A reader needs help!

The following was posted by Twila on another post as a comment.  I’m not the Mac/ProPresenter expert, so I figured I’d bring it to the foreground here if anyone can help out.

I have recently become involved in a church that uses ProPresenter. In the past I have used MediaShout or SongshowPlus. One problem we are having with ProPresenter is that the pastor likes to have his sermon information in a powerpoint presentation which he controls from the pulpit. Unfortunately, once we start PowerPoint, if we do anything on the mac (including moving the mouse, etc.) it locks up PowerPoint. Is this common or does anyone know of a solution?

Survey Says?

Despite the fact that I haven’t updated the site in well over half a year, it still seems to be quite popular with more hits than I ever imagined to receive.

I’ve been dealing with some rather ugly life events lately and my natural desire to help other ministries has been stifled.  The key mentor in my life would argue about me describing this as “ugly” since he has a shack-esque view of the beauty that can be found in God’s shaping of my life through difficult processes.  None the less, I don’t recommend this path for anyone.

Hope has started to trickle back into my heart and I’m warming up to the idea of putting some more time into this site and its original purpose.  If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask for your encouragement and prayers.  Not sure if the comments are still as valuable when I directly solicit them, but if you’ve read Chapter 1 to what I hope will someday be the “Reinforcing the Church” volunteer guide, I’d like to hear your feedback.  Do you like my writing style?  Does the content stand out from the myriad of other resources already available (ie, is it worth another resource on the market)?  Would you like me to continue posting?

If you’ve read this far and you don’t see another post for a while, let me again direct you to Mike Sessler’s awesome blog.  His recent posts on things to know and discuss when purchasing a console seem identical to what I would have written had I been asked the same question and posting more regularly.  Almost makes me wonder if we had some kind of transporter accident like Will Riker did in that episode that created a “clone”, two people with the same past but vastly different futures.  Uhmm, but I’ll end that discussion before anyone thinks I’m as creepy as Sci-Fi Greg.

Go for the red pill

I feel like I owe an apology for not posting in so long, and the most recent posts aren’t even on the topic originally intended for this site.

To be honest, I’m not sure when I will be continuing here.  My life has turned upside down since June and I don’t know what it is that God wants me to be doing at the moment.

Fortunately Mike Sessler is still going strong and I encourage everyone here wanting to learn more about the controls of a sound board to check out, “There’s a Problem in the Matrix“.

Welcome TFWM Readers!

I received my copy of the issue recently so I imagine there will be some new visitors to the site trickling in.  Unfortunately I haven’t posted in a long time as I’ve had some major events occur in my life that I hope to share some day in the future.  Needless to say God has been doing some big things in my life to further mold me into the person He wants me to be.

I created this site as a resource for those wanting to learn about sound boards and church audio, but a string of posts comparing MediaShout and ProPresenter became more popular than I could have anticipated and opened up the opportunity to work with Mike Sessler and Jay Delp to create the article that may have led you here.

Some of the postings here have more detail than I was able to include with the limitations of the magazine article.  And I’d be happy to interact and try to answer any questions if there was something the article couldn’t answer for you.  Just leave a comment here or find my contact info on the about page.  At the moment I can’t guarantee much in terms of response time, but I will make an effort to respond as quickly as I can.

Thanks for stopping by!

ProPresenter strikes again

For a perfect program run on a perfect computer, it sure is out to get me.  This past Sunday morning I was running sound/video for a volunteer orientation.  Part of that orientation was to show a video, which was given to me on a USB stick.  On the disk were two copies of the video, higher quality and lower quality.  I added the lower quality video to the playlist and tested it, video played in its entirety with no problem.

Later my boss came in (still before the event started) and asked if the higher quality video had worked and if I tested it.  I explained that I just worked with the lower quality and she requested that I try the higher quality.  By this time people were already gathered in the room and I had no video switcher to keep the video off the screens for people to see.  So she says just to try it out in Quicktime “because if it works in Quicktime, it will definitely work in ProPresenter”.

So I do, and the video stutters a little.  Then I open the lower quality video and play the whole thing in Quicktime, which works fine.  I add the video back to the playlist and the event starts.

It comes time to start the video, and it doesn’t start.  I click.  Nothing happens, I click a couple of times, finally the video starts.  And stutters, and pauses, and resumes and stutters.  It stopped for 1 second every 4 or 5 seconds.  I was so embarrassed, I tested this video in advance, even played it in Quicktime, there is no reason why this should have been happening.  I’m guessing the CPU was busy working on something else, but darned if I know what.  Do Macs have an equivalent to the Task Manager in Windows that lets you see all running processes and their CPU usage?

So that’s my story.  I don’t know what I could have done differently.  I was wrestling with whether or not to stop the video or try something else, but I didn’t have DVD backup or anything to fall back on, so I let it run through the whole 3 minutes that way.  I’m thinking I’m just going to use my own laptop and MediaShout for all future events.  At least until North Point kicks me out for defiling their equipment like that.

MediaShout vs ProPresenter, The View from 20,000 Feet

MediaShout and ProPresenter have some big differences in how they operate that are inherited from their platform. ProPresenter uses QuickTime, MediaShout uses DirectX, etc. But there’s also a big difference in the user interface that is by design and not just because of the computer the program runs on.

The person responsible for making MediaShout work uses tools such as Scripts and Cues. The ProPresenter operator relies on playlists and miniature versions of the actual slide as you would see it on the big screen. This isn’t a matter of one method being superior to the other, but they are completely different in how easy it is for a user to get results and be able to make last minute changes. And as the ongoing debates I participate in demonstrate, everyone has their own preference for which option is better.

As I said, MediaShout’s primary tool is called a script. This is because it can have all the same content as the actual script for your production. The content of your production is placed in order from top to bottom. Section headers can divide the script into different parts, such as “Announcements”, “Music”, “Sermon”, etc. The lyrics or notes can be seen like normal written text, or hidden away to only see titles. The user interface isn’t so much a preview of what you will get on the big screen, it is a detailed view of what is coming up and can give you enough information that you won’t need a copy of the script next to you. The contents of the full script appear from top to bottom much like a document.

On the contrary, a preview is exactly what you get with ProPresenter. The operator selects what goes on the screen by clicking on a miniature picture of exactly how the output will appear. The Renewed Vision team wanted to give you a full “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWG) experience. So rather than see the lyrics in a paragraph format like you would find in a script, you see the individual lines inside boxes positioned exactly as they will appear on the projector once you click on them. Likewise, the background and foreground elements are divided so that you can click on different backgrounds for the same slide as you feel compelled to. All the background options appear on the bottom half of the screen and you can click on them at any time without affecting the foreground (the words or pictures being presented).

Generally speaking, MediaShout is geared more for the person who has planned the whole script in advance, while ProPresenter allows for more fluid on-the-fly options. The MediaShout operator can go through the whole production by hitting nothing more than the spacebar over and over because the whole script is already present and in order, while the ProPresenter operator will have to rely on the mouse to change songs or find the appropriate video clip or background graphic. On the other hand, the ProPresenter user will have an easier time switching between slides if last minute changes means you need to find a different slide than was already planned for a given segment.

I’m not saying the MediaShout operator can’t stray from the script or be more dynamic, it just isn’t the default mode. You can scroll up and down the script and double-click any entry that you want to switch to right away. And there’s a couple of additional windows MediaShout has that works much like ProPresenter, showing thumbnail views of different video clips, graphics, or even songs that you can have sitting on the side just in case.

What goes in must come out (unless you press the Mute button)

If you’re following along at home, we’ve discussed how the GAIN control works to control the input level into the mixing console. When you plug in that guitar, microphone, mp3 player, etc, that signal goes into one of the many input jacks on the back of the console, gets amplified or softened by the gain control, and then goes to the EQ controls. The EQ knobs also amplify or soften the signal, but it does so only at selective frequencies. (More on this someday)

After the EQ, the signal splits and goes to a couple of different places. The most obvious is the main volume fader, the big control closest to you that slides up and down. Though there may be rare exceptions, this is generally used to control the main volume in the house speakers. At the same time, the signal is also going to anything that is marked “PFL”, which stands for “Pre-Fade Listen”. Pre-fade, as in “the signal before it is affected by the main volume fader.” These are additional outputs on the board that have their own volume control and are not affected by what volume you set on the fader. The easiest one to spot is the button labeled PFL that usually appears above each fader. Mackie and some other brands call this SOLO, but it is the same thing. Pressing this button takes the signal from that channel and sends it to the headphone/control room output of the board. Because it is pre-fade, you can listen to that channel in the headphones even if the volume is turned all the way down. The gain will still have an impact on the volume you hear on pre-fade outputs, but the main fader will not.

In addition to the PFL headphone output, there are also a number of pre-fade auxiliary (AUX) outputs on the console. The Aux controls on the mixing console are basically separate volume controls for different outputs. Your primary fader will control the house speakers. The Aux controls will control everything else from monitors and in-ears for the band to hear themselves, recording outputs, effects units, etc. There are two types of aux controls on the typical board, and they are labeled as Pre or Post, or they have a button to press to switch between the two options. The “Pre” controls are outputs that ignore the fader volume you set. The “Post” controls are post-fade, their output volume is in direct relationship to the main fader. For example, if you have your volume turned all the way down so you don’t hear anything, any monitors on pre-fade may still be making noise, the post fade outputs will be silent. As you turn up the fader and begin to hear the music in the main speakers, so too will you hear them in the post-fade monitors. The pre-fade monitors will stay at the same volume regardless.

The average mixer (in my experience) has 6 aux outputs. I’ve worked with some that only have 1, and some high-end consoles that have 16, and some digital consoles with far more. But 6 is the most common, and is likely what you will be working with at an entry level position. Typically the Aux 1 and 2 controls are pre-fade, 5 and 6 are post, and the middle controls have a button to switch between the two modes. The more expensive boards may have buttons on 1 through 4, or possibly all 6 controls. The point is, you may have a choice about when to use a pre-fade or post-fade output. There is no simple definition about which to choose. Most aux controls are used for the band to control monitors and everyone may have a different opinion on whether to be pre or post-fade.

The second most common use for auxiliaries is effects. Reverb is the most common effects unit you’ll find in the typical setup. The shortest description of a reverb unit is that it takes a singers voice and makes them sound like they are in a bathroom. Done right, this is a good thing, that’s why your own voice tends to sound better in the shower. In order for it to work, you have to send the singers voice to the unit and then have the echo effect get put back into the mix. This is where the post-fade aux works best. Turn up the aux for a given singer until you have just enough of the effect to sound good (subtle is good!), and as you turn up or down the volume on that singer, the effect will change as well. The effects processor’s output will likely have its own input on the board, or the console will have a set of controls labeled “Return” that are used to put the echo or whatever effect back into the house and/or monitor mix.

This is just an introduction to the AUX controls and the idea of pre and post fade levels. In upcoming posts I will go into more detail about mixing the monitors and useful information for making the most out of an effects processor.

MediaShout vs ProPresenter, Round 5

I’m glad to see that Renewed Vision is actively adding to the feature list in ProPresenter. Mike’s recent posting inspired me to write about one of the features unique to MediaShout that I love to use.

Above is the screen you get when you insert a “Script Control” type cue into the MediaShout script. If you want to loop through a series of announcements (stills or videos, or any other type of cue), and then automatically start a video (opener or countdown) at a given time, you can do so with two script controls. The first control tells the system to loop, the second has the box marked “Start Action At:” with the appropriate start time.

This means that I can start the announcements and then go backstage to talk to the worship team or whatever, and even without my presence the announcements fade out and automatically begins the opening video (which then cues me that I have x minutes to get back to the booth).

How It All Pans Out

Pan is a knob you’ll find on most mixing consoles, usually the first knob right above the main volume fader. It’s function is fairly simple, it assigns that channel to go out the left or right output. Yes, that sounds a lot like the “Balance” you find on your home and car stereos, but there is a subtle difference. In fact, most boards today will have a few channels where the knob is labeled Balance (or BAL) instead of Pan. Those are the channels with stereo inputs.
When you pan an input, you are taking a single input, for example a microphone or instrument, and pushing it to either the left or right output. When you turn the balance to one direction or another, you are choosing between two different inputs, left or right from stereo inputs such as MP3 players, computers, CD players, etc.
If your mixing console doesn’t have those stereo channels and you want to run your sound system in true stereo, then you can have the same effect by using two channels, and pan your left input to the left, and the second channel with the right input to the right.

Keep in mind, the pan has no effect if you are using only a mono output where your main speakers are only connected to one output on the amp or mixer. However, even in a mono system, the balance does allow you to adjust the volume between the left and right inputs. If you turn the balance to the far right, you are muting the left input. I don’t recommend it, but if you are in a bind and need to have more channels to work with, you can plug similar instruments into the two inputs of a stereo channel and use the pan as your volume. But this will only work with mono outputs and you lose the ability to EQ the two sources individually, and can’t have separate control to the monitors (auxiliary outputs).

Look for a future post that will have some tips and application ideas regarding split track CD’s. Also, the Pan plays an important role when dealing with subgroups, which will be discussed in detail also in a future post.

Want to buy MediaShout?

I’m willing to bet that most of my readers are going to favor ProPresenter since that is the type of people I am doing ministry with most of the time.

But I’ve been using MediaShout more often recently with a couple of events and I’ve decided to pursue becoming an official reseller.

I’ll be doing video (and possibly sound) for the Southeast Conference of the Covenant Church in a couple of weeks, and I’m building a custom desktop for the job, which will be for sale including MediaShout after the event.

Here’s what’s included:

• nVidia card with 256 MB RAM
• Windows Vista Home Premium (can be upgraded to Business if your church has a domain)
• 2 x 160 GB hard drives with RAID mirroring protection (the two hard drives work together as one and keep functioning in case a drive failes)
• 2 GB of RAM
• Duo Core processor, not sure of the GHz yet
• 19″ widescreen LCD

I’m estimating the price tag will be somewhere around $1600, including the licensed copy of MediaShout. I’m also considering the idea of providing a support plan for an additional $300 or so, but not sure about this yet. The support plan would include LogMeIn.com IT tools so I can remote into the machine when you call about various problems, AVG anti-virus, and CounterSpy anti-spyware, in addition to automated patch management and monitoring software that will warn of any hardware failures or other preventable issues.

Anybody have any feedback? The price seems high to me, but it is quite low compared to the ProPresenter prices, and you get the extra features like the redundant hard drives (something I would never live without on a production machine).