If we buy new projectors, I would prefer them to have some type of remote control interface (preferably WiFi or RJ45) so that we can manage then from the back.
Jesse Ferguson - 20 May 2007 10:55 AM
Nate has a TINY pretty bright projector that he uses instead of a TV, Ill try to find some information about his and other comparable projectors.
We DO have a ton of fabric left, I miscalculated somehow and we could easily cover the left window that always has sun shining through it. Or make curtains to run up the sides a ways, we could also make some table cloths for the info booths, and recover the white privacy curtain divider things with black.
I think this smaller screen could go a number of places and the best way to tell where would be by playing with it at the cafeteria.
I volunteer to store the LCD screens during the week. But yes, you have a good point about logistics so smaller screens and projectors might be a [practical] better idea.
pastor matthew - 19 May 2007 07:54 PM
I was suggesting that we position the screen more towards the middle so that we could put the other banner (the one that was infront of you Dennis) would be up on the platform. Quite honestly, in my opinion the position of the banner on the left (while facing the stage) was pointless as it was out of the view of everyone.
I am in favor of the flat screen TV’s, but we are going to have to figure out a way to transport those in and out. That is going to be a huge burden to get in and out. Out of curiosity, what do you guys think about putting a smaller projector on a smaller screen that could “resemble” a flat screen. We were talking about getting a smaller projector anyway, one that we could use in our smaller meetings and the Path classes. Just a thought.
Zach,
Cant we use that computer mounted in the Tech Stack? Why arent there already mounds of prewritten lyrics in there?
Here is an idea. If I could get sponsored for a laptop. I could make special backgrounds for each verse, or video for each song etc. We would run sermon videos from the laptop keep all the songs in there, advanced powerpoint, and photoshop to create aditional beautiful slides as well as countdown videos, seasonal videos, and record the sermon live onto its hard drive, and when we are ready, do the live internet broadcasting from it.
There are quite a few songs in the comp on the Tech Stack, but they aren’t individually saved. I could probably copy them all onto a disc or memory card and separate them on my own time at home; but I just haven’t done that. This weekend I’ll start by saving them to a disc or memory stick and throughout the week I’ll begin separating them and making sure they are in the right orders and spelled correctly.
As for a laptop with all the songs on it and designated for Power-Point videos and songs that is an awesome idea. That way if there needs to be any tweaks done to the sermon while everybody’s singing it can be done without us getting behind on the slides.
The presentation manager software typically come with a songs database that we add to or modify for our purposes. I am thinking of moving away from storing songs on powerpoint. The ideal situation is that we have a lyrics database and a suite of backgrounds (videos, etc). Then, we can just combine the words and an appropriate background as needed.
Jesse Ferguson - 21 May 2007 03:50 PM
Zach,
Cant we use that computer mounted in the Tech Stack? Why arent there already mounds of prewritten lyrics in there?
Here is an idea. If I could get sponsored for a laptop. I could make special backgrounds for each verse, or video for each song etc. We would run sermon videos from the laptop keep all the songs in there, advanced powerpoint, and photoshop to create aditional beautiful slides as well as countdown videos, seasonal videos, and record the sermon live onto its hard drive, and when we are ready, do the live internet broadcasting from it.
I do have a memory stick… actually I have 4. Two 1GB, one 128MB, and one 32MB. I can use my PSP to transfer the files to and from home. I should be able to get them all separated in under 2 weekends no problem. I just need to get on it.
And at least we will have a small data base until we get a program with most of the songs built in.
To make a PPT slide data base, we have to take one of two tracks ... (unless someone has a better method)
1. put the song title on every slide and then save them all into a single slide show from which you can pick to make a custom show each week (numbering the pages can help too)
2. save each song slide set to a PPT, then save all of the sets into a file, and each week import the ones you need into a single show.
I have prefered the first option in the past. I agree with Dexter that worship presentation software would be the best solution though.
Also, I can bring a 50” plasma flat screen and/or a portable projector (but I dont have a screen for it) for comparison purposes if needed.
PS. where are we with the new fonts for pastors and presentation computers?
I was at a few Tech conferences during this year so far. CES, EA Games and Sports, I was at E3 last year...they ALWAYS move their big LCD screens all over, they have a big padded crate designed to move them , you carry in the crate, set up is AS difficult as putting up our speakers...then carry it out empty. You can get stands for these TV’s where the TV slides down onto the top of two rods...it may be worth it, plus its easy to get people to carry these home and back with them because they get to use them during the week. If we invested in the carrying crates we may have a couple of people who would be willing to lend theirs to the church, as long as they were safe.
As for creating, or at least beginning a slide data base I was going to copy all the slides that we currently do have and separate them by song. That way if we want to put in Amazing Grace, we just add Amazing Grace and so on.
“K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid”
And then, depending on what software we get, and as we become more versed in said software, we can elaborate and expand on how we run the PPT slide-shows.
On the topic of computers:
We should upgrade our ram to 2 GB ... ddr2 ram is very cheep right now and it will help to keep things smooth when we start adding video backgrounds to our slides. Dexter ... I can get that for us or you can pick it up if you prefer.
IF we look at useing a laptop for a second computer, we need to pay close attention to what it uses for a video adapter. I have seen many times that a laptop’s lack of quality in external video adapters or drivers/codecs caused poor playback or other issues. It shows up most often in video.
Also, I think that LCDs are the best format for the smaller screens because of the quality of video and ease of setup. They are a bit heavy but with the right cases and stands are a great portable solution.
Good evening and Happy Sabbath. I have been working with Media Shout v3 and I am quite pleased with it so far. Some key things that I have learned (and am quite happy about) included the following:
* We can play and control video from the monitor and send the stream seamlessly to the projector’s screen. No more hacks with Media Player.
* We can play a video background to lyrics.
* We can easily import songs in the CCLI SongSelect format; even better news is that we already have a CCLI login and I have downloaded a few songs. I wish they had a batch download though, but it certainly beats having to type the lyrics.
Thank God for technology....
Jesse Ferguson - 22 May 2007 12:35 PM
That sounds like a good aspect of Presentation Manager Dexter.
And I like the idea you had for keeping a database of backgrounds and lyrics.
Zach I think that would be a good idea to do those separaions, do you have a memory stick?
That’s a great idea. The guide says that we have 4 memory slots and can have up-to 4GB. I think we should open up the machine just to make sure.
Dennis - 25 May 2007 10:44 AM
On the topic of computers:
We should upgrade our ram to 2 GB ... ddr2 ram is very cheep right now and it will help to keep things smooth when we start adding video backgrounds to our slides. Dexter ... I can get that for us or you can pick it up if you prefer.
IF we look at useing a laptop for a second computer, we need to pay close attention to what it uses for a video adapter. I have seen many times that a laptop’s lack of quality in external video adapters or drivers/codecs caused poor playback or other issues. It shows up most often in video.
Also, I think that LCDs are the best format for the smaller screens because of the quality of video and ease of setup. They are a bit heavy but with the right cases and stands are a great portable solution.
Since we are talking about hardware, I think we should also have some type of disaster recovery plan. The main thing I am worried about is the hard drive going bad. From what I have read, XP does not have a disk mirroring feature. However, I think we can probably (1) create a Ghost image; (2) get an external USB hard drive to backup data (video, songs database, etc.).
Dennis - 25 May 2007 10:44 AM
On the topic of computers:
We should upgrade our ram to 2 GB ... ddr2 ram is very cheep right now and it will help to keep things smooth when we start adding video backgrounds to our slides. Dexter ... I can get that for us or you can pick it up if you prefer.
IF we look at useing a laptop for a second computer, we need to pay close attention to what it uses for a video adapter. I have seen many times that a laptop’s lack of quality in external video adapters or drivers/codecs caused poor playback or other issues. It shows up most often in video.
Also, I think that LCDs are the best format for the smaller screens because of the quality of video and ease of setup. They are a bit heavy but with the right cases and stands are a great portable solution.
Amazingly cool news about this media manager! Im excited to begine compiling video backgrounds and stuff to make our worship sweet.
I think he LCD’s are the best for our on stage video junk. I watched several of “Life Church“‘s online videos and thier screens onstage look excitingly professional. We can try this out for free. I have a friend who has a connection with a screen rental company...you can try out screens for free for 30 days. Ill contact him. I think we could also keep our eyes on the employee auction site for Best buy and ebay and maybe a few other sources...our goal is to discover the cheapest screens that are still pretty nice and that look similar. We can force them (with my artsy magic skills) to look alike even if they are different brands.
How do we make our sermons available at the end of each service for people who only have CD players?
I found a used shop in Bellevue where I got my Plasma screen. They get alot of LCD/Plasma costco returns and such. It was a very good price (about 1/4 new cost) and in nearly perfect condition.
To make CDs available right after the service we would need a CD burner stack. We could burn 6 to 8 CDs at a time in 2 or 3 mins.
Jesse Ferguson - 26 May 2007 12:04 AM
Amazingly cool news about this media manager! Im excited to begine compiling video backgrounds and stuff to make our worship sweet.
I think he LCD’s are the best for our on stage video junk. I watched several of “Life Church“‘s online videos and thier screens onstage look excitingly professional. We can try this out for free. I have a friend who has a connection with a screen rental company...you can try out screens for free for 30 days. Ill contact him. I think we could also keep our eyes on the employee auction site for Best buy and ebay and maybe a few other sources...our goal is to discover the cheapest screens that are still pretty nice and that look similar. We can force them (with my artsy magic skills) to look alike even if they are different brands.
How do we make our sermons available at the end of each service for people who only have CD players?
The sermon files are pretty small so we should be able to use those credit card-sized discs.
Dennis - 26 May 2007 08:12 AM
I found a used shop in Bellevue where I got my Plasma screen. They get alot of LCD/Plasma costco returns and such. It was a very good price (about 1/4 new cost) and in nearly perfect condition.
To make CDs available right after the service we would need a CD burner stack. We could burn 6 to 8 CDs at a time in 2 or 3 mins.
Jesse Ferguson - 26 May 2007 12:04 AM
Amazingly cool news about this media manager! Im excited to begine compiling video backgrounds and stuff to make our worship sweet.
I think he LCD’s are the best for our on stage video junk. I watched several of “Life Church“‘s online videos and thier screens onstage look excitingly professional. We can try this out for free. I have a friend who has a connection with a screen rental company...you can try out screens for free for 30 days. Ill contact him. I think we could also keep our eyes on the employee auction site for Best buy and ebay and maybe a few other sources...our goal is to discover the cheapest screens that are still pretty nice and that look similar. We can force them (with my artsy magic skills) to look alike even if they are different brands.
How do we make our sermons available at the end of each service for people who only have CD players?
Does anyone know if we can get BCC to give us access to their WiFi network? Also, strike my comment on a portable USB drive. I think we should backup with an online service like Carbonite.
I certainly like Dennis’ idea of getting the LCD at a place like he is talking about. Any cost savings is a bonus.
But it would add a level of functionality/practicality if we could use a video projector that would be small enough to bring to meetings, etc. That way we could use it during the week.
I got a new PowerRemote base station. Apparantly we have the older model which has a range of 75 feet and is non-programmable. The new model has a range of 150 feet and can be programmed for MediaShout.
