Robert Felton
I'm a member of the Ellsworth CRC in Ellsworth, MI. I'm the owner of Ministry-Tech, a business that provides presentation technologies and websites for churches, schools, and other ministries. I also work for Dynamic Internet Solutions/Faithwebsites as a client support specialist.
I lead the "media" track for the Worship Arts Technology Summit events across the country
My wife, Amy and I were recently approved for church planting work in the CRC.
Posted in: How to Start a Church Website
A little shameless self promotion here: There are several hosting/content management systems available as well. They combine the software, the hosting, and all of the ad-ins you mention above (plus support), but in a neat package for a monthly fee.
Faithwebsites is one such package that you can read about on my website www.ministry-tech.net
Bob Felton
Ellsworth Christian Reformed Church
Posted in: Art & Design — Solving Problems, Looking Good for God
A great resource for principles and suggestions on "slide" design is: A Guidebook for Visual Worship by Stephen Proctor. You can purchase it here.
Also, as a comment, I'd like to see us think more in terms of communicating visually as opposed to simply putting text on a screen in a way that is readable. Certainly text communicates, and it would be hard to sing a song without the words, but it seems the "problem" we are trying to overcome is more profound than "we needed the words and we didn't want to get a book out." I would contend that the "problem" to solve is our disconnection from our God, and that good visuals, whether on the screen or in the stained glass or projected on the walls help us experience God in a way that words alone cannot.
Just my $.02
Posted in: Who knows of any affordable Christian web host and CMS solutions?
Warning, I have a vested interest in this answer, but I'll offer it anyways.
Faithwebsites.com is a powerful and user-friendly CMS made specifically for churches, and modified slightly for Christian Schools. We have over 700 organizations using the system, and many CRC churches and Classes. Monthly hosting and support starts at $35/mo.
You can contact me for more information, or check out faithwebsites.com
Blessings!
Bob
Posted in: Were can I find guidelines and procedures for streaming worship services?
CCLI now offers a streaming/podcasting license for worship. The license seems pretty reasonable.
http://www.churchstreaminglicense.com/
Posted in: What software does your church use for audio recording of services?
Great! Thanks for the input.
Posted in: What software does your church use for projecting songs, liturgy and/or notes?
Dan,
I don't know of an open-source cross-platform solution. There is a cross-platform commercial solution, Live Worship. I've tested it myself. It isn't a high performer, but it is cross-platform and will display song lyrics and bible passages over still and moving backgrounds.
The three biggest names in commercial worship software right now are EasyWorship, MediaShout, and ProPresenter. Both EasyWorship and MediaShout are working on a Mac version, but neither is to the Beta testing stage yet. ProPresenter is working on a windows version, and although they haven't released a beta yet, they have announced an expected release for this summer.
Keynote is a little different than powerpoint, in that it does not have an API. In other words, programs cannot tap into it and use its functionality. You can, however, save your keynote presentations as either powerpoint slideshows or a series of jpeg images. You can then add this into any of the worship softwares we've mentioned.
Now, when it comes to quicktime, ProPresenter, being a Mac application, will play it natively. MediaShout and EasyWorship require some extra work to get them to playback quicktime content; but it can be done. What you need for either is the free K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. Here are some instructions from the MediaShout website; but keep in mind that if you have Windows 7 there is an additional step (see the second link).
https://mediacomplete.zendesk.com/entries/74462-installing-codecs-for-quicktime-and-mpeg2
https://mediacomplete.zendesk.com/entries/85377-why-do-i-have-issues-when-trying-to-use-video-files-in-windows-7
I hope that is helpful. You can always contact me through the forum contact form.
Bob Felton
Ellsworth Christian Reformed Church
www.ministry-tech.net
Posted in: What software does your church use for projecting songs, liturgy and/or notes?
David,
To answer your question, We use MediaShout in our sanctuary for our main services.
I use ProPresenter on my personal laptop (late '08 MacBook Pro) for Youth worship and lessons.
Our Sanctuary computer is 8 years old; so, it's a little light-weight for MediaShout V4 now; so, when I do projection, I quite often use my own laptop, boot into Windows and use MediaShout (That's what we are licensed to use in our main services.)
Now that it's time to consider updating our main sanctuary computer, we may go with a Mac and use ProPresenter. ProPresenter is supposed to be available on Windows this summer; but from my experience, the Mac just runs these programs more efficiently.
Bob Felton
Ellsworth Christian Reformed Church
www.ministry-tech.net
Posted in: What software does your church use for projecting songs, liturgy and/or notes?
Amanda,
EasyWorship is developing a Mac solution, but it isn't to the point of beta yet. That's what held up the 2009 version until late in 2009, was the fact that they wanted to release 2009 as a cross-platform version. They finally released 2009 with the extra features that they had perfected, and left Mac development for 2010. We will have to wait and see when that happens. MediaShout has also been working on a Mac solution for the last 5 years with not much to show for it just yet.
ProPresenter is a great choice for the Mac. There is certainly a learning curve moving from EasyWorship; but it is quite intuitive, and the windows version will be released this summer.
You can download the free trial from my website here: www.ministry-tech.net/propresenter.cfm
The trial never quits working, it just has a watermark on the display; so you can try it out indefinitely. I also do free demonstrations if you want to see how it works.
Posted in: What software does your church use for projecting songs, liturgy and/or notes?
Arnie,
Copyright is a complex thing. If the songs are directly from the Psalter hymnal, then Faith Alive owns the rights to copy those songs. You should probably contact them to see if owning the Psalter Hymnal and having them in your pews grants you the rights to make a digital copy and put it on a projection screen. Common sense would say yes, but the publisher may have a different answer.
If these are songs that you can find on CCLI, then you are bound by their rules and reporting. In other words, if you make a digital copy of a song (like in PowerPoint), then you need to report that (if it is a reporting cycle for you).
Posted in: What software does your church use for projecting songs, liturgy and/or notes?
Arnie,
I haven't looked at the specific songs you are referring to. Perhaps they are public domain songs that happen to also be in the Psalter Hymnal. If they are public domain, then there is no copyright holder and no reporting requirement.
Posted in: What software does your church use for projecting songs, liturgy and/or notes?
I stand corrected. My assumption was that Faith Alive owned the publishing rights to all the songs in the Psalter Hymnal (other than public domain songs).
So, I amend my previous suggestion. Check the CCLI website to see if the songs in question are under their jurisdiction, and then be sure to properly record your digital copy on your copy report. Again, public domain songs do not require reporting, and from what I understand, digitalsongsandhymns only has public domain songs on their website.
Posted in: What software does your church use for projecting songs, liturgy and/or notes?
Kyle,
Let me know if I can help you out with that upgrade to Pro 4.
Also, you'll be glad to know that Pro 4 allows you to import Powerpoints into the library.
Oh, and the windows version of ProPresenter was released yesterday. www.ministry-tech.net/propresenter.cfm
Bob