How NOW Church in Ocala, Florida Built Its Video Production
From the HD Pro Guide Magazine archive: this article first appeared in HD Pro Guide Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3 (2014).
Ocala, Florida based NOW Church is a large and growing Christian church that includes an active local congregation, as well as members throughout the world. To help spread its message and keep its community informed, NOW Church provides weekly sermons and regular events, as well as streamed Bible lessons and weekly broadcasts of sermons on the Internet and via local Florida broadcasters. To capture NOW Church’s high-energy worship and rock concert-like presentations, the church invested in two Blackmagic Studio Cameras HD. After seeing the Blackmagic Studio Cameras at NAB, Ricky Perinchief, owner of Proton Global, a Florida based design and consulting firm, recognized right away that the cameras would be perfect for NOW Church, which he also attends. Within a few weeks, they had ordered the cameras and had them installed and working. NOW Church also uses two Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras and a Blackmagic Cinema Camera (EF). The Blackmagic cameras are used around the church for wide shots, stage zooms and tight body shots of the pastor, singers, plays and all action unfolding on stage. The Blackmagic Studio Cameras operate as the two main cameras for the church, with Camera 1 using a Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 lens, shooting tight to full body from rear center of the church, and Camera 2 capturing full shots of the pulpit from the left using a Panasonic Lumix G 12-35mm f/2.8 lens. A moving Pocket Cinema Camera is set up on a 40 foot track running over the heads of the crowd to the stage/pulpit. All cameras are fed into a Blackmagic Design ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K via HD-SDI cables, and two via wireless transmitters, with the ATEM located 120 feet away from the main stage.
As with most churches this size, the technical staff is made up primarily of volunteers, and the Blackmagic Studio Cameras’ huge 10 inch screens and focus control have really helped the volunteers catch all of the details during every event. It has also allowed the church to capture a much more professional looking broadcast, while still being affordable and easy for the staff to learn on.
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