St. Mina’s Church Supports Congregant Outreach with AV-HLC100 Stream Studio

NEWARK, NJ (February 21, 2019) – St. Mina’s Coptic Orthodox Church (Holmdel, NJ) has long considered outreach to the larger community—those unable to attend mass due to age, physical challenges or lack of transportation—a crucial component of its mission. To reach this shut-in community, the church is live streaming its Masses and bible study meetings with Panasonic’s AV-HLC100 Stream Studio and AW-HN38 FHD PTZ cameras with built-in Network Device Interface (NDI) capability.

Fady Zachary, a congregant who manages St. Mina’s IT and A/V infrastructures with a small team of fellow worshipers, said that for the past five years the church has used a variety of solutions for live streaming to its website and YouTube channel, which has made the church one of the most technologically sophisticated in its region.

Zachary explained that, with the recent construction of an entirely new church comprising two separate buildings and three worship spaces, St. Mina’s A/V needs inherently became more sophisticated.

 “Our previous streaming appliance was simply not up to the task of live transmission and playback of previous recordings on both the website and YouTube channel,” he said. “The HLC100 represents a huge step up for us, providing a switcher, streaming encoder and camera control all in one box, where formerly we needed three separate pieces of equipment. It’s another significant improvement that, with multiple audio inputs, the HLC100 enables audio to follow the video stream we’re pulling from.”

The HLC100 is an all-in-one professional live streaming solution that includes an integrated PTZ camera controller, built-in audio mixer, titler, clips/stills player, multi-destination stream encoder, and much more in a single device. Supported network protocols include NDI® and RTMP (for direct transmission to live streaming services such as YouTube Live).

At a minimum, the church live streams three weekend Masses and three weekly bible study meetings, utilizing the HLC100 approximately 25 hours per week. Zachary said that St. Mina’s larger church community depends on these transmissions to the extent that participation in services can increase by up to 20% with streaming.

“Because the HLC100 is built on a PC platform, we are able to access it remotely,” he added. “Through its Easy IP function, the HLC100’s connection and settings are easily executed—I am literally able to participate in a Sunday Mass and, from my pew, control the Stream Studio via my iPhone or iPad.”

The HLC100 Stream Studio works directly with Panasonic PTZ and systems cameras, discovering and deploying them automatically using IP video transport and working with all NDI and NDI|HX capable video sources, including the HN38 integrated PTZ. (NDI is an advanced video over IP production workflow, allowing distribution of video across network infrastructure rather than specialized video hardware.)

For its camera needs, the church chose the HN38 PTZ solely on the basis of its seamless compatibility with the HLC100 and its built-in NDI support. “It’s a tremendous efficiency being able to control everything over a single ethernet cable,” Zachary said.

Two HN38 PTZs are installed in St. Mina’s largest chapel (accommodating 700 people) and the third camera in the second chapel (accommodating 300 people). The HLC100 is situated in a small control room located in the balcony overlooking the main chapel. The church’s production format is 1080p/30fps.

“We are very satisfied with the HLC100’s and PTZs’ performance, and the professional support from Panasonic. We have plans to add more cameras in the near future, and capitalize more on our collaboration with Panasonic,” Zachary said.

For more information about St. Mina, visit its website (www.stminas.org) and/or YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/saintminaholmdel).

NDI® is a registered trademark of NewTek, Inc.

About the AV-HLC100 Stream Studio

The HLC100 is an all-in-one live production streaming solution including an integrated PTZ camera controller, built-in audio mixer, titler, clips/stills player, multi-destination stream encoder, and much more in a single device. The HLC100 makes it possible for one person to operate everything from PTZ camera shooting to streaming transmission. Supported network protocols include NDI® and RTMP (for direct transmission to live streaming services such as YouTube Live), and a mix of NDI, SDI and HDMI video sources can be utilized.

About the AW-HN38

The AW-HN38 pan/tilt/zoom camera incorporates newly-developed 1/2.3-type full HD MOS sensors and Digital Signal Processors (DSP) for high sensitivity, high resolution and superior video capture in a wide range of shooting conditions. Key features include a 22x Optical Zoom plus 30x i.Zoom and 16x Digital Zoom; IP Connectivity for web interface and control plus PoE+ support for single cable power, streaming and camera control; HDMI Video Output, in addition to

USB and microSD card built-in recording; and NDI|HX - PoE+ for Power, Ultra Low Latency Audio/Video, Tally and Control via a Single Cable.

For more information about Panasonic professional video products, visit http://business.panasonic.com/products-professionalvideo or contact Panasonic at 877-803-8492.

About Panasonic System Solutions Company of North America

Panasonic System Solutions Company of North America, a division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, delivers game-changing technology solutions that deliver customized experiences to drive better outcomes—for our customers and our customers’ customers. Panasonic designs and manufactures reliable, flexible and dependable products and solutions to help create, capture and deliver information of all types, especially where, when and how it is needed. The complete suite of Panasonic professional solutions for government and commercial enterprises of all sizes addresses unified business communications, mobile computing, security and surveillance, retail point-of-sale, office productivity, audio and visual systems (projectors, displays & digital signage) and professional video production. To learn more and Panasonic’s business products and solutions visit https://na.panasonic.com.

About Panasonic Corporation of North America
Newark, NJ-based Panasonic Corporation of North America is a leading technology partner and integrator to businesses, government agencies and consumers across the region. The company is the principal North American subsidiary of Osaka, Japan-based Panasonic Corporation and leverages its strengths in Immersive Entertainment, Sustainable Energy, Integrated Supply Chains and Mobility Solutions to enable its business-to-business customers. Panasonic was highlighted in Forbes Magazine’s Global 2000 ranking as one of the Top Ten Best Regarded Companies for 2017.  The ranking is based on outstanding scores for trustworthiness, honesty with the public and superior performance of products and solutions. Learn more about Panasonic’s ideas and innovations atwww.na.panasonic.com/us.