How NDI Saves Churches Money on Video Cabling, Routing and Mixing

The short version

We highly recommend NDI cameras, NDI encoders and NDI decoders for most churches, because they let you send video over an affordable network instead of a building full of dedicated video cable. The savings show up in five places.

1. Cabling: one cable instead of three

A traditional camera needs:

• A video cable (SDI or HDMI) back to the booth
• A power outlet at the camera position
• Often a control cable for pan, tilt and zoom

An NDI PTZ camera needs one network cable. It carries video, audio and control, and with Power over Ethernet (PoE) it powers the camera too. Network cable is the cheapest, most familiar cable an installer pulls, and every electrician and IT volunteer knows how to terminate it.

For a camera on a balcony rail or a ceiling mount, skipping the new power outlet alone can save a meaningful part of the install. (See PoE classes for church AV.)

2. Routing: software instead of a video router

With cables, getting one camera to three places means a video router or distribution amplifier and a cable to each place.

With NDI, every source is already on the network. Any screen with a decoder can show any source, chosen in software. There’s no router to buy, and changing what a room sees is a click, not a re-patch.

3. Mixing: the computer is the switcher

A hardware switcher has a fixed number of inputs. When you run out, you buy a bigger switcher.

vMix and OBS take NDI sources directly, so your camera count is limited by the network and the computer, not the number of physical ports. A production computer like our Livestream Systems becomes the switcher, graphics system, recorder and streamer in one.

4. Distance: no extenders

HDMI gets unreliable over long runs, so screens far from the booth need pairs of extenders. A network reaches every room through switches. A Magewell Pro Convert NDI to HDMI decoder behind a TV in the overflow room is all that room needs. (See how to put your livestream on lobby and overflow TVs.)

5. Growth: one piece at a time

• Add a camera: plug it into the switch.
• Add a room: add a decoder and a network drop.
• Add a source from another building: put it on the network with an encoder.

Nothing gets torn out to grow. That’s often the biggest saving of all, because it’s the cost you don’t pay three years from now.

The costs NDI doesn’t remove

Being honest about the trade-offs:

• Good switches. NDI wants a wired gigabit network, kept separate from guest Wi-Fi, with enough PoE power for your cameras. Budget for a quality production switch. (See what network does a church need for NDI?)
• A capable production computer. Many NDI sources take processing power to decode.
• Planning. Someone needs to decide which devices go on which network. The Signal Map helps document it.
• The sound system. Room audio still runs through your sound board. NDI carries audio for the stream and screens, not your speakers.

Five tricks that cost almost nothing

NDI’s free tools and an inexpensive phone app replace hardware churches usually buy:

• A phone becomes a wireless camera. See turn any smartphone into a wireless church camera.
• The pastor’s laptop sends slides over the network, with no capture card or HDMI extenders. See get the pastor’s slides into the stream.
• A second campus or a remote guest joins over the internet. See NDI over the internet.
• An old laptop becomes an overflow screen. See turn an old laptop into an overflow or confidence screen.
• The service goes into Zoom or Teams for homebound members and hybrid groups. See send your service into Zoom or Teams.

Do you have to replace everything?

No. A Magewell Pro Convert encoder puts an existing HDMI or SDI camera on the network, so your current cameras can keep working while you add NDI ones. Most churches move to NDI a piece at a time. (See NDI encoders and decoders.)

The best first step is to map your current system. We’ll show you which cameras and cables can stay, and where NDI saves the most. Prefer to talk? Call 910-WORSHIP.

See everything WorshipMetrics does with NDI on our NDI for churches page.