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EVANGELISM
Re-Defined: in HD
By Michael Kirby
How do you put together a 6-camera, live-switched, high definition system to cover two evangelistic series’ a year for the next five years?
First of all, you get inspired!
In March, 2006, a large contingent of personnel from the North Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists caught a vision while in Bolivia to conduct an eight-day, “live by satellite” televised evangelistic series. The Americans noticed the culture in the Bolivian churches was one of continual “event” evangelism emphasizing the concept of “EvangeLiving.” Encouraging members to allow “friendship evangelism” to permeate every aspect of their lives so they would be in a position to invite their new friends, relatives, and neighbors to the next “reaping” event and so on.
Inspired by this concept, Dan Serns, Ministerial Director, began to plan an initiative that would allow Seventh-day Adventist members and organizations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska, to participate in a similar evangelism harvest cycle. What followed was a five-year plan to conduct two televised evangelistic meetings per year that could be downlinked via satellite directly to every Seventh-day Adventist church in the NW, encouraging participation.
“I was asked to put a budget together to rent equipment for two live satellite uplinks, each spanning eight days, in the ten largest cities of the NW over the next five years,” says Todd Gessele, the executive producer for this initiative. “My first reaction was: ‘How am I going to do that?’ I remember walking back to my office and praying, ‘God, I need your help. I doubt that kind of equipment is even available to rent in Bozeman, Montana, Anchorage, Alaska, or Spokane, Washington, and if it is, I’m sure we probably can’t afford it. Help me provide the committee with the right answer. I hardly know where to start.’”
Less than twenty minutes later, the phone in Todd’s office rang. It was Win Wheeler, a local member in McMinnville, Oregon. For the past three years, Wheeler had been dreaming of replacing the dying tube cameras used to record and air the McMinnville Seventh-day Adventist Church’s worship services on the local cable channel. The conversation turned towards working together and it was proposed that the NPUC purchase an HD switcher and McMinnville, in return for keeping the switcher, would allow their new Canon XL-H1 cameras to be used to cover the evangelistic events. Gessele has always preferred a tape-delayed product to a live feed and the arrangement allowed critical post-production time to turn around the edited masters for broadcast. And by using the same system each time, it eliminated the need to find vendors in each host city.
The core of the McMinnville system centers on a Ross Video Synergy 100 MD production switcher and four Canon XL-H1 HDV camcorders. Sachtler DV-6B tripods, a Clear-Com intercom system, and Marshall V-R70P-HAD HD LCD monitors round out the equipment on the camera side. An AJA Kona 3 with a K3 box running into a Quad 2GHz, 4GB RAM Apple G5 with Final Cut Studio handles capturing the program feed. Marshall V-R72P-2HD, and V-R171P-AFHD monitors allow for Source, Preview, and Program monitoring, respectively. A BrightEye 41 and three BrightEye 40s provide sync to the system. For audio mixing, a Yamaha O1V96V2 digital mixer allows for 16 channels of analog mixing that is output into a 7.1-channel mix captured directly into Final Cut Pro via AES/EBU running into the K3 Box. A Gefen DVI-to-HD-SDI scaler provides full-screen graphic content, and two AJA HD10-C2 down-converters provide flexibility for SD output. Portland, Oregon-based Pro Video and Tape provided consultation and purchasing services for the McMinnville system.
To assist in the technical aspects of the production, Gessele brought on Tim Adams, owner of a video production company and Video Ministry Director for Sunnyside Seventh-day Adventist Church in Portland, Oregon. Lighting and set design were the main areas of focus for Adams, as well as assisting in piecing the many pieces together to make sure the entire system would work. Adams was also able to obtain two Canon XH-G1 HDV cameras from Sunnyside for use during the events to bring the total camera number to six.
Hollywood Lights, Inc. provided consultation and purchase of the lighting system. A total of 40 fixtures were purchased, including twenty 575-watt Acclaim Fresnels, 4 ETC Source 4 Jr., five Elation Design 36 LEDs, five Par 64 cans, and an Elation Octopod LED package. An ETC SmartFade 1496 desk was purchased as the control solution; however, after the first event, the team opted for Jands Vista App software and a Vista M1 console with 256 DMX channels.
The success of the first series laid the foundation for plans to continue the initiative in Boise, Idaho. Gessele moved Adams from Technical Director to Lighting Designer and Director which allowed a tighter focus on putting together a more comprehensive and flexible lighting package. A more focused set design was created by Adams and Gessele that allowed the lighting design to complement the set and the speaker.
In October, the team of Gessele, Wheeler, and Adams prepared to travel to Boise. Adams assisted Wheeler in packing equipment in McMinnville, but sometime between 3am and 10am of that morning, a trailer in the church parking lot was stolen. The trailer contained four custom-made camera operator platforms, and a roll of cable used to interconnect various components inside Master Control. The items were insured, but the last time the cable had been ordered, it had taken two months to arrive. A police report was taken, and the rest of the equipment went to Boise later that day.
Unfortunately, this was simply the beginning of the devil’s work in this series. Once Gessele, Adams, and Wheeler arrived in Boise, several issues surfaced. Wheeler discovered that his Fibre Channel cables were not long enough to run from Master Control to a separate room where the RAID and switcher frame were located. A local church member who worked for a large electronics manufacturer happened to stop by as the problem surfaced and was able to provide a resource for a 30-meter pair of cables in California.
Another issue that was encountered was with the Gefen DVI-to-HD-SDI scaler.
The issue was the scaler is automated in that it locks into the default resolution of the monitor display and there is no way to change it once it is set. The unit needs a native 1080i EDID signal in order to set properly, and unfortunately that was not possible with the G5 Gessele planned to use, so he opted to use his Macbook Pro laptop to run out his graphics in Keynote.
In a miraculous turn of events, a local metal fabrication company was able to construct two camera operator platforms, replacing two of the four that were stolen! Another miracle took place with the stolen cable. Says Wheeler, “When Canare had a multi-week turn-around time for replacement of the stolen cable, I paused briefly and offered a silent prayer. Immediately, I remembered an incident several years earlier when Whirlwind had Canare cable in stock. One more phone call and our needed cable was sent overnight via FedEx.”
Adams’ lighting package, meanwhile, was having its own trouble. He had spent considerable time with Hollywood Lights preparing a comprehensive lighting package consisting of: 3 Martin Mac 700 moving heads, a collection of Source 4 Jrs, and four Wybron CXI color scrollers. After spending four days setting up truss, fixtures, and running DMX and power cables, Adams finally was able to sit down with Jands’ Vista App lighting control software and get to patching his system. There was one problem, though; the M1 lighting console used to hook the software via USB to the DMX signal wasn’t working. Double-checking his DMX signal path, and calling the software trainer and technical support for the Jands reseller, Adams urgently tried to locate the problem.
Don Barksdale, property manager, was able to secure a Leprecon 612 light console and upon plugging in the DMX line, all dimmers locked into the signal; the problem was neither of the DMX outputs on the M1 were functional. It was too late on Saturday afternoon to have another unit shipped out, so Adams manually turned on and off his ETC SmartBar dimmers for the first three programs until the replacement unit arrived on Tuesday. With shaky confidence, Adams plugged in his console, re-checked his software settings and was amazed to see his lights working remotely. He could now program a show with the three Mac 700 moving head lights, color scrollers, and LED accent lighting. The lighting was solid from Tuesday night on, and Adams was able to program different looks in an impressively small amount of time. “I’m just glad that we got it figured out; it would have been a shame to have all of this awesome technology and not be able to use it for God’s glory.” says Adams.
Once the live program was captured into the RAID in Master Control, it was transferred onto a 1TB Firewire 800 hard drive for transport to the editor, Chad Gessele, who had another Apple XServe RAID in his room. The program was then edited using the live-switched master and HDV footage captured during the program on select cameras. Lower thirds and credits were added and the program was cut to the 58:30 broadcast form factor. Each program, once finished, was transferred back to the 1TB Firewire 800 transport drive, copied to the Master Control RAID, and played out in Final Cut through the Kona 3 card into the Ross frame. From there it would run through an AJA HD10C2 down-converter, and into a Sony HVR-15U HDV deck onto a DVCAM tape. The tapes were then labeled and shipped to the satellite playback facility in California.
Despite the many problems and issues that were thrown at the technical crew before, during, and after this series, the final product is one that they are very proud of. It has already reached a worldwide audience, resulting in stories and experiences that continue to pour in and prove the need for a message of hope. By press time, the team will be in Anchorage shooting yet another series and continuing to follow the call to provide a message of hope.
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