The First Baptist Church, in Dallas, is the site of a major multi-million dollar construction project of its downtown Worship Center and second high-rise building that, when completed, looks to change the very face of the city of Dallas.
As part of one of the largest church building projects in the U.S., the church, which has held worship services at the same location since 1890, will upgrade its broadcast ministry to full HD production capabilities with the latest Grass Valley production technologies. This includes up to nine Grass Valley LDK 8000 Elite cameras and a Karrera Video Production Center switcher. The project is scheduled for completion in April 2013, with their first service in their new facility on Easter Sunday.
All of the new Grass Valley production equipment will be used to provide live and tape-delayed coverage of church services for its domestic television and radio audiences, as well as its international Internet audience. The equipment will also be used for live image magnification in the new 3000 seat Worship Center. Each service typically includes a 200-voice choir and a 50-piece orchestra.
For in-house image magnification, the Karrera switcher will feed a 150ft-wide video screen at the front of the sanctuary that will feature both live and taped images displayed simultaneously via a Coolux multiview system.
Services are now — and will continue to be — broadcast on the Daystar Network for TV distribution (on a 60- to 120-day delay) and also live on 720 radio stations across the U.S. every day. The delayed broadcasts allow the church to post produce its services using its Grass Valley equipment and have become known among viewers for their sophisticated production values.
The church has purchased three different control panels for its new Karrera switcher. There’s a 3 M/E hardware panel for feeding the main screen in the Worship Center, a 2 M/E version for the broadcast feed and a third soft panel to handle the live Internet stream. Karrera's ability to simultaneously produce program streams for image magnification, broadcast and the Internet was the deciding factor for First Baptist Church to select Grass Valley.