Whitwam AVI elevates broadcasting capabilities at Westminster Abbey with 4k streaming solution

Westminster invests in the future of its “Digital Abbey”

The Abbey is a place that’s touched the lives of kings, queens, statesmen and soldiers, poets, priests, heroes and villains since 960AD. Westminster Abbey has been the coronation church since 1066 and is the resting place of more than 3,000 great Britons.

Westminster Abbey recently completed a major upgrade to its technology infrastructure. For over a thousand years, the Abbey has stood as a beacon of tradition and ceremony. Yet, behind its famous Gothic vaults and Royal tombs, the building’s AV and broadcast systems have quietly evolved through decades of incremental upgrades. The goal of the most recent project was to implement a broadcast-standard, 4k-capable streaming system to meet modern demands without compromising the building’s UNESCO-listed fabric. Whitwam AVI, long-term AV partner and trusted consultant, designed and delivered the system, ultimately furnishing the Westminster Abbey team with the tools to better leverage their digital presence.

“We’ve been collaborating with Westminster Abbey since 2009 in the lead-up to the Royal Wedding. Since that time, we have been continually evolving the Abbey systems as technologies and demands have moved forward,” explains Andrew Pymm, Director at Whitwam AVI. “Each upgrade has needed to be sensitive to both the building and the many important services and events Westminster is responsible for hosting.”

Previous interventions, from the 2015 organ video relay system to the 2020 AV control room relocation to the triforium, have laid the groundwork for this latest, most ambitious transformation. Through a highly collaborative and consultative process, which involved several Abbey departments, including the Clergy, Works, Vergers, Music, Estates, Engagement and Institute teams, the project aligned Whitwam’s technical work with internal needs at all stages of the journey.

In 2023, the Abbey welcomed a new Head of Communications and Digital, Adrian Harris to lead the Digital Abbey programme, which aimed to reach and engage a wider global online audience. In 2023, the Abbey team commissioned extensive research in the UK and US to understand how to reach and engage audiences and identify the kinds of content viewers find most meaningful. The research revealed that people want to learn more about the Abbey and its history, as well as watch and actively engage with its services, especially those who cannot visit the Abbey in person.

“Our goal was to share the breadth of our regular and special church services and our varied events with a global audience,” explains Harris. “This could only be achieved by making a significant investment in cameras, audio and commissioning a new broadcast control room.” The development of robust video streaming capabilities to bring this goal to fruition required significant improvements to the Abbey’s technical infrastructure.

In early 2024, Westminster Abbey engaged Whitwam AVI to provide consultancy on these improvements, beginning with an assessment of the existing systems, a detailed gap analysis and a roadmap for future upgrades. Working alongside Matthew Dilley of About Sound, a specialist in location recording and live sound and streaming, and filmmaker David Hinitt, owner and recording engineer at Classical Films, Whitwam’s Andrew Pymm led the project team, leveraging his extensive experience of the Abbey’s AV systems to present a clear case for the upgrades. Much of 2024 was spent refining this plan, and by August, the Abbey committed to moving forward with the project, which would run from September 2024 through to Easter 2025.

The project brief was exacting, with the aim of upgrading the Abbey streaming system to a fully 4K streaming infrastructure with broadcast-quality audio, whilst maintaining intuitive operation for staff and vergers, and a higher level of control for professional use.

Multiple Panasonic AW-UE160 4K PTZ cameras were installed throughout the nave, quire, organ loft and sacrarium. These cameras, supported by custom mounts and levellers, allow operators to achieve professional framing without intruding on the building’s protected architecture. Placement of the cameras to obtain a cinematic view along the centre line of the Abbey, from the nave to the quire, was an important step in achieving the highest, broadcast-level live stream content the Abbey team desired.

Whilst this coveted shot was once reserved for national broadcasters, the Abbey now has access to this viewpoint during their own live streams. “We also needed to accommodate visiting broadcasters, so we installed custom bracketry, commissioned by Gravity Media, in this spot for high-profile events,” explains Pymm. “Through collaboration with Gravity Media and the BBC, we’ve ensured that the equipment can be adjusted or easily swapped out in case of visiting broadcasters during the Abbey’s most prestigious services.”

Signal distribution demanded extensive work. Westminster Abbey’s network infrastructure transitioned from Cisco switches to Netgear AV Line, with fibre-optic links connecting remote cameras via AJA FIDO transmitters and receivers. “We had to add a lot of fibre for the upgrade from HD to 4k,” recalls Pymm. “Overall, there are a total of 34 network switches for audio, video and control.”

Mini-converters and AV routing infrastructure, including Blackmagic Videohub and ATEM video mixers, provide routing and live production control. Epiphan Pearl 2 encoders handle high-quality 4K video encoding to multiple destinations, including YouTube for live streaming and the Abbey’s archival systems.

On the audio side, the upgrade introduced high-fidelity capture across the Abbey. Schoeps and DPA microphones cover the nave and sacrarium, whilst Neumann microphones focus on the organ. A Pyramix digital audio workstation from Merging Technologies, paired with a Five HAPI networked audio interface, allows multitrack recording at 192 kHz over a RAVENNA/AES67 network. Audio bridging between RAVENNA and Dante ensures compatibility and flexibility. “The aim was to capture the choir, the organist and the Abbey ambience in the highest possible quality,” explains Pymm. “The benefit of setting up the network to bridge from RAVENNA to Dante is that the Abbey can have the best of both worlds: super high-quality audio for special uses and musical recording, plus the flexibility of a Dante network for everyday use.”

Some of the project’s most innovative solutions addressed the Abbey’s unique architectural challenges. Microphones suspended from the lantern, a central focal point of Abbey services, required custom Igus cable reelers, capable of 30-metre drops. The microphone reelers provide precise audio pick-up whilst preserving sightlines and avoiding any permanent disturbances to the historic architecture. Other innovations include custom ACS pressure-mounted camera brackets, used to discreetly install a camera within the decorative architecture of the choir screen vault.

For system operation, a dual-layer approach was required. Clergy and vergers interact with a user-friendly 15-inch Crestron touchscreen, custom-developed by Whitwam to act like a portable vision mixer. This allows for a simplified preview of cameras, feed selection and video routing management for the Abbey’s existing display screens. Professional engineers operate the full broadcast suite from the triforium. A dual-layer approach ensures both simplicity for staff and professional-level control for live productions. “We needed a system that could be intuitive for our staff, yet powerful enough for broadcast engineers,” confirms James Doherty, Streaming Manager at Westminster Abbey. “The Royal College of Music (RCM) has partnered with us to provide support for live streaming and manage the on-site operations. Much of the broadcast control room is modelled on the studios at the RCM, so we are applying the expertise of one of the world’s best music institutions to our streaming.”

The new broadcast control room in the Abbey’s triforium enables professional vision and sound mixing, raising the overall broadcast quality and unlocking a world of content opportunities for the Abbey’s online channels. “The recording capabilities allow us to capture a wide range of services and events and maximise this content for many different purposes,” explains Harris. “For example, our operators can capture certain sections of a service or event, and send them to our content archive, where our digital team can pick these up and repurpose them as engaging social media clips, helping us to reach a much wider audience, especially in this era of short-form content.”

Whitwam AVI’s experience and expertise in the unique needs of heritage sites proved critical. “Working in a UNESCO World Heritage site requires an understanding of what is and isn’t possible,” emphasises Pymm. “Protecting the fabric of the building is always our top priority. This project shows how world-class AV and broadcast technology can coexist alongside the most renowned historic architecture in the UK.”

Looking ahead, Westminster Abbey plans to extend the 4K system to St. Margaret’s Church, creating further opportunities to share services and events. With the technical infrastructure now in place, the Abbey is poised to share its services, music and heritage with the world in broadcast-quality clarity.

“We now have the confidence, technology and team to bring the Abbey into a digital age,” confirms Doherty. “Working with Whitwam has been excellent. They know the building and our team and can work autonomously to get the job done to a very high standard. Everyone has been impressed with the system so far, and the quality and performance of our broadcast output is vastly improved.”

With two live-streamed services shared each week since September 2025 and strong engagement on YouTube, the Abbey’s reach is already extending well beyond its historic walls. The global audience is spread across a range of countries, with more than a third of viewers under the age of 45, with many choosing to watch the streamed services on a television, rather than on mobile or desktop, a sign of high-quality, meaningful engagement.

Whitwam’s role has been pivotal, not only in delivering the technical vision but also in engaging stakeholders and coordinating departments throughout. “This project has proved to be instrumental in our digital evolution and a forward-looking success,” confirms Harris. “Thanks to Whitwam’s expertise and deep knowledge of the Abbey, the journey has been highly collaborative, efficient and in alignment with the values of Westminster Abbey and its people.”