This year’s Capture Summit takes place July 25-27 at The John Maxwell Leadership Center at 12Stone Church in Atlanta. The annual church filmmaker and content creation conference will feature more than 40 sessions. One of the 2022 Capture sponsors is Hitachi Kokusai, a leader in advanced HD and UHD camera systems for professional live production. We talked with Hitachi Kokusai Electric America Ltd., National Sales Manager for Broadcast & Professional, Kenneth Cyr about the company’s involvement at Capture.
Capture: What does Hitachi Kokusai produce?
Cyr: Hitachi Kokusai manufactures professional broadcast and live production camera systems that are ideal for multi-camera productions. In our comprehensive camera systems, the high-performance camera itself is connected to a camera control unit (CCU) in the production control room to form a powerful video acquisition workflow. In addition to their popularity in houses of worship, our camera systems are used heavily in sports, broadcast, and other live events.
Capture: What makes Hitachi Kokusai products a good fit for churches?
Cyr: Both our HDTV and 4K camera product lines are well-known for producing very “clean,” high-quality images due to each camera incorporating three advanced, 2/3” image sensors. Their exceptional low-light sensitivity and faithful color reproduction are particularly well-suited to dynamically lit church environments such as sanctuaries, and as system cameras, the color balance and exposure can be matched across multiple cameras for consistent, multi-angle coverage of live church services. The global shutter sensors in our latest camera models such as the SK-HD1800 and SK-UHD7000 also make them ideal for HOW environments that incorporate large LED displays and LED lighting, which could otherwise cause visual artifacts such as flickering or banding when they appear in the camera shot. And all of these capabilities are available at a cost-effective price point that makes them accessible to a wide range of churches.
Capture: Describe what Capture attendees will find when they visit the Hitachi Kokusai booth?
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Meet the Hitachi Kokusai team at Capture Summit 2022, along with over 500+ of your fellow church filmmakers, techs and creatives. This transformative three-day conference is designed to elevate your team’s game, from filmmaking and streaming to IMAG and video production.
Cyr: The newest product we’ll be featuring at the event will be our second-generation 4K camera, the SK-UHD7000. Named by Church Production as one of the Top 5 Products for Churches at NAB 2022, the SK-UHD7000 continues our tradition of combining exceptional visual quality with superior price/performance value. It incorporates the latest 4K native image sensors and digital signal processing to provide pristine Ultra HD picture quality with ultra-low noise. The SK-UHD7000’s native 4K acquisition is ideal for houses of worship looking to future-proof their workflows, improve the look of in-venue displays, or link multiple satellite locations with life-like video, while integrated HD down-conversion enables multi-format production workflows so churches can shoot for today and archive for tomorrow.
Capture: Tell us about some of the most interesting Hitachi Kokusai church projects?
Cyr: Our cameras have been used in so many great projects that it’s hard to pick just a few, but some common themes stand out. The elevated role that streaming played during the pandemic led many churches to accelerate upgrading their video production infrastructures, with new cameras playing a critical role. Temple Baptist Church, for example, postponed planned audio enhancements and re-allocated that funding to upgrade their video infrastructure to help keep its congregation engaged during the pandemic. The ability of our cameras’ global shutter sensors to capture flawless video in LED-rich environments has also been a big factor for many churches. Immanuel Baptist Church of Little Rock, for example, had seen artifact issues such as flickering when evaluating different vendors’ cameras and LED video walls, but our SK-HD1800s eliminated that problem. For many projects we’ve worked on, upgrading the video infrastructure and cameras have delivered more than just a technical quality upgrade; it can also set the tone for a shift in culture and immersive worship experience. At Pittsburgh-area Orchard Hill, an architectural and technology overhaul of the main sanctuary helped people feel more like they were participating in the services rather than just observing them.
Capture: What can Capture attendees learn from visiting with Hitachi Kokusai at Capture?
Cyr: Attendees can learn first-hand why Hitachi Kokusai cameras have been the preferred choice of top churches for many years. We’ll be showcasing the visual and operational advantages of our broadcast-class camera systems, so attendees can see the difference with their own eyes. They can also experience our cameras’ exceptional ease of use, which has made them extremely popular with churches that depend on volunteer operators. Last but not least, churches that may have believed that broadcast-class cameras would be beyond their financial means will also discover how Hitachi Kokusai is making them surprisingly affordable to a broad range of houses of worship.
