presentation software

Well I said that I was going to put some information up on the website regarding presentation software. As culture evolves we find ourselves looking for new an innovative ways of ministering the Gospel of Christ. That has led many of our congregations to incorporate video into their worship services. And for many of us navigating the waters of live media can be a little intimidating. So, what started out as a simple post with some links on it, I thought that I would give some thoughts and insights into what many of us are looking for in a video set up and give you an idea of what it might cost to get up and running. Also, since many of us don't have thousands of dollars to budget towards video, I think we will go ahead and throw in some freebie information as well.

Let's get started.

Normally I would start with projectors, but since some of you may be waiting for it let's dive into software first. The options are extensive when it comes to presentation software. It wasn't that long ago that people made the switch from overheads to powerpoint. Since then, we have seen a sweeping move across our churches towards using not only projected words, but video, effects, sermon graphics, and video in worship. With all of the options it is hard to know what programs will accomplish what you want them to accomplish. I am going to try to sift through many of the options out there and let you know the pros and cons to some of the ones that I have used. Admittingly, I have not used all of the programs that are on the market, but that is why you all can make comments and respond.

Before we dig into the actual programs, let's discuss what you are looking for. Take a few moments and jot down what you are looking for in a presentation program. If you know that you are not going to use actual video then look for something that will just do lyric. If you are not much of a pre-planner when it comes to picking the music for your worship services, you are going to want a software that makes it easy to enter in lyrics. If you want to notify parents of unhappy children in the nursery, you will want something that will let you put the information up on the fly without occupying too much of your time. So take a few moments, talk to your staff and brainstorm. Figure out what you are looking for. Remember we are not trying to be cool just to be cool with technology. We are looking for ways to effectively do what we are called to do and create an atmosphere where people will more effectively communicate with their Creator. We don't what to take attention away from that, we want to support that.
The first option is one that many of you are familiar with and probably still use. PowerPoint is Microsoft's presentation software. While PowerPoint is good at projecting some of the points of the sermon as well as bookmarking and showing video clips, it is rather tedious using the program for displaying lyric. And while you can show video on a screen it is less than ideal using the program to display lyric over a moving background. Most of the presentation software on the market plays well with PowerPoint, so you can import slides that you have already created. PowerPoint is fine when you don't have any other options. However, you do have other options, so take at look at them and graduate from PowerPoint. You will save a massive amount of time in your setup of the songs and your tech crew will have an easier time following the worship leader. Just think, less blank screens because your tech member has gotten lost again.

Well, so there are options, but you don't have the budget to blow on software that will throw lyrics on the screen. This is no longer a problem, and hasn't been for a while now. Let me introduce to you opensong. Open Song is a free software (although you could donate to the cause if you want) that was created in response to a churches search for presentation software that they could afford. Essentially, opensong combines your ability to manage your chord charts with putting the lyrics on the screen. After trying it briefly, I must give this program 4 out of 5 stars. It doesn't have as many features as some of your more pro software such as liveworship or propresenter, but especially for free software it is a wonderful upgrade from powerpoint. You will have a little better look than PowerPoint and a much better user experience when running the software. It does have a bit of a learning curve so you won't be able to just sit down and start typing to get the full benefit, but it is certainly worth the effort. As far as I can tell, the software doesn't support lyric over video, but it does do images or solid color screens. It has a Bible Reader as well but only has KJV at the moment. Here is the beauty of this program. It integrates the chord charts with the presentation slides. If you take the time to learn the "language" of the program you can create you chord chart and it will pull the presentation slides from that. You can print out the charts for your band and even transpose them within the program. This is a great program for music pastors or worship leaders who are responsible for everything that has to do with the worship service. If you are using PowerPoint to display your lyric. STOP RIGHT NOW go to www.opensong.org and give this program a try. Again, it is not as robust as other programs especially if you want to control and manage video. But if you are just starting out, this is a great program to get you feet wet, Plus it has a killer app.. in the Chord Chart manager. It is a cross platform program so it works on Windows, OSX, AND LINUX! Have fun and let us know what you think. There are more programs to review, but this has been a long post. I will be right back with some more reviews as we continue our media/technology series.

Peace
maC