Service

I attended church regularly, yet I was not involved in worship beyond the occasional reading from the lectern. As a member of a church governing body,  I had first-hand knowledge of the things happening; my involvement, though, was limited. And then, in March 2020, things changed.

When COVID-19 put a hard stop to a lot of activities in March 2020, my church decided to make its services available virtually, using Zoom. The church was in a good position to do so since it already had a quality sound system and a few monitors to display audio/video. Yet, it did not have any cameras to be used for Zoom, nor any type of video switcher to make video cameras come to life.

I was one of the three people who provided virtual worship to the congregation from the outset, by helping the pastor and the organist adapt to the new environment. They brought expertise in their respective domains, while I made the technology work for them.

For a few months, Zoom was used it its most basic form: a laptop computer that captured audio and video of the pastor, and audio only of the organ and piano. Later on, a DSLR was used as a webcam for Zoom, while audio was fed into it directly from the church’s sound board.

Both approaches produced acceptable Zoom “meetings,” yet there was a need to expand the limited options for worship. The Zoom could not replicate an in-person experience given the options mentioned above. It was time for a new approach…

Through research to improve the video options offered to the Zoom participants, I came across a video switcher made by Black Magic Design: ATEM Mini Pro. The switcher provided the ability to incorporate better video equipment into its 4 HDMI inputs. In addition to the ATEM, 2 cameras were added, along with a laptop and tablet. With the addition of this equipment, the video capabilities for streaming worship produced noticeable results and renewed interest from the remote participants.

Here’s a worship service video from my church, which was recorded with all the equipment mentioned above.