Church Tech Arts

For reasons probably only Steve Jobs knows, the 10.5.5 update breaks ProPresenter in a major way. It’s causing Kernel Panics (those are really, really bad…). Renewed Vision is working on figuring out what Apple broke this time and will post an update when it’s figured out.

As always, it’s prudent to hold off on installing any updates on a well-functioning system (and especially mission critical systems) until they’re proven to work well and not break anything. This includes (and sometimes means particularly) Apple updates.

Apple is somewhat notorious for changing things and not letting developers know ahead of time. So be aware. And it never hurts to have a fully functioning backup of your previous version just in case. See Back the Data Up, Pt. 2. for some thoughts on how to accomplish that.

[Update 9-17-08] It appears this issue is only a problem with MacBook Pros. And there is a work-around for it.

Today, we’re taking a break from our usual techie stuff to talk about some of the exciting things God is doing in the midst of Upper Room. I find it good to do this once in a while, as it’s easy to forget that we serve a higher purpose than great audio and video…

First, a little background. Upper Room started about 7 years ago as a third expression of worship at Christ Presbyterian Church. Initially geared toward the next generation, and combining both sacred practices and experiential worship, the community has grown beyond the expectations of those who were there at the beginning. Today, upwards of 1,500 worship with us each week, and we have a staff of 11. Upper Room is in the unique position of being a “church within a church.” 

This has proven very advantageous on many fronts. Because both communities share common facilities, overhead costs are reduced. Having both staffs in the same building is sort of like being a church plant with a mentor down the hall. And, as much as Upper Room has learned from CPC, CPC has learned from Upper Room. It’s been a very healthy and positive relationship.

It’s not been without challenges, however. CPC is more rooted in a traditional/contemporary worship style, while UR is more modern/post-modern. This creates a lot of work each weekend as we change the space back and forth. Trying to work through sub-ministry issues has taken a lot of energy (though not in a bad way, but like all relationships, it takes work). And there’s been a growing sense that UR is being held back missionally because of our physical location. 

About 1 1/2 years ago, the leadership of UR and CPC began to meet, discuss, pray and discern what our relationship would look like going forward. Having joined the UR staff in the middle of this process, I can say it’s been one of the most thorough, God-honoring processes I’ve ever witnessed. The spirit has been fantastic, and it’s exciting to see two communities so committed to each other and to the mission God has set before them. About 4 months ago, the working groups brought forth a recommendation that they felt would serve the interests of both communities best, and allow each to thrive and grow in the work of the Kingdom.

This recommendation was brought to the Session, which approved it unanimously. UR staff were present when the recommendation was proposed, and I was again struck by the spirit of cooperation and support. Rarely have I seen a church be the Church like this. Last night we announced to the community the results of the discernment process and what we feel God is calling us to as a church.

Sometime over the next 12-18 months, Upper Room will be commissioned and sent off as an independent church in a new location. In short, we’re planting a church! To say that this is exciting is an understatement. Right now, there are as many unanswered questions as there are people to ask them. We don’t yet know where we’re going (other than somewhere in the Minneapolis metro area), or what kind of building we’ll be in, how we’re going to get there. 

Going forward, there is a well thought out visioning/ownership process in place that will guide us as we seek to further discern what this all means. I continue to be impressed with the leadership of both communities as we move forward. The potential is here to launch a church really well, and I think we’re going to do just that.

For me, it means a shift in my role. I will be taking on more of the IT needs, and expect to be involved with the build-out and/or rehab of whatever space we end up with. For years I’ve been asking God to let me start from a blank slate, and it looks like I’ll finally get the opportunity. I can’t wait to spec a system out from scratch and hopefully avoid all the problems that I’ve been fixing at the other churches I’ve been part of.

Personally, I’m very excited about this. I find it utterly fascinating that God brought us here for such a time as this. When many looked at my background they said, “Really? How does this qualify you to work in a church?” On the surface, it looks like a hodgepodge of jobs that don’t fit together. In fact, it all makes perfect sense. Ten years in professional video production, for example, is an easy fit. But working for a company that produced huge corporate meetings? Well, I did learn a ton about live production, and I was also promoted to IT manager when I designed, installed and maintained the first computer network they had. Even this seems to fit once it’s explained.

But owner/builder of a chain of tanning salons? How does that fit in? Perfectly, it turns out. It was a serious education on commercial construction, design and building, not to mention learning how to design and install electrical systems of the 800 amp, three-phase size. Add to that HVAC, working with sub-contractors, building officials and the permitting process.

Selling home-improvement products? Again, I learned a lot about construction, contracts and managing expectations. It’s like a perfect storm for using all of the experiences I’ve had (except it should be less destructive than an actual storm…).

All of this is why I’m so excited to go to WFX in Houston in a few months. They are having what appear to be some excellent sessions on building, design and re-purposing existing buildings. Not to mention a huge trade show that will again expose me to many much-needed products and services.

I’m also excited to have a growing network of fellow tech directors around the country that I can draw on as we make a few thousand decisions about gear selection, vendors and design. As I said in the beginning, sometimes we can get so wrapped up in what we’re doing, it’s easy to forget what God is doing. This is one of those times when I remember I’m a part of something much bigger than myself.

The next year or two are going to bring many surprises, and it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get there. But just as I have been prepared for this in my area of expertise, so has the rest of the staff. And I think we’re all looking forward to seeing just how things turn out.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned…there is going to be a lot of exciting techie things to report on coming up!

For several months I’ve made veiled references to some coming changes at Upper Room. And while I can’t talk about it publicly yet, we’re almost there. Tomorrow will be a big night in the life of our community, and I can’t wait to share the news with everyone. God is doing some exciting things in our midst, and I feel like we’re on the cusp of something big. 

So tune in on Monday morning, I’ll have complete coverage of the news. It’s going to be good…

ProSound Web issued a story on Tuesday that detailed an FCC proposal to ban all wireless mics operating in the 700 MHz band. You can read the whole story here. For even more information, click here to read the actual FCC news release in pdf format, or here to read the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Change order.

Having read through the article, the FCC news release and the NPRM (OK, I’m a geek…) a few times, here is my take. First, it’s still in the proposal stages. However, the writing is on the wall. I would guess it’s highly unlikely that this will get shot down. The dealine for comments is less than 30 days, and they have to reply in under 45. So my guess is that within a month or two, we’ll know for sure that all 700 MHz mics will need to be shut down on February 17, 2009.

But in my mind, that’s not the bad news. What worries me is the second half of the NPRM  which states the FCC will start investigating claims of false advertising against wireless mic manufacturers for leading the wireless mic buying public to believe that we could operate wireless mics without a license to do so. Huh?

Here’s the deal. The FCC requires all operators of RF transmitters (TV & radio stations, ham radios, wireless mics and IEMs) to have a license to operate on a given set of frequencies. I don’t know about you, but I know of no one who actually has a license to operate a wireless mic. This is because the transmitting power of a wireless mic is so much lower than a TV station that it’s laughable to think a wireless mic would cause interference. Since the only other devices operating in the same specturm as wireless mics were TV stations, and TV stations obviously have the power advantage, the FCC left us unlicensed (and technically illegal) wireless mic operators alone.

This could all change if the FCC decides to open up the “white spaces” (the open frequencies between TV stations in any given market) to other low-power RF devices (to deliver broadband internet, for example). Presumably these devices would be licensed by the manufacturer, and could be the victim of interference by a wireless mic.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, and/or complaints filed against wireless mic operators by any new devices, we could be in a lot of trouble.

The uptake on all this is simple. If you have wireless mics operating in the 700 MHz band (that is from 698-806 MHz), you have about 173 days to get rid of them. And don’t wait until after the deadline to put them on ebay hoping people in South America will buy them because the rule prohibits the sale of 700 MHz equipment after the DTV transition date. Get the stuff listed now (thought it’s not likely to be worth much).

Also, be prepared to endure a possible licensing process or the restriction of your wireless spectrum. If you currently run a bunch of wirless channels every weekend, start thinking about how you can get back to some wired mics (they’ll sound better to boot!). We moved all our vocal mics to wired earlier this year, and I’m in the process of cutting our wireless mic inventory down from 16 channels to 8, and our IEMs from 9 to 4 (and adding 4 Aviom mixers to make up the gap).

I know the wireless manufacturers have been telling us it’s all going to be all right, just buy new gear and it will be fine. That’s good for them, as they’re selling tons of new wireless gear right now. But if the rules change again, which they might, we’ll be stuck with the tab (again).

Remember, a wired mic (with good cable anyway) is far less suseptable to RF interference and will almost always sound better than a wireless one. And you won’t (for the foreseeable future) need a license to operate it!

As I’ve been on vacation for a while, my blogging output has suffered. However, thanks to Google Reader, I’ve kept abreast of all that’s going on in the blogosphere (well, at least for the 25 blogs I follow). During that time, a few things have crossed the wire that I think merit your attention.

The first is a blog that’s new to me, Church Audio & Sound, written by a guy named JB. I’m serious, that’s all he’s got for ID on the blog. And while I might argue that audio and sound are essentially the same thing, and thus the title is redundant, it’s a really good blog. JB goes into great detail on the finer points of sound, and always has something useful to say. He’s done several multi-part posts on things like microphones and the basics of sound. If you’re new to doing church sound, or just want to brush up on some knowledge check it out. After you finish reading my posts on sound, of course ‘;-).

Next up, Dave Stagl has had some really good stuff over at Going to 11. His recent posts about time aligning overheads and snare mics (with demo audio), and system optimization and especially setting up compressors (look for it in the Audio category, it’s not on the front page anymore) were really interesting. The thing I appreciate about Dave is that while he is very knowledgeable, works in a big church and has a lot of resources at his disposal, so much of what he talks about is useful (at least in theory if not in practice) for others in smaller settings. I’ve borrowed quite a few ideas from him.

Finally, my friends at FaithTools (a podcast you should definitely check out) turned me on to a blog called Stuff Christians Like. While he generally does not talk at all about techie stuff, it’s one of my favorite blogs ever. It’s incredibly well-written, quite often funny and always worth my time. You should most definitely check out the Sound Man/Sound Girl Haiku and Understanding How Metrosexual Your Worship Leader Is–priceless). He also writes 2 other blogs (prolifically–where does he find the time?) which are also worth checking out. I turn to Jon whenever I need a little pick-me-up. Great stuff.

So there you go. In lieu of actual, new blog content, here’s something to tide you over until I get caught up on my writing. Fear not, there will be new posts on mixing remotely using Yamaha’s Studio Manager tomorrow and Friday.

So this has been a lot of fun. People from all over have been writing in with their favorite quotes (or should I say mis-quotes). There are some good ones here, and to save everyone the time of digging into the comments section (and because I’m on vacation and feeling lazy and unwilling to come up with real new content), I’m collecting them here. 

This, of course, does not mark the end. Oh no. Want to be on the lookout for great mis-quotes whenever they happen. Send them in and I’ll keep updating the list. Good times! So here’s what we have today:

• “Jesus came not to serve, but to be served.”
• “We are owners, not stewards.” (from a series on stewardship)
• “But God never promised us a roseless thorn garden.”
• “And now let’s have Chris come up and play our capital campaign theme thong.”
• “Please be seated in the house of Jesus.”
• “It’s hard to be a man in a women’s department.”
  and my personal favorite for this round…
• “The disciples are kind of like a boy-band.”
  Updated 8/3…
• “Look at this picture of Steve, he’s so fat…uh, um I mean fast with his drill…” (referring to a picture of the facilities manager sporting a whole tool belt of power tools)

Thanks to Jon, Daniel, Osborn, Justin, Richard, and Bryan for those. 

As I mentioned, I’m currently enjoying 2 weeks of vacation. For me, vacation is sleeping late, sitting on the patio reading and writing and grilling out. The rest of my family is not taken in by this approach however. For reasons I’m still unsure of, I agreed to a 2500 mile road trip back to NY to visit family and friends. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about visiting family and friends, but 2500 miles is 2500 miles, and I have to drive all of them. So while I’d hoped that I could simply move my sleeping late, reading, writing and grilling to another venue, so far, I’ve not slept well, and we’ve been so busy visiting, I haven’t had much time to read or write.

Thus the lack of real content here. Not to fret, however. Once I get back from vacation (and then the 3-day staff retreat that immediately follows my vacation–yeah, I planned that on purpose!), I’ll be all refreshed and full of things to write about. We have some big changes in store for Upper Room, and that’s going to mean some really fun things to blog about. We also have some big equipment changes coming up and that will be fully documented here as well.

So thanks for reading, enjoy my vacation and if you get hungry for content, take a look at the archives. There’s all kinds of good stuff back there!

Yesterday was an exciting day. Not only did I figure out how to write an AppleScript to automate a weekly task, but my issue of Technologies for Worship came. TFWM is a favorite mine amongst the 2 dozen or so magazines I receive each month. But this one was special–mainly because I was co-author of one of the feature articles. That’s right, y’all. I’m published!

The article is a comparison of three presentation software packages; Media Shout, ProPresenter and Easy Worship. Each platform had a different author. The article grew out of a project I had begun with Daniel Koster of Reinforcing the Church. Daniel and I have a friendly rivalry that often pits our preferred OSs and presentation software choices against each other. I thought it would be fun to write a comparison, complete with all our individual biases, and poke some fun at each other. Somehow, TFWM heard about it and asked if we could re-purpose it for the magazine. So we did. Jay Delp joined in to round out the Easy Worship side.

So if this is your first visit to the blog, welcome! I’ve written quite extensively about ProPresenter and Media Shout (OK, looking back it’s mainly ProPresenter). You can find back posts in the Archive Index under the Presentation Link. I’ve also written a pretty in-depth review of Media Shout 3.5 on the website part of this site, which you can view here.

There’s also a host of other content here, from sound to lighting, video production to volunteer training, philosophy of worship to how much money to spend (or save) on equipment. I hope you find it useful. Feel free to post questions in the comments section; I try to answer them as quickly as I can. I also try to post new content here a few times a week, so keep current by subscribing to the RSS feed.

If you are not a current subscriber of TFWM, I highly recommend it. It’s one of the few I read just about cover to cover each month. There’s a lot of good content there, that’s very accessible. You can even elect to receive it digitally. Follow the link above to get to their website. Thanks for reading…more to come!

The countdown is on. Tuesday night I fly out to Chi-town for my second annual Arts Conference. Last year was a great time of refreshment and worship, with a few really good breakouts thrown in. I’m really looking forward to it this year. I’ll try to blog about it as much as I can, and post regular Twitter updates. Last year, their wireless network was totally overwhelmed with the plethora of geeks and techies and our laptops and other wireless devices. I expect the “traffic” to be worse this year, hopefully they’re ready.

I know of a few people that are headed that way this year, if you’re one of them, drop me a note. It would be great to meet up with you.

This is a bit of an unusual post for the blog, but then again, we’re in a bit of an unusual situation here at Upper Room. Since we’re co-located with our Mother/Sister church, Christ Presbyterian, we tend to work pretty closely with the CPC staff. As CPC transitions further into the world of contemporary worship, their need for a full-time technical arts director has grown. 

The position has recently been approved, and we are now taking resumes for the position. Primary responsibilities include weekend service preparation, volunteer training, and leading the tech team during services. There is also a need for media production in support of the services. The CPC TAD will also be working with me to define, direct and implement sanctuary technology upgrades. 

CPC is a great place to work, the benefits are really good, and the entire staff is committed to development and each other’s success. I’ve gotten to know the creative team and worship leaders on the CPC staff, and they are quality people, and a lot of fun to work with. 

You can download the full job description here, CPC TAD Job Description, and send resumes and cover letters to bradj [at] cpconline [dot] org.