Tutorial: Cost-Effective Live-Switched and Streamed HD Worship Production with Datavideo

Datavideo NVS-25 Video Streaming Server

The second Datavideo product included in their House of Worship kit is the NVS-25 Video Streaming Server (Figure 6, below). This rack-mountable unit can be set up to broadcast an H.264 encoded live stream while simultaneously recording to a USB thumb drive or external hard disk up to 1 TB.

Figure 6. The Datavideo NVS-25 Video Streaming Server (front and back). Click the image to see it at full size.

The NVS-25 can stream an embedded audio source or pair up an external source to the video feed.

Datavideo DAC-70 Cross Converter

The final Datavideo product used in this test drive is the DAC-70 Cross Converter (Figure 7, below). This little box packs a healthy dose of input-output options into a tiny package. It will accept VGA, SDI, and HDMI inputs, and provides up to 1080p output in any of those three connections. The DAC-70 can double as an audio embedder and splitter as well. You can also connect a laptop for graphics or a camera for IMAG.

Figure 7. The Datavideo DAC-70 Cross Converter

Taking the Workflow to Church

I found a church with an existing video system that we could plug and play all of the Datavideo equipment into. Setup was a breeze. The church's Sony cameras integrated right into the SE-700 using the DAC-70 Cross Converter to bring in HDMI connections to two of the inputs.

Once we made all of the connections to the SE-700, our attention turned to setting up the NVS-25 Video Streaming Server. We had YouTube Live and Ustream set up on the NVS-25 in just a few minutes, ready to stream our program (Figure 8, below).

Figure 8. Launching the test stream to YouTube Live. Click the image to see it at full size.

We tested an HD broadcast through both YouTube and Ustream. The NVS-25 can record directly to an external USB hard drive or thumb drive, serving as a local backup to the stream that you stream in YouTube archive. The SE-700 was right at home in the production workflow. Switches and transitions were smooth and seamless. The Picture-in-Picture feature allowed us to put together some creative shots with two cameras at once. Throughout the one-hour broadcast, the Datavideo equipment performed flawlessly, never failing to execute every command with precision.

Delivering Worship Video on a Budget

For houses of worship on limited budgets that need to serve their congregations with live stream video, Datavideo has the equipment to meet those needs. With the SE-700 at $1,799, the NVS-25 at $800, and the DAC-70 at $500, an end-to-end, live broadcasting solution can be implemented for the same price or less than a competitor’s switcher alone. For a limited time only, this complete bundle is available at a discounted price of $2,999, complete with connection diagrams and recommended configurations (Figure 9, below).

Figure 9. The Datavideo House of Worship bundle.

For rock-solid performance at a rock-solid price, look no further than this Datavideo package available now from this video's sponsor, Videoguys.com.