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GREATER ATLANTA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL EQUIPS NEW MULTI-PURPOSE EVENT SPACE WITH PANASONIC AG-HPX500 P2 HD CAMCORDERS, AV-HS400A MULTI-FORMAT SWITCHERS AND 10K HD DLP PROJECTORS
High School Students Produce Daily Morning Broadcast
SECAUCUS, NJ (December 11, 2009) – Located on a beautifully wooded 75-acre campus less than 20 minutes from downtown Atlanta, the Greater Atlanta Christian School (GAC) has been educating students grades K- 12 for the past 40 years. Early this year, the school, whose enrollment numbers close to 2,000, unveiled the Long Forum, a new, 82,000-square-foot venue for the use by the student body and surrounding faith-based communities. The multi-purpose space is equipped with a variety of production and display equipment from Panasonic Broadcast, including two AG-HPX500 P2 HD camcorders, two AV-HS400A HD/SD switchers, four PT-DW10000U 10000 lumen 1080p DLP projectors and one PT-D5700U 6000 lumens HD projector.
Since its opening, the Long Forum has been the site of large-scale concerts by musicians and performers (comedian Jeff Foxworthy, e.g.), corporate meetings, graduations, student athletics and classroom activity. Beyond seating up to 3400, the Long Forum incorporates a 94’ x 50’ sports court and a 16’ by 67’ stage that can be extended for adaptable set-ups and staging. Classrooms and team rooms are available for smaller gatherings or break-outs. One of these classrooms functions as a control room where the two HS400A switchers reside and from which a live production can be run; this area doubles as a production studio where GAC broadcast students produce a daily three-to-five-minute news show. The production is shot news style with the HPX500s for delayed viewing as an in-classroom podcast watched by the entire GAC student body the following morning.
“The HPX500s are used for a wide range of projects,” said Alex Fleming, GAC A/V Manager. “Our advanced video students are required to cover a live event, which they have been shooting with the HPX500s. Some of our seniors ‘sign out’ a camcorder to shoot final projects. I’ll work with the students to shoot events and school-related videos. Also, visiting professionals often will take advantage of the HPX500s to supplement their own camera stock.”
Fleming explained that students shoot the morning podcast the previous afternoon. They work with HPX500s on tripods producing a live switched feed to a Grass Valley Turbo iDDR. Files are sent from the program recorder to a server, from which the podcast is aired the next morning.
Footage is generally shot 1080i/60. All the material that is recorded to P2 media (school promotions, student projects, etc.) is edited on Mac Pros running Final Cut Studio 3.
The Panasonic P2 HD camcorders and switchers do double duty on the weekends when they are used for the image magnification of Sunday services. For worship and other live events held in the Long Forum, the HS400As are set up in tandem, with one switcher feeding a 40’ HD screen centered over the stage, and the second switcher feeding two 23’ HD screens, one on either side of the stage. Televisions throughout the building are set up to receive feeds from the switchers’ HD/SD-SDI outputs.
Two of the 10K projectors are double stacked to feed the larger center screen, with the other 10K projectors one per side feeding the smaller screens. The 6K projector is used when a center divider is engaged to make the room smaller (i.e., a screen drops down against the divider).
“GAC made its overall purchase decision largely on the basis of the compelling price/performance of all the Panasonic gear,” Fleming said. “The HPX500s have been real workhorses, and have performed very well in many musical performances with low light situations.”
“The HS400A switchers are extremely functional and flexible,” he added. “The output cards are very versatile, and the fact that we can interlink the two switchers has made it so much easier for us to get what people want up on the screen.”
GAC bought the Panasonic equipment from the ESB Group (Springville, AL).
For more information about the Greater Atlanta Christian School, visit www.greateratlantachristian.org.
For more information on the HPX500, visit www.panasonic.com/P2HD
For more information about the AV-HS400A, visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast
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