Was just about to research a way to do that, Dan. Thanks for providing the clear directions!

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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?

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I'll check for more details and post them here if I find anything.

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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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