Various tools and software currently available

 

On November 5, 2006, I wrote a post titled Projection Blues and it quickly became one of the most commented on posts I have ever had and the comments are full of valuable information. A link to the comments on that post is here. Thank you all for sharing your insight and experiences. Here is a link to a Wikipedia page on Worship presentation programs.

 

Click here to view guidelines when using projection software.

 

This compilation is mainly from all of the comments for this post and much of the text below is copied directly from the comments.

 

 

Not Technology Based

Hymnal

Songbook

 

Non- Computer Based

Overhead

 

Computer Based

Paid Solutions

 

MS PowerPoint – fairly common, many churches, large and small, still use this software

 

MediaShout

• – $409 system requirements Supported to run on Windows XP Home, Professional and Media Center

 

EasyWorship – $399 system requirements Runs on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP

 

SongShow Plus

• - From $349 system requirements Basic and Professional versions available [features]

 

SongBase

• – $329, expensive for what it does, not as flexible as others, similarly priced software, but provides guitar cords.

 

SundayPlus

• – Its a robust program also with a $349 price to get into it along with the biblesoft software included in that.

 

ProPresenter

• – Mac software, allows video to be output over firewire rather than the main monitor port (backgrounds/video play via firewire and lyrics via monitor). The text keys very cleanly as well (still no alpha though). $399 for single user or $799 for site license

 

 

 

Question:

Web based solution – subscription based, Tim Bednar suggests – A couple advantages is that on the web we could share “song”, we could also automate any license reporting, we also could create a “marketplace” for back ground images or fonts, you could also have multiple users helping to create or edit screens. We could also figure out how to network churches via the web in networked chat or something (create for multi-site churches or conferences) — we could also allow YouTube embedded video or something too. The downside is that it is you need an Internet connection (but we maybe able to provide a tool that creates both a web version AND a desktop file. And that It would be more limited in the fancy effects. The upside is that it would be cheaper, like a mo/subscription for $5, $9 or $19 a month. Does that sound interesting to anyone?

 

 

 

 

Free/Open Source Solutions

 

Screen Monkey

Free and simple to use presentation software which allows you to easily control your second monitor. It will work along side other presentation software to give you more power and professionalism. This software will run Power Point, Video, DVDs, Live Video, Flash and images. Because the software is so simple to use it is ideal for the church situation where you might have different operators on a week to week basis.

 

OpenOffice Impress – open source, equivalent to PowerPoint, only free

 

Zoho

• – free and web based

 

Thumbstacks

• – free and web based

 

Easislides

• – freeware, seems to have all the features of the $400 programs. There is now a Easislides wiki page with more information.

 

Zionworx

• – freeware

 

OpenSong

• - manage lyrics and chords and also project them

 

VLC

• – configuring the advanced options in VLC you can obtain a pretty much the same effect as Mediashout(imho) with a bit of extra work, but all free software

 

Freepath

• – If you are into powerpoint and don’t want to leave it then this is worth looking at. Its designed for business/education use but for a ppt church (85% of all churches that are using projection are using ppt in their services). One of the benefits it gives you is a point and click on your powerpoint presentations so you have the freedom of the non-linear but still using powerpoint but in thumbnails.

 

openlp.org

• – a fully featured presentation application written especially for churches” and is even open source. It is under active development and seems to have quite a bit of promise.

 

I experimented with openlp before settling on a different freeware/open source product for presentation. I had some issues with the computer freezing, and found the interface to be confusing. That was a prior version. There appears to be a relatively new beta version available. It is probably worth checking out.

 

S5 -- "S5 is a slide show format based entirely on XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With one file, you can run a complete slide show and have a printer-friendly version as well."

 

 

Audio Players

 

Foobar

•  

 

WinAmp

 

 

Other Resources

 

eBibleTeacher.com has a comprehensive list of presentation software.

 

eBibleTeacher.com also has a Worship Software Selection Guide, which includes a great checklist as you compare this kind of software.

 

Presentation Manager claims to handle 2 projects, each with a different image. It would require 3 VGAs. Has anyone done this successfully?

 

Character Generator Systems – high end system. Anything out there to fill the gap between MediaShout, Easy Worship and CG machine?