I’m coming up on four years of being the primary video guy at my church’s satellite campus. Last Sunday, I was thinking over the changes in those four years.
We started things knowing that we wanted a backup of the sermon running at all times. Back then, everything was shot in SD, so DVD seemed like a good choice. This added a step to editing and only provided a backup for the message itself. If the main computer decided to lock up during worship, the only thing I could do is reboot it; since it was the sync signal that the AnalogWay Octofade used, that meant a visible glitch on the screen.
Probably a year or so into being there, we shifted to HD for the main service recording. DVD seemed like a bad choice then because it added a step AND it was lower resolution, so if we had a problem during the message and switched to the DVD, it was pretty obvious that we’d made a switch.
I started playing a backup recording in QuickTime on the audio iMac as a solution to the HD/SD problem. It wasn’t perfect, but it helped.
With permission from our head audio and video guys, I eventually repurposed the audio iMac which was used as a glorified iPod for preservice music, and gave them an old Mac cube that had been donated to the church. I was too old to do much, but it could still play mp3s using iTunes, so that was more than enough.
I moved both iMacs into the video area of the tech booth and started creating a duplicate of the Sunday presentation with both iMacs running Propresenter.
This gave me the ability to have a backup that I could jump to at any time. It also meant that I could do something else helpful. I took the video out of the first computer and ran it through a distribution amplifier (DA) to split it so that I could send the output directly to a confidence monitor.
During worship, I always show lyrics from the first computer. During video playback of the message and other elements, I always play video from the second computer. During the message, I play a backup on the first computer so that should the second have a problem, I can just go to the backup.
During performed songs (what they used to call “anthems” or “special music”), I use the dedicated feed from the first computer to the confidence monitor to show lyrics for the singers. I use the second computer to put up a video background that may or may not have lyrics on it, depending on the song.
In practice, this means that I do two jobs, but as I’m recruiting people onto the team, I can split what I do into two easier positions: director/video playback and lyrics. At our main campus, these are actually three positions, but I like the idea that people trained at the satellite could step into the main campus if necessary.
With the upgrade to ProPresenter 4 and now 5, the confidence monitor aspect of the first computer could be done using a USB video adapter without the DA, but while I hope to get one in the new budget year, it works for now as is.
For smaller churches, this model might be preferable. You could have a cheaper computer that could do the lyrics without issue, but sometimes struggles with video playback, as well as a beefier machine that could handle video elements as necessary. For switching, you’d need a video switch, but a scalar (like the ones made by Kramer) or presentation switcher (like the one we use from AnalogWay) would be better.
The choice to use two computers to do the work that only one is absolutely necessary for allows us to have a backup, an additional station for training new people, and additional flexibility that we didn’t have before. For me, it’s worth the effort to swap between the computers based on what’s happening in the service so that I know that short of a power failure, I will always have a backup video of the message playing at all times.
How have you introduced redundancy to improve reliability or efficiency in your system?
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