WALNUT CREEK, CA — Northcreek Church (NCC), now in the third phase of a construction project that started two years ago, needed lighting, video and stage components for the new building being added to the church campus in response to an increase in church attendance, and relied on Michael Garrison Associates (MGA) to do the job. The church is also upgrading from the basic lighting and A/V production to new gear, including the Slate 1000 live production system from Broadcast Pix to power the video element for the church’s new facility.
The Slate 1000 is installed within a 600-square-foot area dubbed “the blender” by Brent Moutier, director of communications. The Slate 1000 connects to three Panasonic 860 robotic cameras, 1 Canon camera, DVC recorders and an Apple 4TB computer editing system. It powers the complete A/V system while broadcasting to 25 flat panel monitors throughout the NCC campus during two weekly worship services. NCC offers copies of their services on DVD for congregants and plans to stream video of its services at the church’s Web site, www.northcreek.org, and Apple’s iTunes, www.itunes.com.
The previous A/V system at NCC had been in use for several years. Moutier and his team researched a variety of equipment solutions before selecting the Broadcast Pix Slate 1000 due to the large investment required for the upgrade.
“It was very important for us to make sure our new equipment would take us through technology advancements over the next decade or so,” explained Moutier. “I saw that the Slate 1000 would grow with us and support our future plans of advanced video production, streaming, and podcasting.
“Perhaps the most important selling point of the Slate was its ability to provide us with the power and features of an entire control room in a self-contained unit,” he continued. “It integrates everything and eliminates the need to buy 20 different components. The multi-view feature was a big plus as well, since we only needed to buy one monitor.”
As is common in many churches, NCC relies upon a crew of volunteers to operate equipment during services. Moutier says he considers the simplicity of the Slate system an added benefit. “Church members from age 11 to 70 with initially little or no experience are running our equipment regularly. They may be intimidated at first but quickly become comfortable and excited about operating the equipment.”
Moutier adds that his department puts a special focus on keeping technical and media aspects of worship services at a very low profile, so as not to detract from the services. “It’s a powerful machine that helps us accomplish that goal. The system, powered by the Broadcast Pix system, complements the services and events while being virtually invisible to our church members – which is what we want.”
For more information, please visit www.broadcastpix.com.
