Cathedral of Faith Church Upgrades to HD With Hitachi

WOODBURY—When Cathedral of Faith Church began its HD overhaul last year, systems integrator Spectaveris selected Hitachi Kokusai Electric America SK-HD1000 multi-format digital HDTV production cameras were ideal for their client. Five cameras were recently installed as part of the church’s two-phase project to upgrade to full HD broadcast capability.

“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,” said Spectaveris President Dean Stone. “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.”

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. 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 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.

“Transitioning to HD has enabled us to better connect with our members,” said 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.”