My church has been shooting, recording and broadcasting our services for years. My pastor just recently came to me and mentioned updating to all new cameras (we currently have 4 camcorders - all Canon XLH1). Three of our cameras are starting to have issues (shutting off randomly, going dark for a moment, flashing black, etc)

He initially mentioned just buying a few of the same camera to keep everything consistent, but I suggested that maybe we should just go ahead and consider upgrading to some nicer cameras.

We discussed the idea of going with a Sony x70 with a nice 1" sensor (our current cameras have a 1/3" sensor) which I think will help with low light and with better depth of field.

Surprisingly, he just told me today that if we are going to buy, perhaps I'm right and we should just go all the way instead and to look at some cameras in the $2,500 range. He seemed comfortable spending about $1,600 initially so any suggestions between $1,600 and $2,500 would be great.

The only thing we need is a 3G SDI out and the ability to control it with a lanc controller

Here is an example of what our services look like if that matters. Any suggestions would be great!

https://youtu.be/c74RLuMivDg?t=1976

The camera you want to take a serious look at is the Sony PXW-Z150. The Z150 is basically the the same thing as a Z90 but in a different style body that would be better suited "studio" use where you don't need to be small and mobile. The picture quality and features will blow the doors off your old Canons. That's my advice.

Another similar camera to the Sony z150 is the Panasonic AG-UX180 the lens has a little more reach. 1" camcorders don't have as much reach or dof. The dof is a mix bag, meaning zoomed in it's a bit shallow and you will have to pay attention to it. I prefer to use a monitor.

I wouldn't worry too much about DOF for your particular use case. It looks like your cameras are a ways back and zooming in quite a bit for close-ups, using a longer lens like that is going to give you shallower DOF anyway, even on a 1/3" sensor. Going with larger sensors does have some benefits, as you mentioned they usually have better low light capabilities and even shallower DOF, but it also becomes more difficult to nail critical focus.

So, I would say yes, look at low light performance, but don't get too concerned about sensor size or DOF. I have worked video on a lot of live events, and I have frequently seen setups where they wanted large sensor cameras so they could have that shallow DOF look. But then, in the context of a live event, half the shots ended up being out of focus as focus tracking proved difficult when following someone around a stage.