We recently did a ProPresenter 4 training for about 40 people here at Rock Bridge Community Church. Between the three campuses and various ministries, we have 22 machines currently running ProPresenter 3. In order to upgrade (which you should totally do if you haven’t already) we needed a large scale training to get people comfortable with the basics of the new program.

Most of the content of the training was provided by Stephen Proctor (@worshipvj www.worshipvj.com) so I won’t get into content too much on this post, but I do want to talk about setup.

Thanks to a little help from Renewed Vision, we were able to use an HD projector on a 16’ x 9’ screen in the center of the stage mirroring the laptop display while simultaneously using two 8’ x 6’ screens on the sides of the stage showing the output of ProPresenter. It was fun.

I used the USB-DVI device that Renewed Vision sells to mirror the laptop display and used the internal graphics card (MiniDisplayPort) to run ProPresenter’s output. Here’s the setup process (assuming you’ve never run the USB-DVI before).

• Run all your video cables to their respective places (I’m going to assume you know how to set up a projector) but don’t plug the USB-DVI device into the computer until you…
• Insert the disc, install the drivers
• Now plug in the USB-DVI device
• Using Display Preferences verify all 3 displays operating at optimal resolution/color settings and totally functional
• Make sure mirroring is off
• Arrange the displays in the following order (from left to right, if you don’t do this now it will make it more difficult to find the correct output later): Laptop Display (primary with dock), USB-DVI Display, MiniDisplayPort Display
• OPTION + Click & Drag the Laptop Display onto the USB-DVI Display (this should mirror the Laptop/USB-DVI displays ONLY)
  NOTE: Depending on your laptop display/projector resolutions you might have to find a “best fit” – I adjusted mine to only 1080 lines instead of 1440 to match the projector (this gave me letterboxing on my laptop display but I was ok with it – unhide your dock if you’re having trouble with it)
• Open ProPresenter 4
• Your screen might go black here as ProPresenter isn’t sure what display to use as an output and mine defaulted to the mirrored display on two different machines – Use CMD+1 to hide ProPresenter’s output
• Go to ProPresenter Preferences and click on the Display tab
• Make sure “Scale to Fit Output Display” is checked
• OPTION + Click & Drag the black “OUT” box to the MiniDisplayPort Display that you previously arranged all the way to the right
• Scale the ProPresenter main window as needed to see your screen on the projector

That should do it. You should be able to see everything you do on the laptop and still be able to see the results of that on the side screens. For the number of people we had at the training it really couldn’t have been better. I would also highly recommend bringing in Stephen Proctor to train your team. It fueled some great discussions on making good decisions with content not just how to use the software – which is where every good team needs to go.

A few notes:
The USB-DVI frame rate is around 20fps – noticeably slower than the built-in video card. That’s why I chose to use the USB-DVI device as the mirror instead of the main out. If you switch those you’ll likely run into performance problems playing video through ProPresenter – and nobody likes performance problems.

Always make sure the outputs/displays are working properly before you open ProPresenter. Troubleshooting is a pain if you don’t know whether it’s a system or a software problem.

I wouldn’t suggest doing this setup for anything live (why would you?) as it’s stable but just tricky enough to make me nervous in a live setting, but in my 2hr training we had no problems whatsoever.

I’d just like to add that Renewed Vision went the extra mile to test this out before I ever ordered the equipment. I sent a tweet out to fellow CTDRT members asking if anyone had ever tried to do this and got an unsolicited call from Renewed Vision’s @chriswheat offering his assistance. I told him what I thought would work and he ran off to test it calling me back to confirm.

If you end up using this setup or need any help with it, tweet it to me at @brian_holt, I’d love to see how you do it.

I love to read. I read a lot. Something happens when you sit down to read someone else’s ideas and synthesize that with your own ideas and your own experiences.

I wrote a tweet last week about reading Sherlock Holmes on my Kindle. I got a few responses from that and thought it might be interesting to share what else is on my Kindle right now (which I absolutely love – my backpack got 5 pounds lighter overnight).

Less Clutter, Less Noise by Kem Meyer*
Sherlock Holmes, the complete collection by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle*
Visual Faith: Art, Theology and Worship by William Dyrness*
Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully Engaged Members by Searcy & Henson
The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
High-Tech Worship? by Quentin Schultze
Art and the Bible: Two Essays by Francis Schaeffer
Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes your Faith by Shane Hipps
Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad
Tribes by Seth Godin
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

*denotes a book I’m currently reading.

Lots of wisdom up there.
What are you reading and how is it helping you grow?

Originally posted at www.mattevans.cc

When I was in high school I worked sales at RadioShack in Xenia, Ohio. Although it wasn’t that long ago, I remember how easy it was to sell mobile phones. Very few people had them, but everyone wanted them. Fast forward a decade and I can’t find anyone without a mobile phone.

Technology in the church hasn’t been any different. I remember growing up in church using hymnals and overhead projectors. Church websites, video and lighting wasn’t even in our vocabulary, much less a church hiring a *gasp* full-time Technical Director. Why in the world would a church waste money on that? And what would he or she do for the rest of the week?! But looking at the Church in America now, it’s not uncommon at all to find churches using all sorts of technology, and (thankfully for me) it’s not uncommon to find full-time staff members devoted to managing that technology. But that question is still a good one to ask: Why spend the money on technology?

The answer is easy. Technology (specifically electronic technology) allows the Church to reach people in a way that it never could before. It gives us an opportunity and reach that don’t exist without it. Here are just a few examples:

1. Technology lets us expand geographically. We can expand geographically (through multisite) while still allowing for strong shared leadership and vision. In much the same way the early church leaders sent letters to be read aloud by the local “pastors”, we are able to send video to multiple campuses. This is a very effective way to expand the reach of God’s Word. Here’s why:

It’s economical. The cost of a portable facility is a mere fraction of what it would cost to build a larger auditorium even with the investment in technical equipment.

It’s more effective. People may drive a long way to go to church, but if they do they won’t bring their friends. Expanding geographically with technology means that we’re going to them, rather than them coming to us. Sounds kind of like the Great Commission to me.

2. Technology lets us create an environment that reaches a person holistically. I could talk for hours on this alone. Growing up, church was mostly an intellectual task. Show up. Listen. Learn. Grow. Not a bad equation to be sure, but it left something out. Where was the emotional connection? Where was the artistry that inspired me to be in awe of the God who created all? Those things were missing. Technology allows us to create an environment that allows for those things through the use of creative lighting, video elements and moving music. All of these are based in the truth of God’s Word and support the message of the weekend, but communicate that truth in new and different ways. We can take the weekly message and expand how it’s communicate much like taking an object and looking at it from a different angle. It’s the same object, but we see it in a different way. Sometimes seeing something from a different angle helps us understand it – and helps us connect with it.

But where technology is an incredible tool that can be used to expand the reach of God’s Word to be sure; its use is limited. There are things that technology can do well and things it simply cannot. Technology can’t comfort you when you’re hurting. Technology cannot hold you accountable or help you grow through a tough situation.

None of these technologies work without a physical presence. This is why we have campus pastors to love the people in a way that a video can’t. This is why we encourage people to live life in groups, not just watch the message on our podcast. Technology can present truth, but it can never LIVE truth. That’s what you’re for.

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YouTube - Leo Lapore asks a not so stupid question.

I’ve lived most of my professional career operating under the following guideline:

‘Our methods may change, but our message never will.’

It really sounds good doesn’t it? Being able to say with conviction that we’ll use exciting new methods while keeping our theological heritage intact. It’s a great way to say something we all think.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it true.

Read the rest of this entry »