80-year-old First Alliance Church (FAC) in Calgary, Alberta produces two distinct live video feeds of their services, each optimized for a particular purpose – image magnification (IMAG) to enrich the worship experience for on-site visitors, and online streaming to reach congregants unable to attend in person. Overhauling their production infrastructure to HD, FAC purchased four Z-HD5500 cameras from Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd. (Hitachi Kokusai) to capture high-quality video for both applications while accurately reproducing the church’s rich LED lighting effects.

Approximately 3000 people gather each weekend at FAC Calgary to attend one of the church’s three Saturday evening and Sunday morning services. Replacing their aging, standard-definition analog equipment as part of a major upgrade initiative, the church found the Z-HD5500s to be a perfect fit for their goals and environment.

Supplied by systems integrator Applied Electronics, the Hitachi cameras have exceeded Nadeau-Bonilla’s high expectations for their LED lighting reproduction.

Under the guidance of video director Russell Moore, the church’s volunteer video team creates separate productions for online streaming and for IMAG on the church’s two 24-by-13 foot Stewart Filmscreen front projection screens on the sides of the stage.

FAC Calgary chose equipment from Ross Video including a Carbonite Black 2S switcher as part of their HD upgrade, and were pleased to discover the tight integration between the Hitachi cameras and the Ross Dashboard open control and monitoring platform.

Most importantly, the new cameras have helped the church meet their goals of improving the visual experience for worshippers both on-site and online.