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Like Grace Bible Church, Legacy Christian Church in Overland Park, Kansas overcame their streaming/time-shifting challenges too. See related article. Link in article below.
Here at Grace Bible Church in Dallas Texas, we wanted to be able to do three things with our sermons: 1) stream them live to an online audience, 2) stream them live to an additional location with a short time-shift, and 3) make them available for viewing later. All three presented challenges, but time-shifting video to the second sanctuary turned out to be the toughest one.
First, some backstory. Our facilities were built in 2004, and the main sanctuary was outfitted for minimal video production. It had one analog camera, two projectors and an iMac computer. Audio and RGB video cabling ran to "The Garage”, an adjacent room used for overflow seating.
As with many modern churches, we began to feel a need for more sophisticated video production. Our first step: streaming. We bought a Matrox Monarch device to deliver video and audio to the “College TV Ticket” streaming service. The cost of this was about $1,000 for the hardware, and $150 per month for the streaming service. We used an older laptop (about $500) to control the Matrox device. This provided low-cost, rudimentary video streaming, allowing an online audience to watch live or from the service archives.
We soon came to the conclusion that one camera was not going to allow us to make professional-looking video, so we purchased two HDMI digital cameras. At $2,500 each, these Sony SRG-300H HDMI remote-controlled cameras were the most expensive part of our system. Their picture quality is great, and control adequate. With two cameras we needed a switcher, so we purchased the Blackmagic Design Atem TV. Here we gave ourselves some room to grow, as the Atem supports six cameras and two additional video inputs. That decision was a wise one, as it wasn't long before were needing those additional inputs. The same inexpensive laptop was used to control the switcher.
Time-Shifting Challenge
We produced decent streams for a few months, and then the time-shifting issue reared its ugly head. The challenge: we wanted to offer contemporary music at both our first and second services, but retain the traditional music at early service. The typical solution appeared to be using IP (internet-capable) cameras to feed the stream to the internet, then capturing and time-shifting that stream with computers. Since we had just purchased HDMI cameras--and were very happy with them--we decided to try a different approach.
After endless Internet searches for time-shifting equipment, all we could find was high-end production hardware in the $6,000-$10,000 price range. Anyone who has used a $100 DVR would question why there wasn't a cheaper way to record and time-shift an HDMI signal. Well, we questioned--and there was a cheaper way. The first device we found was no longer produced, but we were getting warmer. The problem is that most DVRs do not allow HDMI inputs--they take standard TV signals instead.
Like Grace Bible Church, Legacy Christian Church in Overland Park, Kansas (see photo above) overcame their streaming/time-shifting challenges too. See related article.
How do you take an HDMI signal and convert it to a standard TV signal? That's the big question, and its answer is the magic of this solution. The PVI MS-MicroMod ATSC ($900) is specifically designed to convert any HDMI signal to RF, which you can transmit on any normal TV channel. This is an elegant solution for several reasons. You can send the signal for long distances over any coax cable (which is easy to run), and you can split that signal to multiple outputs cheaply. You can transmit at the resolution of your cameras, and you can watch the video on any TV. For our purposes, I was able to use one of the RGB lines we had already run and did not have to pull any additional cabling. Another plus.
Of course, you still need a DVR. We dug deep and purchased a $50 TiVo Roamio. The TiVo has a 30-minute buffer, so we can easily time shift our service three to five minutes (our requirement). The stream is never actually recorded, though it could be if desired. We plugged in a small TV to monitor the MicroMod output, and sent the TiVo HDMI signal out to our projector through an inexpensive HDMI switcher. Sound from the time-shifted video is taken from the TV's headphone jack and sent to the room's sound system. It works like a charm.
The projector feed in the main sanctuary goes to the Atem switcher as well, so the live stream and remote site see information projected on the screens in the sanctuary.
Success on a Minimal Budget
Grace Bible Church now has a high-quality, expandable video production setup that should serve us well in the future. We have room to add cameras and other video sources, as well as the capability to send our services via ATSC format to other recorders and TV systems on our campus.
Could we have spent less to achieve this level of quality and flexibility? Maybe. Could we have spent more? Absolutely.
We want your church to have success on a minimal budget as well. We hope our research helps you make your worship services available to a wider audience while remaining good stewards of the resources the Lord has given you.
Cost Summary
Matrox Monarch$1000
2 Sony SRG 300-H cameras$5150
Blackmagic Design Atem TV Switcher $1000
PVI MicroMod $900
Tivo Roamio $50
Various cables and adapters$50
Total $8250
Additional expenses you may incur:
Inexpensive PC or laptop $500
Small TV $100
Cabling and installation $TBD
Grace Bible Church would like to thank the following people for their expert help and support: Dennis Jacobs, College TV Ticket; Dean Stone, Spectraveris; and John Karl, Grace Bible Church.
You can see streamed video services from Grace Bible Church at
Loren Alldrin contributed to this article.
