For Eric Reagan, joining the staff at Park West Church in Knoxville, Tenn., wasn’t something that he’d really planned for. “We’ve been at this church for over 15 years now, so it’s been our home. Our friends are here,” says Reagan. “I started out as a volunteer here, then the guy that was doing the visual director role left and they asked me to come on staff and fill that position.” After launching in 1980 with a small band of 26 members meeting in a middle school, Park West has steadily grown into a church of over 2,000 people in weekly attendance. When Reagan was asked to step into the position of visual director in 2011, the role had grown into one that oversaw everything visually at the church, including all pre-produced video, video announcements, weekend broadcast and live streaming. It was a portfolio that would give even the most experienced media artist pause. “I had some hesitation—I actually turned the church down the first time they asked,” shares Reagan. “But I wanted to continue to help them out.
“You may not be the one that sees the organization to the Promised Land, but you’re still a crucial part in moving it forward.” Eric Reagan, Visual Director, Park West Church, Knoxville, TN.
Ultimately, just talking it over with my wife at length, and with the worship and arts director, helped me decide. It reached a tipping point and that helped me end up taking the role.” A secret Reagan has learned over seven years of ministry is how to balance the rewards of creative fulfillment with the call to lead and serve volunteers. “I’m pretty creative, so I think when you see a piece of content that connects with someone in a happy and fun way or more grounded way, that’s pretty rewarding,” states Reagan. “When you’re in the middle of the week-to-week you can get caught up in the making-the-sausage part of it. When volunteers come in with a fresh perspective and jump into their role and want to serve—that’s really awesome to see.”Video & broadcast upgradesOne issue Reagan felt compelled to address from the very beginning of his tenure was the aging video and broadcast systems at Park West Church.
“The last major upgrade was seven years before I came on, and when I joined the staff it was definitely one of the first things we needed to address,” he says. “Projectors in particular needed to be upgraded, because they directly affected the presentation each Sunday. We have fairly large screens and the lower-quality projectors definitely were becoming a pain point.”One of the first steps Reagan and his fellow leaders took in beginning the process was to engage the rest of the staff leadership and elder board in conversations about what future systems should look like. “I started preparing proposals two years after I came, and each year we kept updating and advising,” shares Reagan. “We began conversations with the pastors and the board, and began discussing the scope.” Reagan continues, “Once we talked it all through and looked at our current state of our equipment, it was just time. Everyone recognized that. By 2016, everyone was finally behind the project and we started talking about final plans with the intention of moving forward in 2017.”
Challenges & opportunities
“That’s when we started moving forward with the process of bringing in integrators. We decided [on] Stefan Svard from Audio Video Electronics (AVE) out of Minneapolis,” Reagan reports. “We definitely spent a lot of time educating our leadership. We went through a number of proposals in the spring of 2017, and we arrived at a final contract in October. We got started in the beginning of 2018 and were finished by March.” He shares, “One challenge was that we were planning for a long-term system and we needed something that was going to last for a while.” This meant the Park West leadership team would need to readjust the scope of its budget to accommodate professional-level equipment designed to stand up to the rigors of ministry. “Probably the biggest hurdle for us was how to do triple-wide screens on stage with the baptismal,” he says. “Baptisms are something we do the last Sunday of every month, and we make a pretty big deal out of it. The center screen needed to go smack-dab over the baptismal, so we considered a couple of different options, which led us to a large-motorized center screen. It really worked out better than I could have expected.”
Gearing up
In designing the new broadcast system, Reagan and his team began by choosing the right combination of cameras for the job, starting with the main auditorium cameras. “We were looking at the Sony PXW-X160, but when I saw the Sony HXC-FB75 at NAB it was really a night-and-day difference,” shares Reagan. “It was more of an appropriate step forward from a look perspective, as well as an improvement on the operation side for the volunteer operators.”
He continues, “We did put one X160 near the front left wall to give us a profile shot of the stage. It worked with our budget and was a good color match for the FB75. The shot we’re getting with it now is one we really wanted, so we were thrilled to be able to swing that.”In order to create additional creative angles for their worship experience broadcast, Reagan and his team selected four additional Blackmagic Micro 4K Studio Cameras. “We liked the flexibility of being able to replace lenses easily, which allows us to do some creative, specific shots,” stated Reagan. “They have that larger sensor, which creates a great look. We also like that we can pull them out of the auditorium and use them on filming location with the Blackmagic Video Assist recorders. They’re pretty flexible.”The Park West team also utilized a similar hybrid approach in choosing a video switcher for the new installation. “With the upgrade we just loved the reliability of the Carbonite 1S,” says Reagan. “The more I compared it to other options the more we realized it was better suited to what we needed. We also selected the Atem 1ME Production Studio 4K to serve as our CCU for our Blackmagic cameras, which allows us a lot of remote capabilities. This is one area where working with an integrator really helped us.”
Seeing the light
For its all-important projector upgrades, the Park West team selected three new 7,000-lumin Sony VPL-FHZ700L laser projectors. “We’ve replace so many projector lamps over the years, so laser projectors were very attractive,” Reagan shares. “AVE brought in LED walls and laser projectors [and] set up an on-site demo, and we ultimately chose the Sony.
“Our church can really see the value of what we’ve invested into this upgrade, and we want to stay on the front side of that process moving into the future.”
—Eric Reagan, Visual Director, Park West Church, Knoxville, TN.
We’re really high on those models, especially from a value benefit perspective.”Reagan and his team elected to upgrade the current Telestream Wirecast solution for live streaming applications. “We started streaming back in 2013, and the Wirecast checked a bunch of different boxes for us,” asserts Reagan. “When they made the Facebook streaming integration so easy in the newest version it made the upgrade decision very easy for us.”To capture high-quality reference recordings of the worship experiences, Park West went with the Blackmagic Design Hyperdeck Studio. “We love how affordable the device is, and how affordable the media is,” he says. “It gives us the ability to share footage in a matter of minutes, which definitely meets our needs.”One surprising solution Reagan and his team discovered during the research phase of the installation process was the VeCOAX from ProVideoInstruments. “The VeCOAX has given us the ability to do distributed HD content to any TV throughout the building,” Reagan reports. “It takes our program feed and allows us to send that anywhere in the building via our old existing coax cables. It works out of the box and it’s phenomenal."
Future casting
“So much has changed in the past decade in broadcast, and I’m excited to see what will happen in the next 10 years, what technology will break the mold and allow us to connect with new people,” shares Reagan. “Our church can really see the value of what we’ve invested into this upgrade, and we want to stay on the front side of that process moving into the future.”He closes, “We have a goal, and we’ll wander sometimes, but you have to keep that goal. Even if sometimes you have to circle back, you’re still working your way up the mountain. You may not be the one that sees the organization to the Promised Land, but you’re still a crucial part in moving it forward.”
Park West's tech team (pictured left to right/top to bottom), Charles Wetherington, Vance Kinser, Tony Cotner, William Hawks, Scott Hawks, Amanda Yager, Karlie Rutkowski, Alicia Wetherington, Nathelen Wanjeru, Hailey Rutkowski, Yashena Mack.
