For this week, you’ll start by observing your trainer. They will show you what a service looks like, and what smooth operation looks like. There won’t be any quiz or any pressure to go beyond asking basic questions, so feel free to take it all in. You won’t know everything, and that’s okay! Throughout your training, your trainer will be with you every step of the way, showing, demonstrating, and then letting you operate the computer.
NOTE: This lesson is very dense and you don’t have to know everything in one setting, so take your time, and you can always access the training from our main website at www.villaheights.net/tech-ministry!
A projection tech is responsible for anything that is played media-wise, whether it’s a video, music, graphics such as lyrics, camera video feeds, and lighting. While not responsible for the livestream, they do make sure that overlay graphics, such as the livestream lyrics, are output to the livestream correctly.
Some basic software you’ll use include:
| rtpMIDI | Used to send commands from ProPresenter to ShowXpress for controlling lighting. |
|---|---|
| ProPresenter | Used to show all media output for projection and livestream. |
| Spotify | A popular music streaming platform we use for music before and after services. |
| ShowXpress | Used to control lighting using DMX from a secondary computer |
Later on, software used may expand to include:
| Any Video Converter Free | Used to convert media formats and download YouTube videos |
|---|---|
| Canva Teams | Used to create media graphics and promotional material |
You won’t be expected to know any of these tools beforehand, so take one step at a time.
Here is a list of some of the basic technologies we use for our projection:
| HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) | Protocol for transporting video and audio feeds |
|---|---|
| NDI (Network Device Interface) | Streams high quality video and audio over standard networks |
| SDI (Serial Device Interface) | Protocol for uncompressed video and audio over coaxial cables |
| PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) | Camera that can pan, tilt, and zoom remotely |
| WiFi | Wireless network connection (+internet) |
| Ethernet | Wired network connection (+internet) |
| PoE (Power over Ethernet) | Provides both power and data through one Ethernet cable |
Here are possible file types you may come across:
| Image Filetypes | JPG, JPEG, PNG, tiff, RAW, HEIC |
|---|---|
| Video Filetypes | MP4, mov, AVI, WMV, MKV |
| Audio Filetypes | MP3, Ogg-Vorbis*, WAV, AAC, AIFF, WMA, M4a |
| PowerPoint | pptx, ppt (Less common: ppsm, ppsx, potx, pptm) |
| ProPresenter | prdx (native presentations) |
*Special Note: For Ogg-Vorbis, Ogg is a container type that can store more than just audio, but typically is used for audio with the Vorbis audio type. Thus, you may see it shown as Ogg, Ogg-Vorbis, or Vorbis, all meaning the same thing.
‘You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.’
Leviticus 2:13 https://www.bible.com/bible/59/LEV.2.13
It is interesting to note that for grain offerings, salt is to be seasoned over the unleavened bread. What does salt do? Salt acts as a natural flavor enhancer called an emulsifier, at small levels, it intensifies whatever the base flavor is, including sweet stuff! (Add a very, very small amount of salt to ice cream and watch the flavor explode!) More importantly, it is a preservative, working against the effects of decay.