It’s one of the largest shows tradeshows and conferences in the country – let alone in the pro A/V industry. With over 1,700 exhibitors and over 100,000 attendees the one word to describe the NAB Show is “massive.”
For the church tech, the NAB Show offers a one-stop shop for all things video production. For the church content creator, it’s a veritable playground of opportunities to acquire the tools and technologies required to do world-class production --- or if your budget doesn’t support “world-class,” NAB is where you’ll find the innovative, cost-saving gadgets that will help you get the job done.
For the Church Production staff, NAB is a marathon that starts with Sunday morning press conferences. The show opens Monday morning, and our staff is booked every half hour – often including breakfast, lunch and dinner appointments – until the show closes on Thursday afternoon.
In between we are inundated with mind-blowing innovations; new products, new techniques and new companies cropping up to solve problems some video producers didn’t even know they had.
It’s a fun, exciting, exhilarating, exhausting trip into worship technologies overload. While it’s a week the Church Production team looks forward to, we’re glad it only comes once a year.
As we have for the past several years, the Church Production staff, along with input a few key stealth writers and advisors, have selected --- from the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of products on display --- the Top 5 Products for Churches from NAB 2018 (in alphabetical order):
Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Cam 4K
“Absolutely ridiculous” is how one church filmmaker describes the new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cam 4K. “The specs on this thing are crazy,” he continues.
Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K
What are the specs? Well we could fill this page with details, but suffice it to say our said church filmmaker describes it as an URSA Mini Pro in a smaller package. It’s really not, but it’s also going to sell for about one quarter the price.
So here’s the meat: the new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cam 4K will offer 10-bit ProRes or RAW format recording (is there another camera that offers this for under $2,000), multiple recording options, MFT lens mount with available adapters for LC, C and EF lenses, 13 stops of dynamic range, and a USB-C connection for direct recording to external storage devices. All of this in a camera you can easily hold in one hand or stash in a backpack, and will sell for under $1,300.
For more information on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cam 4K, please visit.
Canon XA15 Professional Camcorder
With full HD capability, the new Canon XA15 Professional Camcorder delivers 20x 26.8mm-576mm optical zoom lens and is designed to deliver great performance low-light capability and the ability to capture superb Full HD images in 60p at 35 Mbp via the camera’s HD CMOS sensor with powerful Digic DV4 image processing. The Wide DR mode supports the smooth compression of high luminance areas making it easier to shoot in environment where the difference between light and dark areas is prone to cause overexposure. Flexible image expression is supported by a slow/fast segment function that enables users to select shooting speeds from 0.4x to a maximum of 1,200x, and a Hi-UD lens supports the reduction of chromatic aberration and drives vivid imaging.
Canon XA15 Professional Camcorder
These camcorders are capable of recording in both AVCHD and MP4 formats, at multiple bit rates, simultaneously, to Dual SD card slots. It offers HDMI and HD-SDI output, headphone jack, optional GPS support and XLR professional audio terminals.
It’s a powerful little camcorder for churches starting out in content creation or documentary work or as a B-camera for larger film teams that already have a fleet of cinema cameras to work with. Retail prices for the Canon XA15 Professional Camcorder is $1,899.00.
For more information on the Canon XA15 Professional Camcorder, please visit.
JVC ProHD Studio 4000 Live Production System
If we were to give Top 5 recognition for a concept, we’d consider JVC’s Connected Cam, it’s a complete ecosystem of video-over-IP products designed for low-cost, efficient video production workflows.
JVC ProHD Studio Live Production System
But we don’t give Top 5 recognition for concepts, so we chose an interesting new concept that’s part of the Connected Cam system called ProHD Studio 4000. It’s essentially a complete video production and streaming control room for smaller, budget-conscious facilities with prices beginning at just over $7,000. A less full-featured version introduced last year is available for just over $5,000 street price.
The new ProHD Studio 4000 includes four professional SD/HD-SDI inputs, four IP stream inputs, and four NDI inputs. An additional HDMI/NDI input with keying can capture an external screen, so users --- even church volunteers --- can mix in content from a smartphone or PowerPoint presentation. Recording options abound with the ability to record the program output and the streaming output, along with simultaneous ISO recording of all cameras directly to the ProHD Studio 4000.
For more information on the JVC ProHD Studio 4000 Live Production System, please visit.
Magewell Compact Ultra Stream HDMI Streaming Encoder
We’ve met with the fine folks at Magewell at NAB for several years, and have long admired their converters and capture cards that are well accepted in the church market. We were surprised at this year’s meeting to have them introduce the company’s first streaming encoder.
Magewell Compact Ultra Stream HDMI Streaming Encoder
This thing is tiny. I’ve seen boxes of breath mints that are bigger than this. But when they described the feature set and the intended ease of use, our ears perked up. The new Compact Ultra Stream HDMI Streaming Encoder could be a great product for smaller churches and for larger churches that want to stream from secondary or remote locations.
First off, it was designed for non-professional users, so ease-of use is paramount. Using the free smart-phone app, users can stream to Twitch, YouTube and Facebook Live or to a custom-specified RTMP server from a variety of sources with a single tap. The app also allows control of security settings, routing and recording parameters
It supports 4K HDMI inputs at 60fps with 4:2:0 color subsampling, down-converting automatically to HD for recording and streaming. Embedded HDMI audio includes an analog microphone input and a headphone output for monitoring.
This appears to be an amazing little unit. We can’t wait to get our hands on a review unit.
For more information on the Magewell Compact Ultra Stream HDMI Streaming Encoder, please visit.
Sony FS5 II Super 35 mm Handheld Camcorder
Sony FS5 Mark II Super 35mm Handheld Camcorder
Nobody makes as many cameras as Sony. Their NAB booth is full of an amazing variety of shapes and sizes of cameras for virtually any purpose. Recognizing the content-creation explosion in the church market, our Sony tour guide at their NAB booth focused his presentation on the new large-sensor FS5 Mark II super 35 mm camcorder as “the” new product for churches from Sony at NAB 2018.
Features include full 4,096 x 2,160 4K HDR capture and 120 fps performance as well as RAW capabilities. Designed for High Frame Rate (HFR) shots, the new FS5 II supports four seconds of 120 fps in 4K and continuous 240 fps at 60 Hz mode and 200 fps at 50 Hz mode in 2K (2,048x1,080) RAW output when used in conjunction with a compatible external recorder. Continuous 4K 60 fps RAW output at 59.94p is fully supported, with 50 fps supported at 50 Hz mode.
This Mark II version sports a newly designed, lightweight body and incorporates new expertise and technology from Sony’s acclaimed, high-end CineAlta Venice line of cameras. The large format 4K Super 35 Exmor CMOS sensor is designed to deliver what Sony calls, “…a refined picture tone to capture natural highlights, subtle, alluring and well-rendered facial tones and a softer tonal look, for capturing lifelike portrayals.”
Retail price starts at $4,750.
For more information on the Sony FS5 II Super 35 mm Handheld Camcorder, please visit.
