HOW-TO Establish An Effective and Compliant Emergency Communication System

In Audio, home_page, Web Articles by Victoria Cressatti

When a congregation — large or small — comes together and creates a new space for worship and programming, it must incorporate into its design the emergency communications systems (ECS) that instruct people what to do and where to go in the event of an emergency. In most houses of worship, ECS are designed to deliver concise and timely instructions for fire, severe weather, and other emergency scenarios occurring during regular services, during weekday hours if the building hosts a school, and during special events, memorials, and celebrations.

The modern ECS supports a multilayered platform for communications, incorporating visual, voice, and personal notification via email or text message. Across the United States, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Part 72 guidelines define how these emergency messages are conveyed. In short, the NFPA provides a code that local municipalities use as a foundation for their own life safety requirements, which in turn govern ECS in facilities including houses of worship.

While visual communications — static or digital signage, often along with strobe lighting — play a role in any facility’s safety measures, and personal notification can be valuable in corporate and educational environments, voice communications typically are the primary tool used by houses of worship to bring a measure of order to potentially chaotic and stressful situations. This format allows for dynamic real-time provision of specific instructions as dictated by changing circumstances.

SSL Consoles Deliver The Right Mix At Parkway Pentecostal Church

In Audio, Audio Install News, home_page, Install News, Web Articles by admin

Mississippi, USA – Parkway Pentecostal Church in Madison County, Mississippi, regularly holds dynamic worship and live broadcast services for its hundreds of regular worshippers. In their quest to provide a more dynamic audio experience for their congregation, the church recently invested in an SSL L200 console and an SSL SiX mixer in time for its annual Apostolic Conference, enabling their volunteer-based technical team to put on flawless live services.
Founded in 1991, Parkway Pentecostal Church has been steadily growing its numbers ever since. “We have a 46,000 square-foot auditorium, and we have not only our local church in Madison, but a fairly large broadcast audience that joins us weekly,” said Parkway’s music director, Serena Lentz. “One of the main things that we wanted to improve was our broadcast quality; we were very dissatisfied with what we were sending out over the airways.”
After Porche Advanced Systems showed Lentz the benefits of the SSL L200 and how it could be utilized along with the SiX compact console, Parkway Pentecostal Church decided to switch to the new consoles right away.

How to Overcome Closed Caption Challenges

In Video/Broadcast, Web Articles by tfwm

ccThe U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) long ago began enacting laws to address captions, and other government entities around the world have done the same. In the U.S., the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act regulates closed captioning for anyone broadcasting content to viewers in the United States, whether by standard over-the-air distribution or over IP. A more recent FCC ruling took captions into the Internet realm, saying that TV networks and video websites must provide closed captions for any TV content available online. The ruling means that, with certain exceptions, any video content that has aired on TV must also have closed captions when streamed online. FCC regulations have also evolved to include requirements for caption correctness, completeness, and timing, and pending review are additional regulations for any video clip being distributed over a streaming service.

When an issue is reported, the burden of proof is on the broadcaster to show that there were no problems. The rules affect every device, website, distributor, producer, and network that carries long-form broadcast content. Houses of worship are no exception. Any church distributing programming via a television broadcast channel — there are close to 30 such churches in the United States alone — is subject to closed captioning regulations. If the church is distributing that same programming over streaming solutions, then it is subject to further regulation as described above. Failure to comply could result not only in fines and penalties, but also in a lower quality of experience for worshippers and a barrier to receiving the church’s message. Though closed captioning doesn’t apply to all ministries now, it will become more and more relevant as churches grow and technologies evolve, such as distribution through OTT providers.

Altman Lighting provides a new worship experience of light at Calvary Orlando

In home_page, Install News, Lighting, Lighting Install News, Web Articles by admin

Orlando-based lighting distributor Techni-Lux oversees a complete lighting and dimming renovation using a house system featuring Chalice LED downlights for the updated sanctuary
Yonkers, New York (9/4/2019) – With a rich history of providing a genuine worship experience to families across the greater Orlando area, Calvary Orlando has recently set off on a new direction. Operating in a facility that was becoming increasingly challenged by an outdated production design, the church made the decision to renovate their entire worship environment. Wanting to better illuminate the sanctuary as part of the complete lighting and dimming upgrade, they turned to the specialists at Techni-Lux who designed and specified a new house system filled with Chalice LED downlights from Altman Lighting.
“Calvary Orlando is the second largest church in the Orlando area, and it is also used as a special event and live concert facility,” began Tony Hansen, Techni-Lux Head Lighting Designer and Project Specialist. “We have worked with them for a number of years, and this is a project that has really been in need for some time. The lighting system dated back to its original construction and it was very antiquated. Additionally, they were having consistent issues with the dimming system and it was becoming difficult to maintain.”

Holy Ghost Festival of Life Deploys URSA Broadcast during Live Production

In Camera, home_page, Install News, Video/Broadcast, Video/Broadcast Install News, Web Articles by admin

Fremont, CA – September 2, 2019 – Blackmagic Design today announced that a multicamera live production workflow, featuring the URSA Broadcast and URSA Mini Pro G2, was employed during the Holy Ghost Festival of Life (FOL) and used to acquire content for big screen projection and live streaming.
Held at London’s ExCel, the 30,000 seater FOL event is one of Europe’s largest gatherings of Christians, which saw people come together for a night of fellowship, praise and prayers.
Hungry Earth Productions utilized its four Blackmagic URSA Broadcast for acquisition, but needed another two cameras to meet the event’s specifications. “The URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 was available as a rental option and I was intrigued by the fact it was a hybrid camera with all the familiar onboard broadcast controls,” begins Jerry Curd, director and producer at Hungry Earth.

Danley Sound Labs’ Column-Form SBH-10 Loudspeakers Install Easily and Deliver Phenomenal Sound at St. Leo the Great Church

In Audio, Audio Install News, home_page, Install News, Uncategorized, Web Articles by admin

LINCROFT, NEW JERSEY: St. Leo the Great Church was established in Lincroft, New Jersey over sixty years ago during the area’s suburban boom of the late 1950s. Its beautiful sanctuary seats approximately 800 people but provides tough acoustics for intelligibility, a problem that had previously been dealt unsatisfactorily with several lines of delay loudspeakers. Recently, local AV integration firm Concept Professional Systems designed and installed a beautifully simple new sound reinforcement system at St. Leo the Great Church. Ditching the delays and relying on Danley Sound Labs’ famous pattern control and phase-coherent, long distance throw, the church now enjoys intelligible speech and lively music reinforcement from the front pew to the back pew.