Megachurches Seek a Higher-Def Authority

by George Winslow -- Multichannel News, 7/21/2008
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6579879.html

Megachurches, the fastest- growing religious institutions in the U.S., are offering an increasingly lucrative market for high-definition equipment and services, according to vendors.

“There are some 10,000 megachurches in the U.S.,” said Pat Thompson, senior vice president of engineering operations for broadcast and audio visual systems integrator TV Magic. “Maybe one-tenth of them have done something to upgrade their equipment to high-definition. So you are looking at 9,000 more churches that still need to upgrade.”

Megachurches, which typically have at least 2,000 people in regular attendance at Sunday services, often incorporate large HD monitors and video into the service. Some of the largest churches also send video feeds to outside locations or have regular shows on broadcast or cable networks.

One example of a recent upgrade can be found at a new HD-ready production center for Cottonwood Church that was designed and built by TV Magic. The Los Alamitos, Calif.-based megachurch, which has about 6,000 members, began worship services at its new 32-acre campus this month.

Because of the cost, the church decided to postpone the acquisition of HD cameras, but the rest of the facility was designed to be HD-ready so it can easily make the transition later, said design engineer Dwight Crumb.

The new operation includes such equipment as a Grass Valley Kayak switcher, Miranda multiviewer, Pixel Power CG, Avocent KVM switch, custom consoles and racks, and two large HD monitors at the front of the church.

Standard-definition signals are upconverted to HD and displayed on two large monitors in the front of the church.

The Cottonwood Church also has a TV ministry, but those programs will continue to air in SD.

Thompson declined to discuss the cost of the Cottonwood project, but noted that budgets for religious organizations vary widely from smaller churches, which can upgrade for under $500,000, to megachurches, which may spend anywhere from $1 million to $4 million.

As a result of a concerted effort to tap into this growing market over the last three to four years, TV Magic now gets about 10% to 20% of its revenue from megachurches and the entire religious market now accounts for about 30% of its revenue, Thompson said.

Other vendors also said the religious market is becoming an increasingly important part of their business.

“The amount of churches buying community access time from cable channels is way up and so is the attendance at the National Religious Broadcasters convention,” said Rob Sheeley, president and CEO of Vaddio, a designer and OEM distributor of specialty PTZ cameras and high-end camera control systems.

Religious networks, which tend to be small and poorly capitalized, have been slower to embrace HD, but some of the larger networks are now moving rapidly toward HD.

“The religious networks are moving toward HD much faster than anyone would have thought,” added GlobeCast America's CEO, Mary Frost.