Moreleta Church: video for a 7,000-seat auditorium and an online congregation

Moreleta Church in Pretoria worships in an auditorium with over 7,000 seats, one of the largest in the country. It welcomes in-person and online worshippers every weekend.

The church opens its doors twice every Sunday, at 9am and at 5pm. It also hosts dozens of external events across the year. Its YouTube channel has almost 9,000 subscribers.

The church needed video that works for a very large room and for people watching from home. Every seat in the auditorium needs to see the service, and the stream needs to run as reliably as the service in the room.

The system also had to be flexible enough for the Sunday services and the external events. The church was considering an upgrade of its centre, left and right screens, so we started with phase one.

Phase one included two new side screens, two cameras and a new video-switching solution. The Pixel Plus LED screens use 1,360 P4 modules in a custom frame, sized to fit the space of the previous system. An all-in-one Novastar VX1000 controller handles video processing and control.

We installed two Blackmagic Design Studio Cameras, compact cameras designed for live production. Blackmagic Design Mini Converters (which change one type of video signal into another) handle the video signals. Two Stage Plus Power Cubes distribute power through D-Curve circuit breakers made for LED screens.

A Hollyland Solidcom M1 wireless intercom lets the production team talk to each other during services. It is full-duplex, easy to use and supports one main station and up to eight belt packs.

The church can now serve the full auditorium and its online congregation. Estian Els of Moreleta Church says the video content is now at a very high quality, which makes it easier to follow for people who are not there in person.