FOR-A's HVS-490 switcher is at the heart of its integrated system designed specifically for houses of worship.
Video production never been so crucial to the Church world.
When it comes to live production switchers, there are manufacturer names that are known by everyone. Often FOR-A isn't included in that list, but they should be. Recently FOR-A started packaging a production kit designed especially for the needs of the house of the worship market. I love it when manufacturers start targeting churches. Not that long ago, many wouldn't recognize the opportunity the house of worship market represent, regardless of how much of their product had saturated the market. This paradigm shift is excellent because now products are being designed for churches and the unique use case they represent. "This is a tightly integrated series of products, each selected based on their feature sets and the way they address challenges specific to live and pre-produced programming for house of worship A/V teams," says Adam Daniul, FOR-A’s director of midwest and south regional sales." With the huge growth in online viewership, services can no longer afford issues like latency, poor image quality, or not enough inputs and outputs. And they need all of that in an easy-to-use, powerful and cost-effective setup." I think that's exactly correct, so he gets no argument from me.
FOR-A brings a robust package to the table
The real value in using a single manufacturer across as much of your video system as possible stems from the additional benefits of communicating across the entire ecosystem. Typically going soup-to-nuts with a single manufacturer ensures "it just works." In the case of FOR-A, this means a kit that includes: an HVS-490 (or HVS 100) production switcher, an Envivo Studio multiscreen video server, an FA-9600 multi-channel signal processor, and a ClassX LiveBoard Mini for graphics playout. While that sounds like a lot, it doesn't stop there because each switcher is available in various frame sizes, and with the optional expansion cards, the I/O options are positively dizzying. No matter what it is you are trying to do, FOR-A has you covered.
Each piece of this kit could stand to have its own First Impression article. However, here are the highlights: In the switcher department, FOR-A brings all the features you would expect from a production switcher plus a little extra; the HVS-490 also has features like MELite technology, which eliminates the need for multiple switchers in a multi-monitor staging scenario, which has become a pretty common scenario in the house of worship market where multiple audiences; in person, overflow, multi-site and online all need to see something slightly different. It also has FlexaKey, which allows a regular AUX bus to transform into a functional Mix Effects with cuts, mix, wipes, keys, and DVE, including full preview. This is an essential feature for churches trying to push a small switcher into doing a much larger switcher's job. Features like these aren't found on all production switchers, so if they are essential in your use case, this switcher is one to consider. If your church doesn't need all the I/O of a larger switcher or if you are looking for portability, consider the HVS-100, which, while smaller, is no less powerful.
The Envivo Studio multiscreen video server
This neat little piece of gear would work well for large churches needing a media server or screen switcher or in churches with multiple venues where a standalone product would be helpful. The Envivo Studio supports a live video switcher capability for cutting camera inputs, provides an internal keyer (for multi-layer overlay effects), and video switcher support (key/fill) along with clip player, clip store, and still store capabilities.
Insight Production Server
For churches looking to record and for playback or time slip, the Insight production server is something to consider. The standard configuration for storage in this server is 4 x 2TB drives in RAID-10. It has four SDI channels for playout, so there are lots of options for what you are going to distribute where. Insight's flexible event processor allows to connect multiple devices and interact with video switchers, GPIO connected devices, and other studio equipment to orchestrate event triggering for a seamless production.
FA-9600 Multipurpose signal processor
The FA-9600 is a Swiss Army knife of video processing. If you need up/down/cross conversion or scaling, HDR, and wide color gamut support or want to use LUTs, this is the product for you. It can also handle frame rate conversion and resize and repositioning. Each of the FA-9600 two inputs also include a frame synchronizer.
ClassX LiveBoard Mini
Lastly, for churches who want to use serious graphics packages and find that ProPresenter isn't enough, FOR-A has you covered with the ClassX LiveBoard Mini. It's a real-time live graphics software package, which claims to have a user-friendly operation and multi-language support.
Questions
It seems like FOR-A has covered pretty much every possible configuration and need that a church could have. So my I am curious how flexible a package is it? I know many large churches would find this kit incredibly useful, but smaller churches may not need the video server or graphics playout options; what is the cost savings? The signal processor might not be something your church needs today, but if that wanted to upgrade to it at a later time, is that an option?
Why does all of this matter to the average church? At no point in time has video production been so crucial to the Church world. With many congregations only seeing their church via streaming services, the production quality has never been more critical than it is today. Tools like these don't guarantee quality production, but they empower tech teams and volunteers to make sure quality isn't a barrier to the message being heard.
