Marketplace Chaplains case study

When Marketplace Chaplains decided to step up their use of video for training purposes, they knew they needed to make a change. Spending up to $10,000 a day to create videos at a local production studio would be far too costly. Marketplace Chaplains needed a more economical solution that would not compromise the quality of their videos.

That’s when Marketplace Chaplains’ Chief Academic Officer & EVP of Canada, C.G. Macklin, began researching alternative studio solutions. He knew they needed something that could be easily operated by people with limited video expertise but would allow them to quickly produce content of equal quality to the videos they were paying professional production teams to create. After much research, his decision came down  to building an in-house studio from scratch or installing the ReadyCam.

While the up-front costs of the ReadyCam were a consideration, Marketplace Chaplains realized that the savings in ongoing studio operation expenses, including personnel and and maintenance, would result in a significantly lower total cost of ownership.

She explored options to outsource video production and transmission or hire internal resources. After reviewing many alternatives, Robyn chose AVI-SPL VideoLink’s ReadyCam Studio to provide the best of both worlds – an affordable, easy-to-use broadcast studio and the video expertise of AVI-SPL VideoLink.

Since installation, the ReadyCam Studio has been used almost exclusively to create training videos. The three main users of the ReadyCam Studio, none of whom have any background in video production and editing, use the studio regularly to design and develop training resources for the 1,600 chaplains. All studio functions can be operated from a single computer via VLGateway, the web-based user interface, which controls everything in the studio from lights to camera operation, audio, and background images. That means that one person can control the entire studio and record video with the click of a button.

According to C.G. Macklin, Marketplace Chaplains has “gotten video production down to a pretty fine science. We can shoot a video that is, say eight to 10 minutes, download it, edit it, and have a turnkey video in less than 30 minutes.” While the organization primarily uses ReadyCam Studio to develop internal training, their video use has grown ten-fold since installation. They now use the ReadyCam Studio as their one-stop shop for video, including hosting remote monthly meetings, creating alternative content for Spanish-speaking employees,
and even developing marketing videos from time-to-time.

After producing over 200 videos in the first year and a half of use, Marketplace Chaplains effectively achieved a 100% ROI on the ReadyCam Studio. The studio saved time and money that was once spent on travel, outsourced productions, and equipment. It also saved considerable costs due to the reduction of manpower it took to produce a single video. On this point, C.G. Macklin said:

“It doesn’t take very long to make up the difference between the initial cost of a traditional studio and the cost of the complete package that comes with the ReadyCam Studio: the camera, the lighting, the audio, and then of course the main thing is that one person can run all of that from one computer.”

Marketplace Chaplains trusts its corporate video communications and training to an affordable solution that produces high-quality results. With the ReadyCam Studio, Marketplace Chaplains has streamlined its online learning and staff development throughout the organization.