Redefining A Successful Church Service Production
What started out as a small, humble fellowship at Kampong Silat in 1952, has now turned into Grace Baptist Church, a place of worship with 1,000 strong members each week, on Mattar Road. Through all these years, the AV Ministry has remained one of the key operations that assist in the production and support of the worship ministry and weekly service.
Along with many other industries, churches were hard hit by COVID-19 and the government measures that came along with it. The need to pivot and relook at how production is done was necessary, especially since worship services were not allowed in person during the circuit breaker in 2020 and there was a limit on physical capacity even after the restriction was relaxed.
Technology then became one of the key solutions that helped bridge the gap for Grace Baptist Church. We spoke with Eugene Low, Deacon of the AV Ministry, to understand some of the challenges faced and how Canon’s remote camera solutions have helped their church to increase efficiency and improve the overall worship experience for on-site and online attendees alike.
What were some of the challenges that the church faced, especially during COVID-19?
As with other churches in Singapore, the circuit breaker and government regulations prevented us from holding our usual weekly services in person. Yet, as a church, we needed to look for ways to continue to reach out to our members and community. During the circuit breaker, our online services were difficult to produce. Recordings were done with makeshift setups from various homes and stitched in post-production before they premiered on YouTube to our members and the public for viewing each week. Looking at the quality of the recordings, we knew it was not working right for us — the level of engagement was missing — and we needed to figure out a solution for the long term.
As we transitioned from the circuit breaker to Phase One, things improved but we faced a different set of challenges on-site. Productions were finally allowed but the restriction of the number of members posed a problem for our manpower-led service. We were limited by the availability of adequate equipment and people on-site. Even with six members from the AV Ministry for support, the production itself proved to be difficult as we needed to handle multiple pieces of equipment, with a messy setup and wiring all around. And the different setups required for each of the English and Mandarin services posed additional challenges as we needed to set up, strip down and redo it entirely based on the unique requirements of each service team.
What prompted the team to look for a more permanent solution?
We understand the pandemic would not be here forever, hence, there’s a need for us to be better equipped for production in the current and post-pandemic environment with a more permanent solution. Also, we saw the benefits that online streaming brought about and, now, the hybrid nature of our services as well. The recent surge in attendance on-site was mostly funnelled from our online streaming, and that confirmed the need for us to improve our production to adapt to the changing times.
Amongst the many solutions available in the market, we eventually settled on Canon’s CR-N300 remote camera and remote controller RC-IP100 to help with our live streaming. Since the adoption of the new solution, we saw significant improvement in terms of attendance and positive feedback from the congregation. The level of engagement was much improved, and that led to its extended use beyond service needs to include other important occasions such as wedding ceremonies, which are very well received by the overseas family and friends of the church members who want to be part of the occasion and couldn’t travel due to covid restriction.
What is the greatest difference after the adoption of Canon solutions?
The ease of use is definitely the greatest difference we saw. Compared to our previous setup where we needed a large team on-site with multiple equipment, the current setup with Canon’s remote controller and CR-N300 remote camera was a breeze! All we needed to do was to power up and we are ready to go live for recordings or live streaming.
Our ministry members consist of volunteers, which means most of them are not tech-savvy to handle complex production equipment. The ease of use significantly helped to reduce the manpower and training required. With just a short briefing prior to the service, our ministry members are able to learn and man the production with confidence as the controller and cameras are intuitive and user-friendly. The remote controller is responsive as well, giving us great flexibility and control over the shots and framing we want with a click of a button.
The colour science and production were things that stood out to us as well. With a simple plug-and-play concept, we were able to have the entire service presented in the default setting across three services each week, without any complex colour correction required.
The compatibility of the CR-N300 remote camera to Network Device Interface (NDI) was part of our consideration as well. This meant we are able to further improve our production and visual quality, should we choose to upgrade and overhaul our Serial Digital Interface (SDI)-led backend system to NDI for higher bandwidth and integration.
How was your customer service experience working with Canon?
Right from the beginning, the customer service team was very helpful in answering all the questions and concerns we had. The on-site demonstration that was offered gave us the opportunity to better decide what was best for us, based on our production requirements. The setting up of the remote controller and cameras was fuss-free as well, and we are thankful for the support we’ve had so far. To us, the AV Ministry is essentially the ears and eyes of our members, and so having the right solutions and partner is crucial for us, to help our members get the full experience of worship and weekly services, wherever they might be.
If you would like to find out more about our remote camera solutions and how it can be implemented in your organisation or venue, visit us here for more information.
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