PTZ Cameras for Churches: Are They Worth the Hype?

PTZ Cameras - Are they worth the hype? 📷📹🎥

PTZ cameras might look like surveillance equipment at first glance, but they are revolutionizing church services. Many churches are now opting for PTZ cameras due to their exceptional quality and ease of use. These cameras can be controlled by a single operator managing multiple cameras, making them an efficient choice.

Today, we'll dive into how PTZ cameras work, the various options available, and the potential drawbacks. Whether you're considering upgrading your church's tech or simply curious, this comprehensive guide will help you make an informed decision.

0:00 - The best cameras for churches you've never heard of
1:36 - What are PTZ Cameras?
2:30 - Best thing about PTZ Cameras that people miss
3:23 - PTZ Cameras have multiple outs
4:08 - The Reason PTZ Cameras are popular
5:15 - Your Church can get $10,000 every month from Google
5:42 - The newest, cheapest, smallest, and best PTZ Camera out there
11:00 - Most popular PTZ Cameras for churches

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[reachright]

Does your church use PTZ cameras for livestreaming?

[WolfsHaven]

I am not with a church. I've had a side gig filming events since 2010. My day job is in IT for local government and in 2020 they leaned heavily on my video knowledge so we could stream meetings and events that the public would normally attend.

I started using PTZ cameras for events shortly after the original ATEM mini was released. They are just such a great fit for the type of work I do. Even when just recording and not streaming. It's amazing what you can accomplish with just 2 PTZs. That's all I use most of the time but I have used up to 4 a couple times but it's really overkill. I've found most of the time if I put 1 in the back of the room and 1 at the front, mostly for audience shots it's plenty. A lot of the time I'll put up an extra cam for a static wide shot of the stage or room and I'll cut to that when moving the back PTZ to a different angle. Most positions are pre-set so it's rare I'm moving a camera in the live shot.

I really wish BMD would release a mini ISO version with NDI or SRT. As it stands I end up running 2 network cables for my PTZs. One for power and control and one that converts HDMI to ethernet. Personally I'll take ethernet over SDI, it's lighter and easier to manage for a portable rig.

[reachright]

How important is camera quality in your church's services?

[williamgabriel]

We often don’t have the volunteers needed to run all the tech, so I try to automate as much as possible. Our presentation software can send midi signals that let us do things like control obs, so we only need one person doing presentation and livestream simultaneously. Do you know if any of these are programmable so that I could send commands (e.g. ptz to a specific location on the signal)?

[JohnnyA]

We've used PTZOptics cameras at our church for over 4 years and while they are convenient for 1 operator to control it all, they are honestly terrible image quality for the money. If you want good image quality stay AWAY from PTZ cameras. Their expensive price is just for the robotic control and not for the optics themselves.

[avkans]

You could try AVKANS PTZ Camera, much better price, and quality is good as well.

[RajHarrousYoutubeChannel]

you can have great video with a $500 PTZ camera. You just have to know what you are doing.