PTZ cameras are convenient but what about the quality? For churches running short on volunteers to man cameras, PTZ’s can be a life saver. But do they provide a truly professional picture? As part of a Church Production Road Test User Experience Panasonic sent Cross Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas their AW-UE80 4K PTZ Camera to run through its paces.
Cross Church is a multi-site church with three campuses across northwest Arkansas. They have a modern worship style, and are very production-driven.
The Panasonic AW-UE80 4K PTZ Camera and AW-RP150 Camera Controller have received the Church Production Road Tested Certification.
Fortner says these cameras were easy to install, were volunteer-friendly to operate, and delivered great images.
“It's a great little camera. It's small form factor. It's a 4K 60P capable NDI, SDI and HDMI outputs,” explains Alec Fortner, the church’s technical director. “We used this camera in our college worship space in the evenings. There was no light in there. It's very, very dim, very modern lighting for college kids, and it did great in low light.”
The camera offers high-image-quality 4K/60p resolution, wide 74.1° angle and optical zoom with up to 24x magnification. Fortner says they also used the AW-UE80 to share baptisms. “Our baptistry is over on the side and our manned cameras couldn't zoom out far enough to get a good shot because they're too close. We had one PTZ maybe four feet from the baptistry, and we're able to get a really good shot because of the 24 times zoom on it. It kept right up there with our broadcast cameras and both our team and our leadership team were like, yeah, it looks great, and we love the shots.”
We were expecting a much bigger camera, but that actually helped us...," - Alek Fortner, Technical Director, Cross Church
For controlling the camera, they used Panasonic’s AW-RP150 Touchscreen Remote Camera Controller, which allows for even finer control and a smoother operating experience than the alternative --- the web interface/controller. This isn't your typical older style of shading or control panel. With this panel, you can seamlessly shade your cameras for color and exposure. You can also recall pan tilt and zoom presets and even monitor your cameras via the built-in touchscreen, all without having to move or touch another piece of gear.
“The Panasonics were operated by volunteers every week,” Fortner explains. “They loved the controller. It was easy for them. Everything was well labeled, and it was easy for them to understand how to switch between cameras, how to set up the presets and fire them to change focus to zoom and move the shots. They really liked it.”
The setup was simple as well. With an existing NDI network, you just run a single CAT6 network cable to supply power, data, and control of the camera --- all from a single cable. The bottom line, Fortner says these cameras were easy to install and volunteer-friendly to operate all within a small footprint, and delivered great images.
“We were really surprised by how small it was. We were expecting a much bigger camera, but that actually helped us because we were able to put this camera on a tripod with our other manned cameras, and it was not in the way, and it made a huge difference. Our volunteers loved them. The ministry staff loved them, and our media team loved them because they looked really good and set right there with our broadcast cameras,” Fortner adds.
To see the cameras in action and learn more about Cross Church’s experience with the Panasonic AW-UE80 PTZ, watch this video!
