It’s one less thing to think about for Shaun Miller, central production manager at Rolling Hills Community Church in Franklin, Tenn. Encoding, decoding, and recording are handled in one place using the BZBGear BG-STREAM-DE.
As churches continue to rethink how they use space on Sunday mornings, network-based video distribution has become an increasingly practical solution—especially for overflow rooms and secondary venues. At Rolling Hills Community Church, that approach is already paying dividends.
The BZBGear BG-STREAM-DE Encoder/Decoder/Recorder has received the Church Production Road Tested Certification.
In a recent hands-on walkthrough, Shaun Miller, part of the production team at Rolling Hills, demonstrated how the church is using the BZBGear BG-STREAM-DE to extend live services beyond the main auditorium and into a video café that seats an additional 300 people.
The interface is simple enough that volunteers can run it with confidence.
The concept is simple: capture the program feed in the main worship space, place it on the network, and decode it wherever additional seating is needed. Using standard AV-over-IP workflows—including NDI or Dante AV, depending on the model—the BG-STREAM-DE allows Rolling Hills to treat the video café like a true second venue. The result is a clean, scalable approach that avoids long cable runs and lets the church leverage its existing network infrastructure.
What makes the BG-STREAM-DE especially appealing for church use is its flexibility. The unit accepts either HDMI or SDI inputs and can function as both an encoder and decoder, depending on where it’s placed in the signal chain. One box can take a program feed and put it on the network, while another can pull that same feed back off the network and output it to a projector or display.
Status lights provide quick confirmation that everything is working.
For Miller, workflow efficiency is where the device really shines. The BG-STREAM-DE can stream and record at the same time, eliminating the need for a separate capture system. A USB port on the front panel allows services to be recorded directly to removable media, creating an instant archive without additional steps.
That recording capability goes a step further. The unit supports dual recording, allowing a second file to be created alongside the primary video. That secondary file can be lower-resolution for archival use or audio-only for podcast distribution—saving time in post-production by handling those tasks at the source.
Ease of use is another key factor. Front-panel buttons make it possible to start recording or streaming with a single press, based on preconfigured settings. Status LEDs provide quick visual confirmation, while a clean web-based interface allows deeper setup without requiring advanced networking expertise.
The workflow removes steps instead of adding them.
“I could hand this over to somebody that isn’t an IT person, and they could get it going quickly,” Miller notes—a meaningful endorsement for churches relying on volunteers or small tech teams.
In environments where expanding seating, improving overflow experiences, or simplifying streaming workflows is a priority, tools like the BG-STREAM-DE demonstrate how networked video can be both powerful and approachable. Rather than adding complexity, the right hardware can quietly remove friction—making it easier for churches to focus on ministry, not infrastructure. For more information, click here.
