Shared, immersive worship across church campus made possible by SMPTE ST 2110
Founded in 1995, North Point Ministries has grown from one church in Atlanta to eight campuses across the metropolitan area and developed a global network of more than 150 partner churches.
Each week, more than 50,000 people attend services in person or online at North Point Ministries’ Atlanta-area churches. Each month, sermons and leadership messages are accessed over one million times via its websites.
Global network of more than 150 partner churches
50,000+ people attend services each week
Sermons accessed 1 million+ times online each month
Collaboration is key to delivering on North Point Ministries’ mission. As the organization expanded, it became clear that delivering a shared, immersive experience for such a large, geo-diverse audience would require a new technology approach.
The goal was to move away from traditional TDM-based, SDI-over-fiber transport between the church facilities to a more efficient, purely IP-based workflow. Something that would allow staff and volunteers to manage ever-changing workflow between sites.
But the transition to IP had to take practical concerns into account. North Point Ministries supplements its professional production personnel with volunteer staff, so any new technology solution would have to be easy to operate. The new solution would also have to be cost effective and capable of delivering a shared, high-quality experience.
The forward-looking team at North Point Ministries decided that the signal flexibility, capacity and overall agility made possible by the SMPTE ST 2110 standard would provide them with a distinct advantage. Leveraging standardized, readily available COTS hardware, ST 2110 systems would provide a cost-effective way to connect their eight campuses via high-bandwidth, high-speed IP links.
Central to the advanced implementation are five Selenio™ Network Processors (SNP) from Imagine Communications, which integrate into a Cisco 100Gb multicampus IP network. The SNPs provide video and audio processing, timing synchronization, uncompressed UHD HDR capability and an interface between SDI and SMPTE ST 2110 standards-based IP. Using SNPs, the network can synchronize and process up to 32 uncompressed signals, bidirectionally, over as few as two single-mode fiber links, providing immediate improvement in fiber utilization.
North Point Ministries has HD cameras, production switchers, projectors and an Imagine Platinum™ SDI router with integrated multiviewer at each location. The SNPs provide timing synchronization and conversion to and from the SDI routing system to the ST 2110 IP routing network, and the whole installation operates as a single network under the management of Imagine’s Magellan™ Control System.
The SNP’s colorimetry conversion includes SDR-709, SDR-2020, HLG-2100, PQ-2100 and SLOG3, which means North Point Ministries can bring in any source and create the specific production value that, when presented, inspires worshippers with the Ministries’ message. Built on field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, the SNP can be easily upgraded to add new functionality as it becomes available.
Leveraging standardized, readily available COTS hardware, North Point Ministries’ Imagine-based ST 2110 system provides a cost-effective yet extremely powerful route to engaging their audience. As the Magellan control layer utilizes standard remote-control panels that the staff had already been using for daily operations, the result has been streamlined training and more reliable productions, and the production team’s volunteer staff has a solution that is easy to operate.
Utilizing the same dark fiber connectivity, North Point Ministries has been able to exponentially increase their capacity to support all local church campuses, an extended partner church network and online viewers. The ST 2110 network’s ability to deliver high-quality, low-latency uncompressed video and audio over IP ensures a shared, immersive experience wherever their audience may be located.
“The Imagine Communications SNP and Magellan Control System have made it possible for us to connect our campuses using SMPTE ST 2110 in the most efficient way possible.”
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