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| mediamom | Propresenter - heartily recommended | 0 | Oct 30 2009, 4:58 PM EDT by mediamom | ||||
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Thread started: Oct 30 2009, 4:58 PM EDT
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Propresenter is a highly rated church presentation software program from Renewed Vision (http://propresenter.com/). It's a mac only application, and yes, I've talked churches into getting a mac just to use propresenter. It's very stable (we've used it for over 2 years without a crash on Sunday mornings), smooth and it handles motion backgrounds video clips and HD without a hitch. Anyone purchasing the current version is eligible to upgrade to the soon-to-be released version 4 at no extra cost. You can see the new features at the website (click on "the road to propresenter 4" at the top of the home page). To see the current features for Propresenter 3 click on Products>Propresenter.
They have an active forum (http://www.renewedvision.com/rv_vb/index.php) with users that will jump in to answer questions and the developers are on there quite a bit too, taking feature suggestions and answering questions also. They often do minor upgrades (no charge), incorporating user feedback. There is also a helpful video tutorial library (Support>Propresenter Tutorials). You can download a full version of the program to try for an unlimited amount of time (you just have a watermark on the display screen until you purchase it). I can't say enough about this program. I've trained another volunteer to be able to create the Sunday presentations, and it's quite easy to train people to run it on Sunday mornings. Very intuitive interface.
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| MichaelEwart | Thanks! | 0 | Oct 16 2009, 5:03 PM EDT by MichaelEwart | ||||
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Thread started: Oct 16 2009, 5:03 PM EDT
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Was just about to research a way to do that, Dan. Thanks for providing the clear directions!
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| dessmith | Google Calendar-Lectionary | 0 | Oct 13 2009, 3:51 PM EDT by dessmith | ||||
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Thread started: Oct 13 2009, 3:51 PM EDT
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Thanks for providing this! I've actually loaded this directly into our existing Google church calendar instead of having a seperate calendar (or embedding a seperate calendar)
1) Do 1 and 2 above. 2) Go to settings, click CW Lectionary ,go to Calendar address, click the hyperlink and save the ICAL file on your computer. 3) Go back to the main settings, click Import Calendar, browse to the .ics file you just saved, then choose the calendar you want to import to. Thats it==almost 3 easy steps! Dan Smith Holy Trinity Lutheran Church & School Des Moines, WA |
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| GSwebmaster | Want to automate fan page updates some? | 0 | Sep 9 2009, 12:16 PM EDT by GSwebmaster | ||||
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Thread started: Sep 9 2009, 12:16 PM EDT
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I have found a way to update our fan page at Good Shepherd a lot easier. Since I'm responsible for the content on Sundays, I reduce my workload but setting up some automated updates in pre production. First I set up pre-written updates to 2 different twitter accounts using www.socialoomph.com. Then I found a way to update fan page(or facebook profile) using "Selective Twitter Status" at www.facebook.com/selectivetwitter.
Basically you can update fan page from tweets with hashtag of #fb from a selected twitter account. Any questions? You can reply here and I will see if I can answer them for you.
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| welstechtrainer | Notes about posting video on facebook fan pages | 0 | Aug 19 2009, 1:51 PM EDT by welstechtrainer | ||||
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Thread started: Aug 19 2009, 1:51 PM EDT
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Received this message from John Shoosmith, who administers the Redeemer, yakima, WA facebook fan page -
Sallie - Thought I'd share some info about videos that can be posted on church "Fan" pages. Here's what I learned posting a sermon to our "wall". The limit is 20 minutes duration and "1024MB". Yesterday I attempted to upload a file that was 20:07 long. It was rejected for being too long, but then several hours later it appeared after I had pared it down to 19:56 and posted again. So, for a while I had 2 videos on the wall. Quality-wise, I was able to upload a huge 1 gigabyte file in "Xbox HD widescreen". It looks great, especially if you don't expand it. If you expand the video to full screen, it is definately NOT HD quality. |
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| gletiecq | Doing it cheap | 0 | Aug 9 2009, 12:17 AM EDT by gletiecq | ||||
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Thread started: Aug 9 2009, 12:17 AM EDT
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We at Bethlehem make extensive use of Behringer audio products, which tend to run about half the price of comparable products and still deliver darned good results. That allowed us to add compressors to our audio systems, which I've found to be incredibly important to dellivering quality results, especially when untrained people such as children are using mics.
We run four wired condenser mics and one wireless mic to record services, and have the ability to bring audio from the piano and external audio devices into our soundboard that then goes to a PC that now runs Adobe CS4 for production. The A/V goes to a 4 output NTSC amp that pushes audio and video to monitors in the nursery, and we have the ability to drive the PA system in the sanctuary for when we need that. All told, our audio setup ran about $1K including all the stage snakes and other cables. For web video, acceptable performance at a bargain-basement price pays off. |
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| gletiecq | Vacation Bible Camp | 0 | Aug 8 2009, 11:58 PM EDT by gletiecq | ||||
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Thread started: Aug 8 2009, 11:58 PM EDT
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One way to promote next year's vacation Bible Camp is to do a video of this year's VBC. That's what we did, and you can see it here:
http://vimeo.com/6013467
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| gletiecq | Review - Sony HVR HD1000U | 0 | Jul 14 2009, 12:12 PM EDT by gletiecq | ||||
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Thread started: Jul 14 2009, 12:12 PM EDT
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A professional high-definition video camera for $1,700? Yes, that's right. Here's one of those cameras you put on your shoulder (vastly increasing stability) and manually operate focus, zoom, exposure and the like on a lens ring. Or you can pop it on a quality tripod and have a manual operator keep up with your mobile pastor when he's delivering a sermon without having to zoom out. For less than what a Canon GL2 costs, you get HD and all the bells and whistles. Almost.
A lot of the controls are accessed on a menu in the viewfinder instead of on the body of the camera, which makes it harder to do quick adjustments. Fortunately, there's an auto mode for most of the stuff and it works pretty well. The stabilizer doesn't make tripod-shot footage look weird, the lighting balance works well, and for the most part the auto focus will suffice. The lens ring lets you manually adjust one of focus, zoom, exposure, shutter speed, white balance at a time. There are plenty of outputs on this, including composite, component, HDMI and DV. I found the composite a little flaky sometimes, but the rest seem great. This is an entry-level professional camera. Really low lighting might cause some problems, and the lack of a XLR mic inputs can be a pain, although there's a phono jack that will work well with dynamic and battery-operated shotgun mics. It shoot really nice video in almost all situations, and for the price it's hard, if not impossible, to beat. There's quite an allure to having fixed, robotic controlled cameras, especially when it's hard to find volunteers to operate manual cameras. You often get better video from manual cameras, since you can have an operator zoom in and maintain frame, which is darned hard to do with a robotic. Before getting something like your first BRC-300, you might want to first pick up this baby which will give you more flexibility, and cost less. |
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| gletiecq | Adobe Software Review - Part 2 | 0 | Jul 14 2009, 11:49 AM EDT by gletiecq | ||||
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Thread started: Jul 14 2009, 11:49 AM EDT
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The CS4 suite will let you produce video that is just as good as you see on broadcast television, with all the animation, transition and post-production tools they use. Don't buy video loops, just make them in After Effects. Don't buy themekits (unless you really like the footage and you can't get it), just make them. Heck, you don't even have to pay for graphic design elements for bulletins anymore, you can just make them yourself.
Premiere Pro (the upgrade for Premiere Elements) seems more stable and easier to work in once you figure it out. The titling and graphics can be seamlessly off-loaded to After Effects which are far easier to use and can do way more than the titling features in Premiere Elements, although you can still do the basic stuff in Premiere Pro. The suite can take a video and even generate a transcript, although you'd still have to put it in the bottom third and check it for accuracy. A complex project you'd try to do in Windows Movie Maker might take a month of work, and you'd be disappointed with the results. That project would take a week in Premiere Elements, and look decent. The same thing would take a day in CS4 and could look like you paid $10,000 to make it happen. If serious video is what you need, get the professional tools that make professional-looking output possible. |
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| gletiecq | Adobe software review - part 1 | 0 | Jul 14 2009, 11:38 AM EDT by gletiecq | ||||
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Thread started: Jul 14 2009, 11:38 AM EDT
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We very quickly outgrew the free/cheapie editing software such as Windows Movie Maker and Pinnacle. WMM can't use MPEG video and the titling is basic at best. Pinnacle is a little better, but still is a very consumer-oriented product best suited to home movie editing. To do things like make a compelling welcome video for the website, or have the ability to include readable titles that show the scripture passages in a sermon, you really need to step up from there.
The first step up is Adobe Premiere Elements. At $100 (or $60 for non-profits, and WELS churches can get this deal through Insight Public Sector) it does a very nice job of handling sermon video. Sometimes, after about the fourth or fifth title placement, the software gets unstable, so make sure you hit the 'save' button often. Normalizing audio is very easy, and managing fade-in/fade-out is a snap. You can really do a lot with this, and for a church of less than 200 members that really doesn't need to do extensive graphics or animation, but might like to manage camera angle switches in post-production and maybe do some basic video loops, this is a really great deal for the money. You even get some stock audio, so you can add a soundtrack to your videos and not worry about copyright. The next step up, for when you need to incorporate animated graphic, put together more complex compositions and produce content to support various ministries is to go all the way to Adobe CS4 Production Premium. Don't let the $1,700 retail price tag scare you, Insight Public Sector can get it for you for a mere $600. This is the real deal, a fully professional video management studio that includes everything from PhotoShop and Illustrator for print work, Premiere Pro, Flash and After Effects for Video, and a neat tool called On Location that helps capture video. |
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| redeemeryakima | Ooops - the links went dead. | 2 | May 7 2009, 7:46 AM EDT by welstechtrainer | ||||
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Thread started: May 6 2009, 5:52 PM EDT
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Maybe it's just happening right this very moment, but the links above for Presentation software on Media Shout are all showing dead links, code 404.
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| savatskid | How are each of the congregations using iTunes? | 3 | May 4 2009, 11:00 AM EDT by welstechtrainer | ||||
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Thread started: Apr 9 2009, 1:58 PM EDT
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I don't mean to be lazy, but I don't wish to look up each and every one of these congregations. Can you add at least a few different categories of how each is using iTunes?
Sorry, I'm not being negative, just trying to get more information.
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| redeemeryakima | Congregations in I-Tunes | 2 | Apr 23 2009, 4:19 PM EDT by redeemeryakima | ||||
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Thread started: Apr 16 2009, 4:14 PM EDT
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I wonder if when possible we should add our direct I-Tunes link? That way people wouldn't have to first go to a church website and look around.
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| redeemeryakima | Archived Captions Page | 0 | Apr 23 2009, 4:17 PM EDT by redeemeryakima | ||||
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Thread started: Apr 23 2009, 4:17 PM EDT
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You did a lot of work on this Sallie! I like how you managed the hyperlinks - much easier to get to stuff. Thanks!
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| DanMrFixit | Calendar software/programs | 7 | Apr 13 2009, 3:11 PM EDT by DanMrFixit | ||||
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Thread started: Sep 3 2008, 2:36 PM EDT
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Our secretary is currently using Calendar Creator Deluxe 2005 and wants to continue using it or something like it because she can do "pretty stuff" with it (graphics, etc). We would like a program that can do this and can also be easily uploaded to our website and easily updated regularly. Is there such a program out there that can do both well?
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| savatskid | Thanks for posting this! | 0 | Apr 9 2009, 2:02 PM EDT by savatskid | ||||
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Thread started: Apr 9 2009, 2:02 PM EDT
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I will have to address this sooner or later with my congregation as we formulate our Communication Strategy/Plan. Now I know where to start!
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| savatskid | SundayPlus was decent, but no updates in last few years, Grade: C- | 0 | Apr 2 2009, 9:49 AM EDT by savatskid | ||||
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Thread started: Apr 2 2009, 9:49 AM EDT
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Living Word in Waukesha uses Sunday Plus from Grass Roots (http://www.sundayplus.com/) but neither the software nor the website have been updated since 2005! This is unacceptable for software that cost $400-500. No updates to the text editor and it has multiple issues with copy/paste from Microsoft Word or formatting. No quicksave buttons while editing (among others) just really gets on your nerves. I'm one of the "geeks" who takes a turn at building the service for projection on the wall/screen and it's just frustrating because this software has been left in the dust. It still functions, but it's problematic and could easily be fixed or patched since it has some very basic features. The software itself really chugs when using higher res pictures. The video loop player is tricky and problematic as well. I wouldn't recommend paying for this software.
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| welstechtrainer | Request for more details on the Sony EVI-D70 | 5 | Feb 21 2009, 1:48 AM EST by redeemeryakima | ||||
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Thread started: Jan 12 2009, 12:25 PM EST
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1/12/09 - I received the folowing question from wiki member GSwebmaster:
Got any more info on the synod setup of the Sony EVI-D70? I'm interested if this will work for me at Good Shepherd. How many cameras are they controlling and what kind of hardware/software are they using? I would like 3 cameras and would like to control them remote from a console. I'm thinking run outputs through VidBlaster. Any thoughts? ************************************************************* I'll check for more details and post them here if I find anything.
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| epaulsen5 | Midi Interfaces | 4 | Dec 23 2008, 6:54 PM EST by davebuechler | ||||
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Thread started: Dec 23 2008, 4:10 PM EST
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Without knowing which midi interface he is using, I can't be sure of the problem. However, I do know that not all midi interfaces are created equal. A quick google turned up this comment:
http://www.yamaha-keyboard-guide.com/yamaha-p70-midi-interface-problem.html "After trying the Yamaha UX16 and Edirol interfaces with my Yamaha P-70 keyboard controller, I was very frustrated and couldn't seem to get my laptop to recognize the controller. I finally found the answer. I ordered the E-MU 1x1 interface from Guitar Center ($29.95) and it works perfectly connected via USB into my MacBook Pro for use with GarageBand and Logic. Now my Yamaha P-70 works great with all the MAC sounds and JamPacks. Don't bother with the Edirol or UX16 as the E-MU is the USB answer!" For $30 it sounds like an easy thing to check. --- Eric
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| Rob_F | an unofficial WELS social Wiki | 0 | Sep 4 2008, 3:23 PM EDT by Rob_F | ||||
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Thread started: Sep 4 2008, 3:23 PM EDT
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I'm testing an unofficial WELS social Wiki at http://www.welsweb.org. Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks. :)
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