Highlands Community Church's "Inside Out" project in Renton, Wash., uses a HD video production infrastructure provided by Advanced Broadcast Solutions (ABS) for its expanding congregation, and also for a second, video-based service in Kent, Wash. The church, with no space left to expand at its Renton location, considered buying or building a second facility, but found Seattle real estate prices cost-prohibitive.
"With our HD video strategy, we're able to share a consistent, unified message with congregants at our two locations, while minimizing the cost of the second location," said Gordon Strange, technical director for the church. "We record our Saturday evening worship service in Renton, then display that HD video at two Sunday morning services in Kent. With video as its foundation, our Kent location is actually an ad hoc worship center that we set up every Sunday morning in the auditorium of nearby Kent Ridge High School."
The worship service in Renton includes the pastor's sermon, announcements and a variety of vocal and instrumental performances. The HD video shown at Kent focuses on sharing the sermon, which is supplemented with on-site musical performances and announcements.
At Highlands' Renton campus, ABS installed a HD video production control room in the worship center's balcony, built around a FOR-A HVS-300HS HD/SD switcher and Panasonic P2 HD record decks. Three Christie HD projectors and Da-Lite front projection 16:9 video screens are used for I-Mag during the service, with footage from two robotic Panasonic HD PTZ cameras. Prior to its upgrade, the Renton facility showed only computer-based presentations on a single screen using a digital projector.
The "Inside Out" project included the systems design and integration work by ABS in Renton, as well as an upgraded lighting system at Renton and three 24-foot trailers of HD video gear to facilitate the Kent services.
"I had hired ABS once before for a large-scale project I managed at another church," said Strange. "Since that was such a positive experience, I came back to them for this project. They're professional, dependable, and dedicated to quality work."
