Written by: Alexis Dewey
The Collegedale Church of Seventh-day Adventists, also known as the university church, has been expanding the last several years. With roughly 3,000 members, the church is always looking for ways to serve others and “share Christ effectively,” according to the church’s website.
The newest improvement to the church is its new livestreaming system.
“In the last few years, we have seen the need to expand the ministry,” said Matt Spears, a staff member at the church who heads the livestreaming system.
Although the church began livestreaming in the winter of 2010, Spears said administrators noticed a great need for an upgrade, especially due to COVID-19.
Roughly 50 to 200 people watch the livestreamed services, so the church wanted to raise its production quality and began gathering the funds to do so.
Noah Bynum, a student who recently graduated from the School of Journalism and Communication (SJC), took on this task as his senior project. Bynum was the manager and researcher for the podcasting and livestreaming studio during the fall of 2022. He kept in touch with a team that designs TV studio sets and worked for the same company that constructed the SAU News set on campus. The project, Bynum said, is still being constructed and designed.
The live streaming system will bring some changes, the biggest being the location of the studio. Bynum said the studio was previously in a janitor’s closet. Soon, the project will take place in the former training chapel, which has been divided into two rooms. One room will be dedicated to livestreaming and the other for podcasts.
Bynum also mentioned that the studio is changing locations so the audio-visual (AV) team has a better view of the sanctuary. Before, they used pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras. The AV team will be able to do their job much better when they are able to see what is going on more clearly.
Bynum said the church intends to have a section in the room where the pastor can say a few words during the children’s story regarding the sermon he’s about to preach. This addition will only be for the livestreaming audience, as the church does not want to have the children on the livestream, said Bynum.
The church is still in the progress of making these changes and advancing the livestreaming studio.
“Our hope is that our livestreaming program will only grow and get better as we seek to make improvements,” said Spears.
The podcasts can be accessed on the church’s website, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The live streams can be viewed on the website.
