that they feel is a great increase in quality. It makes them excited to come and be on the cameras every week.”
Lighthouse Church’s leadership looks forward to growing its video operations even further, but is already more than satisfied with the Z-HD5500 cameras. “The Hitachi cameras have definitely met our expectations and exceeded them, and we know there’s plenty more that we can do with them,” summarizes Bailey. “Our goal is to communicate fluidly and even beautifully. In 2021, video and other forms of technology are essentially the language that people speak. These cameras have allowed us to speak that language very well.”
