MediaShout vs ProPresenter, Round 1
March 10, 2008
Based on my conversations with people who have decided on MediaShout or ProPresenter, the PC vs Mac debate is really at heart of the issue. Some of the other issues like “Ease of use” are really just side issues based on which platform you are more used to or can handle.
So Round 1 has to come out in favor of ProPresenter. Macs are easier to use, easier to train volunteers on, and generally speaking (though I’ve seen exceptions first hand) are more reliable.
But, I still choose PC’s and Mediashout for the same reasons. Macs are easier to use and more reliable because they leave you with fewer choices. Businesses default to the PC platform not because they are easier to use, but because they are easier to customize. Their potential is greater because the PC platform is generally open to any form of customizing you want to do and you can make a PC do something you want it to even if Microsoft didn’t think of it first.
I’m generalizing here, but the opposite is true for a Mac. If Steve Jobs & Co didn’t think of it first (or Renewed Vision in this discussion), there’s little you can do to add the feature yourself. This is why Macs are more reliable, people aren’t customizing it with conflicting options or accidentally changing something they didn’t intend to. Developers can’t write code that has the same access to the core of the system the way they can on a PC. This is great if the only developers you interact with write viruses, but bad if you run a business and want to hire developers who can automate your business.
The catch to it all is, you have to know what you are doing. This means that the PC user needs more training, and generally speaking the average user won’t get to utilize the benefits unless they go into advanced training and learn to develop their own software solutions. ProPresenter and Macs in general take much less training to get a new volunteer used to using it, and it’s difficult for them to mess anything up because their aren’t nearly as many options to mess up.
The bottom line is that if you give me a good computer with MediaShout installed, I can usually accomplish more and spend less money than anyone using ProPresenter. But I know what I’m doing, and I will freely admit it’s harder to get a volunteer to start doing what I do.
