Streaming has now been a requirement for churches to keep their services and ministries going during the pandemic. With churches that had already been live streaming their services this is just as easy as every other service, it’s as simple as point and shoot. Go live on Facebook or YouTube. Maybe even prerecord and post it at service time. For Wichita First Church of The Nazarene, they got caught in the middle.
For the past 20 years, First Church has been sporting the Panasonic GH120 a 1980’s broadcasting camera with a resolution of 480p. Wichita First Church has been using it as their way of getting out in to the world. Though vintage is something that hipsters take part in, using the same 1980’s broadcasting technology in current times is something that might be looked down upon, but Wichita First Church was going to ride that puppy till the day it died.
That day came when the stay-at-home orders were given.
“Streaming 480p in a world where 4k is easily accessible is going to start driving away our audience,” Gene Rankin, head of tech at Wichita First, said. He’s been looking forward to upgrading tech for years but the time nor the budget was available. And now that time has come.
Another key element in this upgrade came from their new lead pastor, Scott Marshall.
“But when it comes to bigger churches, the expectations grow larger,” Marshall said when talking about changes being made to the production of Sunday morning services, “this doesn’t just go for tech, but also the singers and the band members and the overall staff here at First Naz.”
“Before we only had around 30 devices averaging on our stream. Now we are seeing 1000+ coming from Facebook, YouTube, and to our website,” Rankin said, “that requires us to up our game.”
“With no one in the choir loft, we couldn’t stream every week with a dark space behind the band, so we covered it up. Having it go from this big ole empty platform, and shrunk it, giving it more of a studio feel.”
– Gene raNKIN, commenting on the stage change.
But this isn’t a temporary fix. Wichita First is planning on replacing the 480p cameras with pretty Panasonic HD cameras that can be controlled remotely controlled or manned. That way those who have found the church during this crisis can be able to expect the same quality coming out of this as well.
“HD is here to stay. My children only ever knew screens, and the other generations are getting on skype and Zoom and connecting with people. It’s hard to say, but this is a blessing in disguise.” Marshall said during an interview.
Rankin and Marshall will be working together on seeing Wichita First Church of The Nazarene to not be over looked during this pandemic, making things easier for both those who work behind the scenes, and those who are watching at home.
