[This is part 7 of a 10 part series titled: “So You’re An IT Noob“]
In an earlier post we discussed various productivity software your team could take advantage of. Assuming your Church has any kind of worship ministry, you’re going to need invest in some software for that ministry to work with and thrive.
Worship Presentation Software
As much as we would like to think the words to a worship song just appear on a screen, there is software (and a volunteer!) changing those screens so you’re not fumbling over words as you sing out. There are a variety of options available for both Windows and the Mac platform.
Pro Presenter
ProPresenter by Renewed Vision is one of the two products that consumes a large part of this market. It can be run on Windows or Mac, but see the notes below about expansion. It comes packed with a bunch of features including:
- Song automation
- Scripture engine
- Presentation views
- Stage display (allows for the worship team to see things the audience cannot)
- Powerpoint & Keynote integration
- Prop Layers (for displaying a church logo an a slide for example)
- DVD playback
- Integrated video
- Live video feeds
- ProPresenter remote (Mac Only)
Full details can be found here
Although, ProPresenter is available for both the Mac and PC, some of the extended options are Mac only. For example, Edge Blending which allows for a seamless display using two or more projectors (see below):
How much will it cost?
ProPresenter has two license options. A single license is $399 (Mac or Windows) and can be installed on multiple computers, but can only be use on event at a time (successive not concurrent). A site license is $799 and allows for it to be used on multiple machines for concurrent events. The limitation with this is it can only be at one geographical location.
MediaShout
MediaShout is the other big player on the block with regard to market share. However, MediaShout is more stripped down with regard to features. It is available for both Windows and Mac platforms. Features include:
- Multiple displays
- Song lyrics
- 50+ bible versions
- Media playback
- Powerpoint support
- iLife and Keynote support (Mac version)
Full product tour can be found here:
How much will it cost?
A license for MediaShout (Mac or PC) will cost $429 and is good for installing on 3 machines (all can be presenting at once). They do offer a site license, but you’ll have to contact them to find out about it.
Keynote or PowerPoint
Some churches utilize these programs, and for churches just starting out, it may be an ideal solution. Both programs offer split screen views, so the upcoming slide can be seen. They can both integrate video and display song lyrics. Since they’re not designed specifically for church worship, there will be more manual work involved, but they can get the job done.
PowerPoint costs can vary so you’ll have to look around, but Keynote can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99 with the limitation being it is Mac only, whereas you can get PowerPoint for Mac or Windows.
Video Editing
Chances are, your worship leader will be asked to put some video together for a sermon series or announcements or some other reason. That will require some video editing software. There are many choices in this category. I’ll go with the simplest ones first:
Windows Live Movie Maker and iMovie
These are your starter video editing programs. They are native to Windows and the Mac and both come pre-installed. Both programs really offer the minimum with regard to features, but can work to make simple videos and to do them fast.
Neither use a standard timeline, but you can string clips together and make edits that way. It offers less complication, but also less control. It can work if you’re on a very strict budget, but if you’re looking for more creative control, you’ll want to go with something more advanced.
Cost: Free (iMovie is $15)
Final Cut Pro X (Mac only)
This is the latest offering from Apple and it’s been met with cheers and jeers. For the user looking to move beyond iMovie, the lower cost ($299) and the added features made for a nice upgrade for many users. However, advanced users and pros have been bellowing online since the day of its release saying it is missing many key features. Additions such as Motion 5 and Compressor 4 will take care of some of those issues and Apple has promised there will be updates.
You can see more of the features here
Adobe Premiere (Mac or Windows)
Adobe has always been known first for their suite of photography and design software. It is in the last year or so they have made great strides with their video editing software. The last time I used it was CS3 and I hated it. It was clunky, slow and just hard to work with. When somebody advised I give CS5 a shot, I was blown away by how much improved it was.
It has the advantage of working directly with other Adobe products (for instance, you can bring multi-layer PSD files from Photoshop right into it) and also has After Effects for really giving your videos some POP (that’s for my friend Jared). Prices will vary as non-profits are given generous discounts.
Adobe also has a consumer version of Premiere called Premiere Elements which is probably in between iMovie and Final Cut Pro X in terms of features and usability. It’s a good option for somebody that wants to do some timeline editing, but doesn’t have the budget for Premiere Pro.
As always, give a shout out in the comments if you have anything suggestions of your own!
Darius says
What about Easy Worship (http://www.easyworship.com/) and it’s open source alternative OpenLP (http://openlp.org/)?
Jay Caruso says
Darius, I did look into that. I left it out as it was Windows only, but perhaps I shouldn’t have made that exclusion.
Thanks!
Darius says
Yeah… I’m serious Mac user, but our church infrastructure is all Windows (kind of like James’ situation below…). We use Easy Worship, but I helped a friend set up OpenLP when they were doing their first projection setup… They were comfortable with it being free, and were able to install it on an older laptop and run it without any issue.
Eric Frisch says
Another vote for openlp.org – we’ve been using it for a couple of years now and it has met our needs very well. And while you’re correct that the current version is Windows only, version 2.0 (which is in beta right now) runs on Mac & Linux as well.
Jay Caruso says
Thanks Eric! I think I am going to write up a blog post about it separately.
James Cooper says
At my church we use: http://opensong.org/ (open source/free) It’s not got all the bells and whistles (like it doesn’t do video backgrounds/ppt integration) bit it’s so easy to use! Also all the songs/bibles/sets are stored in xml (which just appeals to me!)
I’m the only mac in the church and I use keynote to make the ‘pre-service slides’. I then export them to jpg and we use: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm to project on the windows computer in the church – best of both worlds! (We also use a ‘church dropbox account’ with shared folders so I can pop the slides into a folder and they auto get picked up on the church computer. We also have a folder of any ppt and videos / saves lots of usb flash drives floating around!)
Jay Caruso says
Great stuff. Thanks James!
Duane Keil says
I couldn’t pass up suggesting Sony Vegas (home or pro) at http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com. This software is extremely intuitive for beginners and has the punchneeded for pro’s…Keying is a sinch and is very forgiving, even when you don’t have a great source shot. I’ve exclusively used it for 5+ years, but it is only for the PC platform. Also, Digital Juice is now creating templates that drop directly into Sony Vegas. Cheers!
Jay Caruso says
Thanks for the suggesting Duane!
Greg says
I’ve got to throw out another shout out for EasyWorship. I’ve trained volunteers on various systems over the years and IMO, the learning curve for EW is the shortest.
The interface is clean, operation is easy and the cost for sitewide licensing makes this a great fit for smaller to midsize churches that don’t need the extra bells and whistles of ProPresenter.
Jay Caruso says
Thanks for the comment Greg. As I pointed out to Eric above, it seems to have quite the backing so I am going to look at it more in depth and do a blog post about it.