Ain't That Good News: Cathedral of Faith Church Upgrades to HD with Hitachi SK-HD1000s

When San Jose-based Cathedral of Faith Church began its HD overhaul last year, they looked to systems integrator Spectaveris to select video production equipment that best met their needs. After carefully considering their camera choices, the Texas-based integrator found Hitachi Kokusai Electric America SK-HD1000 multi-format digital HDTV production cameras were ideal for their client. Five of the high-performance cameras were recently installed as part of the church’s two-phase project to upgrade to full HD broadcast capability.

“Choosing the right camera equipment was a lengthy process,” said Spectaveris president Dean Stone. “The church already had four lenses on existing standard definition cameras that were ‘HD Ready’ and capable of handling the tighter specifications of an HD camera. Because they wanted to continue using them once the church transitioned to HD, we had to find 2/3-inch format cameras that would work well with their lenses. After evaluating Hitachi’s cameras, along with other competitively priced cameras on the market, we were sold on the SK-HD1000’s superior HD image quality.”

Three of Hitachi’s production cameras are positioned in the back of the sanctuary with large LCD viewfinders, while the other two are used as handheld cameras in the front of the room. Each week, Cathedral of Faith records its Saturday service at the church’s San Jose location, and then transports the video on portable external hard drives to each of its seven remote locations around the San Francisco Bay area. The church also has live HD feeds to their outdoor pavilion every Sunday morning, broadcasts their services online, and offers DVDs of services to the congregation.

“Transitioning to HD has enabled us to better connect with our members,” explained Kurt Foreman, the executive pastor and director of operations at Cathedral of Faith. “Our church strives to give the congregation a memorable experience every week. High-quality video is an important part of this. The Hitachi cameras have helped enhance our services and engage our audience more than we could previously.”

Dean Stone added, “In upgrading the church to HD, our number one priority was to choose products that offer Cathedral of Faith great value. Installing Hitachi cameras provided them with the best products for their needs – while remaining within their budget.” 

To view a video about the church’s upgrade with Spectaveris, please visit the following link: http://vimeo.com/57464828