More Research

OK, those of you who have seen the recent posts with Flash video, only to be taken down, may be asking "Why." Well, here's the deal. Crossroads Creative is about to redo some stuff, and I'm just testing out some Flash conversion tools.

So, here goes...one more test video.

And another one...

Yeah, that was me.  OK, and one more...

Friday Funny

Okay, I'd like to take credit for this idea, but I've seen it crop up here and there, mostly on my friend, Charles Shyblosky's blog. It's a great idea, so I thought I'd start doing it on my blog. Here's how it goes...I put up a picture and you write the caption. Deal? Deal.

Here goes Friday Funny #1. You write the caption.

More Accidental Progress...

OK, since our service from Hades last Friday, a couple of things have happened:

1. ProPresenter's update is out, with the fix for the problem we had with the videos.  Great job, guys!

2. We have a new lighting console on the way. We decided to get a new one after the following occurred:

The console that was (and still is) wigging out is actually a rental for our regular console that was having the same issues. During our staff meeting Tuesday, my pastor asked when I was taking the console out to be repaired, and when I informed him that it was out, and that the faulty one was actually the rental, he gave me a funny look. I then explained that I had just got the info for the return authorization, and that it should be all good once we had the board repaired. At that point, our youth pastor spoke up and said that even thought they had theirs repaired, it was still giving them issues (the same ones, BTW). With that bit of info out there, my pastor looked at me and simply said, "Let's just get a new one."

Fine with me, but here's the kicker:  he then says, "Turn something in for my board meeting tomorrow night."

OK, so, to say that I know nothing about lighting consoles is giving me too much credit! So, I sent out text messages, emails, and made some calls. I was surprised to get so many replies, but in a way, it made matters worse, since NO TWO PEOPLE had the same suggestion. The guy from whom we buy almost all of our gear gave me some suggestions, and I finally settled on a Lecprecon LP-X48. It's more than enough for what we need, and it'll be here soon.

BTW, the three wiggy consoles were all Zero88 FROG consoles. Ours are both FAT FROGs, and the rental is a Leap FROG (pictured).

0 for 3 from Zero88, which is a shame, because I've really enjoyed programming on our FAT FROG. It's kind of a sentimental thing, I guess. It's the first (and only) console I've ever done ANYTHING on. Hopefully whoever buys mine after it's repaired will have better luck, and I hope my Leprecon does the same for me (pun fully intended!).

The Night That Will Not be Discussed Again...

My church NEVER has technical issues. Our gear is great, our tech team operates like a well-oiled machine, and our services run flawlessly.

So, what the heck happened last night!?

During the 4 pm band rehearsal, none of our in-ears' mixes were right. Our console was accidentally reset (I guess), and all of the settings were lost. If this were the only issue of the night, it'd be no big deal, BUT...

This was only a foreshadowing of things to come.

We had guest speakers, who are missionaries to Africa (yeah, cliche, but true). I found out (at 3 pm) that the wife was going to sing, and we had to hook up floor wedges. Again, no big deal, except that she had a PowerPoint to show DURING her song(s). Also, NBD, except that they sorta got lost on the way to the church, and got there at about 10 minutes before service. We loaded the PowerPoint on our teleprompter, and were set. Obviously, she got no soundcheck, but our sound guy's pretty good (really good, in fact), so that didn't worry me.

But then, IT happened.

At right about service time (6 pm), I heard my name being paged. ProPresenter, our presentation software, wasn't playing audio. the computer had audio, but not the program. Weird. I restarted the program. No result. Restarted the computer. No result. Shut down the computer. No result. Downloaded update. No result. Reset program display preferences defaults. BINGO, we have sound. The audience actually applauded when the countdown started (probably the first time in history a church congregation has given an ovation to a countdown video!).

We could have started service without our two-minute video countdown, but we REALLY needed video for the service; it was Baby Dedication weekend (which are all on video). The band was ready to start without the countdown, but guess who the bass player was his weekend? Yep, you guessed it...me!

Okay, the two-minute countdown ended, and worship started. No problems. First song over, Baby Dedication video plays. Perfect. Second worship song. Fine. Then, the drummer was VERY late starting the click for the third song, so the worship leader decided to kill it (we started 15 min. late because of the aforementioned ProPresenter glitch) and just move forward with the service...as the drummer started clicking off the third song. It was as if the whole band (and most of the congregation) was yelling "Nooooooooo" in slow motion.

The worship pastor had the congregation sit down, as our presentation operator rolled our announcements video. No sound. I actually heard people sigh and "ohhh" in disappointment.

So we skipped the announcements and proceeded with verbal announcements and offering message. When we went to start the special song (Natalie Grant's "I Will Not Be Moved," which is a bit of a rocker) the drummer rolled the click for the not-played third worship song, a COMPLETE ballad! The look on his face was priceless. Better still was the sound of the supposed electric guitar volume swell that lasted about 15 seconds longer than it should have. The swell started, crested and faded out BEFORE the click even started!

So, we got through that, all of us wondering "What could go wrong next?" I don't know why people have to ask that, because about 5 minutes later, our accountant's husband (who's also a board member, and Saturday night service's head usher) tripped the alarm in the accounting office! The best part about that is that he didn't know the code (to his wife's own department), so he had to call her. Obviously, that took longer than the grace period afforded once you trip the alarm. So...WAAWAAWAAWAAWAAWAAWAAWAAWAA!!!!!! the alarm went off.

Oh yeah, our lighting board we have temp-ed in because ours is not functioning correctly, is not functioning correctly. A couple of the lighting scenes mysteriously went dark WHILE THE PREACHER WAS ONSTAGE!

Several of us tried to explain to our ministry guests that this stuff never happens. We may have over-compensated, because I'm not sure they bought it, although, the missionary's wife did make a comment like "the devil really hates us."

After service, I got ProPresenter to work. It turns out that there is a bug in their program. I notified them, and a fix is on the way.

Has this absolute craziness ever happended to any of you? Please say yes!

I Hate Sprint

Okay, so last night, I get a text message from my boss. It was regarding a meeting I had with our worship pastor and our lead PA engineer at Crossroads Church. He simply wanted to know how the meeting went.  I sent a reply, but I got the ever-so-increasingly-familiar "The network is not responding now" message after I hit SEND. That was around 8:30 last night.

This is me at 9:00 pm, a half-hour after the first message...

...and this is me at 10:35 pm, two hours after the failed text chat...

...and this is me this morning at 9:59 am, 13 1/2 hours after my boss should have had contact from me, answering his simple question...

The culprit? My house's metal roof. It's aluminum, made to look like cedar shakes. Five years ago, during Hurricane Lili, other roofs in the neighborhood were pretty badly damaged, but not mine. Here's a pic of the roof right above my front door. Pay close attention to the white stucco wall just to the left of the doorstep area. I'll get to that in a minute...

Here is the only place in my house that my phone works.  When I get a call, I have to go sit in my kitchen. We have this little solarium area that overlooks my goldfish pond. Notice the wall and overhang on the left side of the pic? That's my front door area...

OK, so you might be saying, "Well, doesn't your metal roof kill all cell phones, regardless of the carrier?" and "once you try to send a text, if it doesn't go through, it's too late. Try re-sending it." I'm glad you asked, and I know that already. Here's a pic of me with my wife's phone. She has AT&T. Go back and look at the lack of bars on my phone then notice all those bars on hers...

So, where am I going with this, and what does it have to do with the relevant use of media in a church setting? I've been desperately trying to get my boss/pastor to switch us to AT&T. I successfully got him and our executive pastor to switch to Mac, so why not AT&T and the iPhone? And, if we're going to be relevant, shouldn't we have stuff that works?

I'll keep you updated. What about you? Which carrier are you on, and how's your service? Am I alone in this? Where are the devoted Sprint-ers?

The Switch Continues...

In 2004, I switched my department at Crossroads Church over to Mac. I must say that professionally, it was one of the best moves I ever made.

When the department was remodeled in 1999 (before I started working there), they had installed a 512 MHz IBM PC running Avid Express 3.0. Well, when it came time to upgrade, it was going to cost over $10K to update the system adequately. I've never been a fan of Avid's (and ProTools') uber-proprietary way of doing things, and this was my perfect chance to get away from that platform.

I worked a deal with one of our local TV stations, KADN-Fox 15, for two years of airtime for our broadcast in exchange for our old Avid. This transaction was worth about $13K, which allowed me to purchase two Dual 2 GHz Mac G5s, both running Final Cut Pro, and one of them running Logic.

Well, here we are, for years later, and my department owns two Quad 3 GHz Mac Pros, a Dual 2.7 G5, the two original Dual 2 GHz G5s, two Mac Minis, an iMac, and a Dual 2.6 GHz MacBook Pro (a little something for me!). In addition to all this, our youth department is all Mac, and so is Facilities Management.

Now, the lead and executive pastors are going Mac. They both have VAIOs (which are both dead), and they're ready to make the switch. Our executive pastor wants a MacBook, and the lead pastor wants a MacBook Pro. Life at Crossroads is about to get a whole lot cooler!

2008 Easter Production

Well, here it is, as promised:  the Crossroads Church 2008 Easter production...

I'd love to know your thoughts. All of the video was created by our in-house production team, Crossroads Creative, and the intro will be offered for sale on our site. My wife and I wrote the script, and I did all of the post-audio work.

OK, here's the disclaimer:  the first couple of minutes of Judas' part were not tracked, so I had to use the live audio feed, which was noisy. You'll notice that it cleans up a LOT just before the first song. I guess you can't have it all...

To purchase the sermon intro, betrayal videos, and script, go here.