Elizabeth Tilden Photography
Lenexa Baptist Church's tech team acquired three Panasonic AK-HC3900 HD HDR Studio Cameras with Fujinon lenses. They use the cameras to capture tight shots of their pastor and worship team, which are displayed on their IMAG screens in the main sanctuary. They also transmit the images to their off-site campuses.
Churches seeking to achieve more cinematic video production are upgrading their camera systems to move away from more traditional, broadcast-style presentation. This has lead to a demand for quality studio cameras that deliver crisp images while remaining both flexible and user-friendly for both on-staff and volunteer operators.
Learn more about Panasonic's ideas and innovations at us.panasonic.com/broadcast.
These were important factors to take into account for Justin Pedigo when he led a recent camera upgrade and installed Panasonic studio and PTZ cameras at Lenexa Baptist Church in Lenexa, Kansas. As director of media and IT, Pedigo oversees production teams at the church’s main worship center in Lenexa (which serves as its broadcast location), as well as two offsite campuses. Both of these locations, as well as an alternative worship space on the main campus, receive live feeds of Pastor Chad McDonald’s weekly message. Additionally, the church live streams its services out to its websites, YouTube, and Facebook channels.
In fact, while many churches are pre-recording services for Sunday broadcasts, all of Lenexa’s streaming is completely live. Pedigo explains that it was McDonald’s wish to be genuinely live to create an in-the-moment connection with his congregation. “If we want our people to get up on a Sunday morning and worship with us, he wanted to be with them, and he wanted them to know that everything that was happening was live,” he says. “He wanted to make that personal connection.”
Journey to an upgrade
A little over two years ago, Pedigo began his research for the camera upgrade, which would take place in the 1,100-seat main worship center. This building is 12 years old, as were the cameras the church was using up until now. “The cameras were starting to show their age,” he says. “We had sent them in for repairs just to maintain them, but we wanted to get better lenses and chips in the camera themselves.” He says that the production crew was starting to experiment with lower lighting levels, adding to the need for higher performing systems.
After testing several different manufacturers’ products, Pedigo and his team settled on Panasonic. This led to the church’s acquisition of three Panasonic AK-HC3900 HD HDR Studio Cameras with Fujinon lenses. These cameras are used for capturing tight shots of Pastor McDonald and the worship team, which are displayed on the main sanctuary’s IMAG screens in addition to being transmitted to Lenexa Baptist’s off-site campuses. Designed for broadcast applications, the AK-HC3900s feature a large 4K-CMOS sensor, and deliver a high sensitivity of F10 (2,000 lx) and low noise, with an S/N ratio of 62 dB when in High Sense Mode. These cameras also incorporate CAC (Chromatic Aberration Compensation), skew reduction, and DRS (Dynamic Range Stretcher functionality, as well as two Digital Extender functions.
Along with the AK-HC3900 studio cameras, Lenexa Baptist acquired three Panasonic AW-UE100 4K NDI Professional Streaming PTZ Cameras. These units also contribute to the church’s desire to capture more intimate, filmic shots of worship leaders and praise teams without being invasive––or distracting the in-person congregation with a lot of bulky support gear. When, like the AW-UE100s, they support IP transmission protocols, PTZs are also attractive to church production teams with limited crews: one operator can run more than one camera remotely. And, once again, thanks to technological advancements, the color-matching capabilities of PTZ cameras has vastly improved, delivering more consistent results across an entire camera rig.
One AW-UE100 PTZ at Lenexa Baptist is positioned on stage and is used to capture close-ups of the musicians and praise teams, providing excellent footage options for techs crafting the at-home worship experience.
"We can get shots that we could never get before to bring to those people watching at home.”
Justin Pedigo, Director of Media and IT, Lenexa Baptist Church, Lenexa, Kansas
Pedigo relays that prior to the upgrade, Lenexa Baptist had four manned cameras; now the new studio cameras are manned and the three PTZs are all controlled by one operator. Leveraging manpower like this is important at church, where all camera operators and directors are volunteers. “We have actually expanded our coverage in the room, which helps with our online experience,” he says. “We can get shots that we could never get before to bring to those people watching at home.”
One AW-UE100 PTZ is positioned on stage and is used for close-ups of the musicians and praise teams, as well as shots out toward the congregation. Pedigo explains that pre-pandemic, Lenexa Baptist’s services featured a full orchestra, but right now a reduced ensemble made up of violin, cello, flugelhorn, and trumpet supplement in worship. “We can get much tighter shots on them, and different angles of the guitarists and singers,” he says.
“With the Panasonic studio cameras and the Panasonic PTZ cameras, we can color-match very, very closely.”
Justin Pedigo, Director of Media and IT, Lenexa Baptist Church, Lenexa, Kansas
Another PTZ is positioned at the front-of-house (FOH) sound booth in the center of the house, and is used for transition shots as Pastor McDonald takes his place on stage. “It’s a medium-wide shot of the stage, and captures him walking into place while our manned 2 AK-HC3900 studio camera gets that tight IMAG shot,” Pedigo describes. The third PTZ is located on the upper level of house right, and captures shots of the congregation. “We have shots of them worshipping, and if we have any special presentations, we can use that camera to get some different angles without having heads in the way.”
Strengths that sealed the deal
Pedigo relays that the color saturation he and his team achieve with the Panasonic cameras is a vast improvement. “It makes you feel like you’re seeing what’s actually in the room,” he says. The viewfinders, he adds, are much easier for operators to focus in on their desired shots.
For Pedigo, getting buy-in for this upgrade from his volunteers was crucial to this project’s success––once again, because all of the church’s camera operators are volunteers. “Obviously, you want to get to the level of quality that your church either wants or has, but if you have that volunteer buy-in, the deployment and use of the cameras is going to be much, much, easier,” he says. He notes that the biggest priority among all of his volunteer operators was to find a solution that would color-match well between the manned studio cameras and the PTZs. “With the Panasonic studio cameras and the Panasonic PTZ cameras, we can color-match very, very closely.”
Pedigo relays that Panasonic’s training and support helped Lenexa Baptist’s camera crew get up and running quickly. While initial training was conducted remotely, a Panasonic representative spent a day on site to perform color matching and iron out any wrinkles. “This level of attention saved us a considerable amount of time in getting to know the technology. We probably could have gotten to where we are now [on our own], but it would have taken us months,” he says. “With Panasonic, it only took 12 hours.”
