Who, what, when, where and why. Who do I ask? What do I need? When should I propose a new system? Where do I get the equipment? And last but not least, Why (if at all) do I need to upgrade? These are just a few of the questions you'll be asking yourself "In the Beginning" of diving into the realm of SD/HD TV.
Let me quickly rewind back several years ago into my story of fixing an aging SD (standard definition) setup, then designing, purchasing and building our latest HDTV broadcasting facility at St. Peters Lutheran Church.
I was asked by our former Pastor back in 2010 if I wanted to head up the new Technology Team. Our church had never had a need for such a person. But with an aging/poorly designed computer network, no security system, poor sounding radio broadcasts and an even worse SD system for broadcasting over cable, he knew it was time to bring in someone that understood all the above technologies and make any/all necessary changes. That person wound up being me due to my diverse background in computers, engineering, video, radio, organizational skills and just being able to get things done.
One of the many projects on my list was to fix the SD broadcasting system. At the time, it was comprised of three composite video cameras which ran their video to the studio on less than adequate coax cable into VCR's that had a composite input/output (the output going to the video switcher) with standard consumer tv's connected via the RF output of the VCR's. It was a wiring nightmare and the video signal was filled with ac hum and noise. I won't bother you with how I fixed the mess, but I certainly got rid of the ac hum, noisy video, the vcr's and consumer tv's.
All of this sparked a conversation with the head of our church council. Could we further improve both the video and audio in our broadcasts, was it possible to stream live, provide podcasts and have an online archive. The answer to all the above was yes, but my question back to him was how much was the church willing to spend to achieve this? He looked at me and said, "Write up what you think it would take to improve things." Well that was a pretty broad statement. How much do you want to "improve things"?
I put together a rough draft proposal of just upgrading the SD system to three better cameras, a video switcher, along with replacing the coax and the camera PTZ controller. I handed the proposal over and that was the last I heard of it for quite sometime. About a year later I get a phone call asking for a meeting to go over the proposal. That conversation turned into how can we "really improve things", because to him, the proposal I gave him was merely a band-aid (which it was) and we'd be right back in ten years or less talking about the same thing.
That led into almost two years of research and design, redesign and yet more redesign, till I came up with the HDTV system that we have today. I found little to no help or information on what other churches were doing other than these massive 30,000+ member churches with $250,000.00 in equipment. Um, that wasn't us, and I'm sure that isn't most churches out there. And there were plenty of so called "experts" and "qualified professionals" out there that wanted to "help" me for a cost. Sorry, been there, done that. I'm not apposed to paying for help or advice. However, I've found that some businesses see churches as easy money, and take advantage of either their lack of knowledge or having someone technical to see their smoke.
This blog will cover all the steps I took, the proposals, full equipment list(s), system design, wiring schematics and everything you'll need/want to know in order to get your own system up and running. Along the way please feel free to comment, ask questions, post your own systems or ask for advice! I'm always available to help!
Thanks,
James Flinn - Flinn Engineering
(Technical Director at St. Peters Lutheran Church)
Let me quickly rewind back several years ago into my story of fixing an aging SD (standard definition) setup, then designing, purchasing and building our latest HDTV broadcasting facility at St. Peters Lutheran Church.
I was asked by our former Pastor back in 2010 if I wanted to head up the new Technology Team. Our church had never had a need for such a person. But with an aging/poorly designed computer network, no security system, poor sounding radio broadcasts and an even worse SD system for broadcasting over cable, he knew it was time to bring in someone that understood all the above technologies and make any/all necessary changes. That person wound up being me due to my diverse background in computers, engineering, video, radio, organizational skills and just being able to get things done.
One of the many projects on my list was to fix the SD broadcasting system. At the time, it was comprised of three composite video cameras which ran their video to the studio on less than adequate coax cable into VCR's that had a composite input/output (the output going to the video switcher) with standard consumer tv's connected via the RF output of the VCR's. It was a wiring nightmare and the video signal was filled with ac hum and noise. I won't bother you with how I fixed the mess, but I certainly got rid of the ac hum, noisy video, the vcr's and consumer tv's.
All of this sparked a conversation with the head of our church council. Could we further improve both the video and audio in our broadcasts, was it possible to stream live, provide podcasts and have an online archive. The answer to all the above was yes, but my question back to him was how much was the church willing to spend to achieve this? He looked at me and said, "Write up what you think it would take to improve things." Well that was a pretty broad statement. How much do you want to "improve things"?
I put together a rough draft proposal of just upgrading the SD system to three better cameras, a video switcher, along with replacing the coax and the camera PTZ controller. I handed the proposal over and that was the last I heard of it for quite sometime. About a year later I get a phone call asking for a meeting to go over the proposal. That conversation turned into how can we "really improve things", because to him, the proposal I gave him was merely a band-aid (which it was) and we'd be right back in ten years or less talking about the same thing.
That led into almost two years of research and design, redesign and yet more redesign, till I came up with the HDTV system that we have today. I found little to no help or information on what other churches were doing other than these massive 30,000+ member churches with $250,000.00 in equipment. Um, that wasn't us, and I'm sure that isn't most churches out there. And there were plenty of so called "experts" and "qualified professionals" out there that wanted to "help" me for a cost. Sorry, been there, done that. I'm not apposed to paying for help or advice. However, I've found that some businesses see churches as easy money, and take advantage of either their lack of knowledge or having someone technical to see their smoke.
This blog will cover all the steps I took, the proposals, full equipment list(s), system design, wiring schematics and everything you'll need/want to know in order to get your own system up and running. Along the way please feel free to comment, ask questions, post your own systems or ask for advice! I'm always available to help!
Thanks,
James Flinn - Flinn Engineering
(Technical Director at St. Peters Lutheran Church)