The #1 Resource for Church Technology and Creativity
One of the oft forgotten realities of using technical equipment is that it will break, fail or otherwise develop issues and will need to be repaired. The question is, what are your next steps? Here's what I recommend: ... Read More
There are some audio techs out there that just don't know when to leave the controls alone; they hear phantom sounds and frequencies that don't really exist. I'm not sure what causes this but a good tech will know when the mix sounds great and will leave it alone until something changes and needs to be adjusted. It's a subtle skill to master and not one that's easy to teach because it's all about your ears. ... Read More
There are a plethora of options currently available in the DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) market to choose from that offer video recording capability. These cameras are very attractive to video ministry teams because they can be quite affordable and offer interchangeable lens capability, which is meant to increase their versatility. However, when it comes to using DSLR cameras in a live production environment, I have to strongly urge caution. The drawbacks to this camera platform begin to ... Read More
One of the hardest things to teach a new sound operator is how to mix. It requires the development of an "ear" for what to change, when to change it, and what levels are appropriate. The best advice I usually give is to listen to the radio, CDs, and anywhere professional level mixing is done. This will go a long way in understanding what goes into a mix, but that will only do so much. ... Read More
A lot of churches are new in the realm of switching video and the pressure to do a good job is amplified when you add live streaming to the mix. Somehow, that makes us want to do better, this idea that the world is watching. Let's go over the basics of a video switcher so you can better understand what it does and how to make it do what you want. First, you need to understand that a video switcher simply switches between different sources. In most cases, your sources will be video cameras ... Read More
I've heard a lot of talk recently about issues relating to our hearts and wanted to address this head-on. We are born into a war zone, pure and simple. This is the ancient and ongoing war of the ages that has been raging for centuries in the unseen world of the spiritual realm. It began, as we all know, by Lucifer and his angels and has enveloped everything we know, including us. And the prize is our hearts. The entire temptation in Eden, and even the converting of a 1/3 of the angels in ... Read More
A lot of tech directors and churches struggle with this question because the technology is changing so rapidly it's hard to make the decision to purchase thousands of dollars of equipment. You want to be a good steward and purchase wisely, but you also want the most bang for you buck. Below, I offer some guidance and things to think about and discuss with leadership that will hopefully help you with this quandary. ... Read More
Below is a description of how Fort Bragg Seventh-day Adventist Church went from a system with some components dating back 30 years to a new easier-to-use and highly capable and integrated AV system. Last week we ended with the sound system being installed and functional by the end of week 1. On Sunday I decided to move across the building to the fellowship hall where we planned to install a 70-volt in-ceiling speaker system, a 50" LED TV on the wall, and the remnants of the Sanctuary sound ... Read More
In a recent installation project for a church, I learned a very valuable lesson about the Blackmagic Design Television Studio video switcher (BMD TVS) and how it interacts with scalers and other equipment. The TVS expects either 720p or 1080i/p video content and it's extremely specific about what it accepts or doesn't accept. For example, if you are trying to feed a 1366x720 signal from a scaler to the TVS, it will not be able to compensate for the difference (720p HD is 1280x720). It will ... Read More
Below is a description of how Fort Bragg Seventh-day Adventist Church went from a system with some components dating back 30 years to a new easier-to-use and highly capable and integrated AV system. When I visited the church earlier this year, I was dumbfounded at what I saw; a small niche had been built into the wall of the sanctuary and this is what constituted the tech area (see image below). It was made clear that this system was out of date when they acquired it and it's been limping along ... Read More
