Social distancing guidelines have impacted everything from everyday life to television production and worship services. O’Fallon First United Methodist Church in Illinois has looked for alternate and creative approaches to reaching its congregation and has offered pre-recorded services and live-streamed worship for its parishioners. In doing so, the church chose to upgrade its camera solution to the 500 Series CONNECTED CAM™ handheld camcorder from JVC Professional Video, a division of JVCKENWOOD USA Corporation, for recording and streaming its worship services.

Chosen by the church’s Director of Technology Tyrone Castle, the GY-HC500 camera was used in the early days of lockdown to pre-record Sunday services. “We were able to record each piece as separate segments, which allowed us to do social distancing better than if we had everyone on stage,” he explains. “At that time, we were even going to remote locations, like lakes and forests, to record our sermons to share with our parishioners. After a while, we progressed to offering drive-in and streamed worship as well. Now, we do full live streaming plus limited in-person services, so it’s been a progression. With Illinois starting to roll things back again, we may end up going to strictly live streaming.”