Presentation Software
March 10, 2008
At North Point, I’m just a volunteer at the bottom of the food chain. So I don’t get to be involved in creative process (generally speaking, there are exceptions) or make administrative decisions. One of which is to use ProPresenter and Macs exclusively for all video, lyrics, and even music. So I’ve learned to use it as best I can and try to appreciate what we have (that they’re not making me use PowerPoint!).
More than not, I’d rather be behind the sound board mixing than behind the computer managing what’s up on the screens. I’m not really visually wired, I love the worship experience of being behind the mixing console, closing my eyes (with my hands one or two key volume faders), and soaking in the experience. But for some reason God has been putting me more and more into the position of running the computer graphics and being responsible for the creative components of projecting lyrics, backgrounds, video clips, etc.
So in the environments where I’m the creative director and I make the executive decisions, I use MediaShout on my own laptop.
At Highlands Church, I’ve also had the opportunity to see EasyWorship in action and play with it a little. Granted, not as much as the other alternatives, so my opinions are worth no more than what you are paying for them. But I’d like to share my opinions on the software and offer my perspective on which option to go with if you are considering a purchase for your ministry.
My preference is clearly for MediaShout over ProPresenter, just as I would prefer to have a PC than a Mac. When staff at North Point hear me say this, they respond, “I’ll pray for you.” And so be it. But I do make a living working on PC’s, and know them inside and out, so one could say I’m biased. Keep that in mind when reading future posts where I attempt to compare the different options.
Mike Sessler has a clear opinion too and would much rather have ProPresenter. He blogs about his transition from MediaShout and I posted some comments if you want to follow along.
