Need help redoing AV closet

With the assistance of the FM Group I'm in the process of redoing our ancient AV closet to bring it up to current standards and be able to easily switch between webcasting, satellite & webcast receive. Is the AVDH-1 still a viable and available product? Will it work with the VidiU unit? Is there another solution that others are using now?

Also, what is recommended for adding a simple, small LCD video monitor in the closet? It could be rack mounted or on a shelf on the rack. I've seen vehicle backup monitors for under $30 and was wondering if that would be a workable solution.

Thank you for your help.

Our satellite cabinet was just brought up to the current church standard and it included the ADVH-1 unit and a small LCD TV to replace the little tube one. The VidiU sits on a shelf in the rack and is wired up and ready to go. They also included a box that takes audio and composite video and converts it to HDMI. In our case, a contractor that our FM manager depends on a lot did the actual work. The end result was much cleaner and easier to use than what it used to be. I took some pics and will upload them when I get a chance.

At my stake center, the entire system was upgraded to HD and so forth. There is no AVDH-1. So I think it would be good for you guys to upgrade it to the latest church standard and this would add a camera to the building.

Terry

Three church does the upgrade to HD when the building comes up for a AV overhaul. That's maybe 10-15 years, if I was told (and remember) correctly.

harddrive wrote:At my stake center, the entire system was upgraded to HD and so forth. There is no AVDH-1. So I think it would be good for you guys to upgrade it to the latest church standard and this would add a camera to the building.

Interesting. We had a new wall-mounted camera put in, but I believe it's the same Sony EVI-D80 (SD) that's been around for a while. I was hoping for an HD camera and was a bit deflated when I found out what it was.

I wasn't happy with the SD camera either. My stake will get a new camera in 5 years. Oh well, I may not be in my calling at that time.

I've recently upgraded our stake center A/V distribution to HD using the following components:

Satellite cabinet:
PTZOptics-20X-SDI GEN-2 PTZ IP Streaming Camera with Simultaneous HDMI and 3G-SDI Outputs - White
Roland VR-4HD mixer
Blackmagic Design Mini Converter SDI Distribution
Blackmagic Design Micro Converter HDMI to SDI
Blackmagic Design Micro Converter SDI to HDMI
Vidiu encoder

Building wiring:
Belden 1694A RG6 Low Loss Serial Digital Coaxial Cable
(Yes, I pulled and replaced the existing coax, which was a bear of a job, and probably the very reason the church doesn't do this)

Pulpit:
Decimator MD-HX HDMI and SDI Cross Converter with Scaling & Frame Rate Conversion
J-Tech Digital 4K 60HZ HDMI Audio Extractor Converter SPDIF + 3.5MM Output
ViewHD 2 Port 1x2 Powered HDMI Mini Splitter for 1080P & 3D | Model: VHD-1X2MN3D

There's a lot of detail behind the selection of each of these components, and not enough time right now to capture all of it in this post. Hopefully I can come back later and edit to improve the detail over time, but the end result is that you can walk up to the pulpit, plug in your PC, and that's it. Your audio is on the PA, and the display is behind you on the projector screen. No crab box, no mess of cables. We have a few adapter cables (USC-C, Dsiplayport, lightning) to HDMI so you can present a video from your phone, PC, iPad, etc. Viewers at the other buildings get full HD audio and video (1080p30fps), which is far better than what you'll get from the Sony D80, and I think it's well worth the cost (although this is a very economical setup) as it eliminated the distraction of inadequate technology (grainy / splotchy video, poor audio). The remote building sounds as good as the local, we put hymn words on the screen during congregational hymns, etc. I'm happy to share information or answer questions; there's a lot to learn in navigating the course to a HD upgrade and hopefully sharing the information can put it within the reach of others that can't afford the time or risk or forging ahead on their own.

kfred wrote:I've recently upgraded our stake center A/V distribution to HD using the following components:

All together I put the total between $5k-$6k. That's a pretty good chunk of change.

kfred wrote:Building wiring:
Belden 1694A RG6 Low Loss Serial Digital Coaxial Cable
(Yes, I pulled and replaced the existing coax, which was a bear of a job, and probably the very reason the church doesn't do this)

I hope this was done with the FM Group's blessing because Belden 1694A isn't plenum rated and might be installed in violation of local building codes. The plenum rated equivalent is Belden 1695A, which is about 3x more expensive.

The total cost was above $6K. Whether that's a lot or not depends on how important it is to have your congregation focused on the message, and how easily distracted they are by poor video and poor audio. There are interesting dynamics around that depending on how wealthy your congregation is; the higher the expectation, the more likely they'll be distracted and miss the message. To the older generation (to which I belong), it may sound ridiculous that people can't set their priorities to focus their attention on the message vs the media, but that's where we're at these days. In Moses day, scribing commandments on a rock was good enough; today it would have to be a 720p youtube to garner any attention . Comparing this effort to principles being taught to temple workers in regards to the patron experience, I believe this expense is well justified. If your congregation is happy with their experience, it wouldn't be.

I did discuss what I was planning with our FM group, but building codes weren't discussed. They may have just trusted me since I've done contract work in this area. In any case, our coax is in conduit , so no code violation there.

kfred wrote:In Moses day, scribing commandments on a rock was good enough;

Translation for youth: Moses was the first person who used a tablet to download data from the cloud.

Kfred,

It sounds great, but my question is now that you put that all in, who will be able to understand what you did and who will be able to maintain the equipment or troubleshoot something when it dies? I'm all for the best, but it also needs to be set up for others to be able to support it and repair it. It is like one stake where a guy who know what he was doing, like you, built a great system and as far as I know may have trained someone in it. However, the person who built the system moved out of the area and no one was able to support the system because the knowledge went with him. So the FM group was called in to completely rip out the guys setup and put in a church standard so that there was a knowledge base for the system to be repaired and maintained.

In my stake the systems that were put in follow the church standards so that if there is a problem, the church knows what they put in and how to fix it if necessary. I can be released from my calling today or move out of the area and if necessary the FM group can be called to come in and fix an issue. I did do things because the old analog system was dying and really didn't support what we needed. Now that we have a new digital audio and video system, things have improved. And the FM group knows what is in there so that if there is a problem they fix it.

harddrive wrote:who will be able to understand what you did and who will be able to maintain the equipment or troubleshoot something when it dies?

Keep in mind that while you can train someone, knowledge is perishable. If they're not on the team that regularly uses it, they'll forget how. And even if they are part of the team, it's always a possibility that they'll move right around the time the builder moves out. So, you need several people who know how and use it regularly.

I was careful to make it simple and created (but am still improving) detailed documentation. The documentation is key. If i get hit by a bus tomorrow, they will still may have to learn about SDI, but thats well within reason I believe.

kfred, how is your setup working in regards to video lag? I'm looking to improve our system as I was just called as the STS, but not sure where to start. I've read that most IP Cameras make the audio/video lag worse for locations in the same building. For example, we broadcast to a projector in the gym and I've already got about a 3 frame lag from the audio. How about for your setup? What about for the other buildings?

I currently have 3 x sony D70s and a Edirol V8 mixer. I've just figured out how to include the words to the hymns and do text overlay. I've just converted the cameras to PoE but am wondering if upgrading the cameras is the next best step or the mixer. The current suggested cameras are D80s which don't seem to be much of an upgrade over what I've got now. But I've also noticed that those were the recommended camera for at least the last four years, so I'm wondering if something new is coming? It seems Sony is no longer making the D80, even though they are still for sale on store.lds.org.

Thanks for the info on your setup. At least it gives me something to look at.

No video lag in our setup. We're using the PTZ Optucs 20XSDI, and are picking the video from the SDI output, so aren't subject to encoding latencies. Like you, I didnt consider the D80 a significant upgrade. i have 2 projectors in the Gymn in perfect sync with the building audio. I'm using blackmagic SDI dist and HDMI converters. I'm happy to share info with you. Look me up in the CDOL; Lewisville TX stake.