When Christ Church of Short Hills (NJ) was looking to upgrade its streaming capabilities, to deliver quality live streaming and recorded broadcasts, it enlisted the services of JD Sound & Video.
JD Sound and Video provides state-of-the-art sound, video and control solutions for houses of worship, schools, theaters, corporate, government and municipal clients.
JD Sound & Video’s Principal and Lead Engineer Joe DiSabatino worked with church leaders to identify, select and install a camera system featuring four Marshall Electronics CV730-NDI UHD 4K60 IP PTZ cameras, plus a CV344 Compact HD camera.
“Christ Church of Short Hills is a beautiful house of worship that needed to upgrade its streaming capabilities,” says DiSabatino.
“With the pandemic forcing people to watch remotely, it brought into focus the church’s need for a streaming upgrade. Even though they are not currently streaming in 4K, one of their requirements was a camera system with 4K capabilities.
“They also wanted to stay within a certain budget without compromising on picture quality. Choosing the Marshall CV730-NDI was a no brainer. It’s an incredible camera that met all the church’s requirements.”
The four CV730-NDI’s were placed at various locations, within the sanctuary, to ensure complete coverage.
“We placed one CV730-NDI at the very back of the church under the organ pipes, one midway left to capture the procession, one in the front corner and one on the altar to capture the chorus,” adds DiSabatino.
“We also have a Marshall CV344 at the organ, so we really were able to provide full coverage of the room.”
The Marshall CV730-NDIW (white) PTZ cameras feature a nine-million-pixel sensor with a long 30x optical zoom range and flexible simultaneous 12GSDI and HDMI outputs with NDI®|HX and USB3 capability.
“The Marshall VS-PTC-IP PTZ Camera Controller is designed to operate seamlessly across multiple camera protocols, on a single network, making it the ideal solution for Christ Church of Short Hills,” says DiSabatino.
“The VS-PTC-IP offers detailed operation through a high-quality PTZ joystick, professional zoom rocker and individual fine-tune adjustment knobs for iris, white balance, exposure, red/blue, shutter speed, focus, pan/tilt speed and zoom speed.”
The streaming upgrade also included a custom Dell PC that is being used for ISO recording of each camera to a separate network drive. vMix Live Production and Mixing software and two different Blackmagic DeckLink capture cards.
“With this new production workflow, Christ Church of Short Hills now has a flexibility they never had before when it comes to streaming,” adds DiSabatino.
“The technology and features of the Marshall CV730-NDI allows the church to capture and deliver high-quality HD live streams and recorded broadcasts.
“The new Marshall cameras also deliver a more consistent look and feel that better captures the beauty of the sanctuary to those watching online.”
In addition to Christ Church of Short Hills, JD Sound & Video also recently completed a smaller but similar streaming upgrade featuring Marshall cameras at the Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany in Philadelphia.