House of Worship

Church on the Rock Builds for Future with Sony

The Church on the Rock, in St. Peters, Mo., founded by Pastors David and Kim Blunt with 35 people in a local library in 1983, rapidly mushroomed to 4,500 members worshipping in a 3,000 seat sanctuary. Technological capabilities have always been a high priority for the Blunts, including a commitment to Sony broadcast equipment.

The ministry now has its services broadcast each week on KDNL, a local ABC affiliate, as well as on The Church Channel, The DAYSTAR Network, and the National Religious Broadcasters channel. According to the church’s director of communication, Mark Horvath, working with Sony has allowed them to achieve these capabilities.

"We really needed to take our TV technology to the next level," Horvath said. "That meant addressing our cameras since they were terribly out of date."

For the church’s latest upgrade, the Blunts and Horvath worked with Sony and a systems integrator Venue Services Group to do a camera upgrade and to build a video control station, as well as upgrade the facility’s monitoring capabilities. "We consulted with VSG and relied on their system expertise to choose the right products that met our needs," Horvath said.

The church chose a total of five Sony HDC-1550 multi-format cameras, two studio versions and three hand-held versions of the cameras.

In addition to the upgrade in image quality and production capability, Horvath has also been impressed with the high levels of service and support, from both VSG and from Sony, since day one.

"The turn around time from the time of order until delivery was less than seven days," Horvath said. "Cameras were delivered on a Friday and Saturday and the cameras were used to tape services on that Sunday. After everything was installed, Sony has been available for support, training and anything else we need, which is just as important to me as the actual installation of the products themselves."

Horvath noted that the church is still shooting in standard definition, but the ability to have an infrastructure that can support a seamless move to high-definition is a huge benefit.

"Pastor Blunt has always been committed to taking our technology as far as it can go, but this is only the first phase for us in terms of production upgrades," Horvath said. "The biggest step for us was bringing the whole plant up to SDI capabilities. From there, we can continue to build for the future."

According to Horvath, the church has also been able to produce more community and local events, bringing in a variety of Christian and non-denominational artists for performances.