Diaconate of Church Technologists

3 Tips for Better Worship Livestreams – Audio

Posted on Jul 2, 2023 by Peter Lane

image: Freepik.com

Ok – having just narrowly prevented myself from starting yet another article with a variation on the theme of “Covid has Changed the Way We Use Technology Forever!”, I am now struggling to think of an alternative introduction to this article.

So, let me start by suggesting that the concept of bringing church services to the people is a concept that has been around long before Covid. Indeed, it is an area of church worship that has been a relatively quick adopter of technology over many years. Whether it is printed sermons, audio cassettes, DVDs or online platforms, the church has always had an interest in bringing the worship experience to individuals who are for one reason or another unable (or unwilling) to attend worship with their local community. However, while there are good reasons for extending community worship beyond the four walls of a specific building at a specific time, isolation of individuals from the community of faith has been considered a bad thing, and by extension, providing tools that make it easy to isolate themselves from the community by providing a rationale that “I’ll catch-up the livestream so I’m not really missing out!” This issue is perhaps food for another article for another time – arguably a Faith & Order matter rather than a technical matter but I have a foot in both those camps, so I don’t expect to escape.

However, for whatever reason, many churches are now trying to work out what they will do with the livestreaming setup they hastily put together in response to Covid lockdowns. Over the next few issues, I will explore a few easy and (relatively) cheap ways to make your livestream experience memorable (for the right reasons!), starting with Audio quality.

Audio

Perhaps paradoxically, the best way to improve the technology side of a livestream – sorry, technology can’t improve the content – is to improve the audio quality. The human brain can put up with an amazing amount of video defects so long as it has a clean, crisp and intelligible audio feed to help it fill in the deficiencies in the video.

A common strategy for first-time livestreamers is to rely on an in-built microphone in their camera device, whether a phone, webcam or even a more sophisticated camera. The resulting sound from this type of audio setup is muddy because the microphone happily picks up every sound in the space, whether it is useful or not. A single microphone in a space will make no distinction between sound reflected from walls, the kids playing at the back and the fire engine going past outside – it will capture everything it can hear. If you are lucky, it will capture the preacher’s voice too. If you are doubly lucky, the preacher will be louder than everything else put together, but there will always be some distortion as first the streaming equipment, and then the human ear, attempts to make sense of this very complex audio signal.

Ideally, we want microphones that are placed as close to the speaker (human speaker, not technology speaker) as possible, and optimised to reject as much background noise as possible. Which, un-coincidentally, is exactly what you should be trying to achieve with a church sound system. If your church already has a sound system, the easiest way to improve your livestream sound is to use the sound system’s sound. Stream the video from the camera(s) and the audio from the sound system together and you should see (sorry, hear) immediate improvements.

There are a couple of caveats to this approach;

If your church relies on congregational singing, or has lots of responses in its worship liturgy, or other non-electronic audio that is an integral part of the livestream, then you will probably need to add some microphones to capture that audio. However, you probably don’t want that sound to come out of the local audio speakers – to do so would be to invite instant feedback (and the ire of the now deafened congregation). This means that your sound system needs to be able to support multiple outputs or buses and has the ability to switch specific inputs to only specific outputs.
Similarly, if you have someone in your livestream audience who is going to speak (for example, if you are using Zoom Meetings), the sound that originates from Zoom should never be sent back to Zoom – this time the feedback (and the ire) will be in the Zoom Room. The solution is the same – your sound system needs to support multiple outputs and the ability to switch inputs to specific outputs.

So, give it a go and see how much better you can make your Livestream sound.

Next time, we will look at Lighting.

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30 years of experience with Technology systems. We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles. These can be submitted either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz. We also operate a website focused on building a community of people interested in improving how we can use technology in churches, located at www.dct.org.nz

Tips & Tricks for Hosting Online Meetings and Events

Posted on May 7, 2023 by Peter Lane

It is now a cliché that Covid has caused more advances in the adoption of remote presence technology and videoconferencing as productivity tools than the industry’s marketing activities caused in the previous 10 years.

This has the potential to create large benefits, but like all technologies, has also the potential to create significant disadvantages, often due to people trying to do more with the system than it was intended to achieve.

In the context of remote meetings by video conference, this often takes the form of assuming that people develop a relationship with each other just as well over video as they do in “real life”. The reality is that, while it can be done, the relationships people form using video-only take longer to form, are not as deep and break down more easily than the relationships between groups that meet in person, even only occasionally. This can be important to understand, as particularly in governance contexts, the relationship between meeting members directly contributes to the meeting’s effectiveness. Video calls let people fill in a speaker’s intent and motivation more than text-only or voice-only communication, but this is kick-started by having pre-existing face-to-face relationships.

Another disadvantage is that all the tips and hacks we have learned to make running meetings easier in a lifetime of face-to-face meetings, now need to be re-learned (or even discarded) to suit the digital medium our meetings now tend to use. This article hopes to present some tips for running meetings and events online to mitigate this issue. They are aimed at meeting organisers but hopefully will be of interest to others as well. “Meetings and Events” is a large scope, though, and not all events will need the same level of attention. Each meeting will have its own requirements for formality, record-keeping, interaction and relationship; and these requirements will translate into different ways to manage the specific meeting.

Planning and Preparation

Hopefully, this is something you do for face-to-face meetings as well. Because video communication leaves out a lot of the subliminal content we unconsciously take for granted for in-person meetings, good planning and pre-meeting communications are arguably even more important.

Set up the meeting and invitation as far in advance of the meeting as you can, and configure it so that participants can join the meeting (at least to the waiting room) before the meeting and encourage them to check they can access the meeting with all the audio, video, sharing etc working as they expect. For a presentation or seminar, you may even consider doing a “dry-run” with the presenters.
Produce a “running sheet” for the event. This is like an agenda, but is typically more detailed and focused on the production requirements, not the content. It could indicate things like timings, backgrounds, and resources needed when things like notices need to be put in the chat, when videos need to be played etc.

Minutes

One thing I learnt as a consultant is that it is really, really hard to both run a meeting and take good notes. Contrary to a lot of opinions expressed to me, this doesn’t get easier in an online context. In fact, if you have to manage the technology as well, you are now trying to do 3 things at the same time instead of two.

Appoint someone whose only job is to take notes. If you need to do more than fire up the meeting and share a screen once or twice, appoint someone else to manage the technology. If it’s even mildly complex, consider producing a running sheet for them.
Consider using a software notetaker. With the surge in AI that’s happening in the tech space just now, there are some significant advances in this space. I’ve been playing with a Zoom plug-in called Fathom AI notetaker for a while and the results are impressive. I initially considered it a good fit only for enterprise sales calls it now seems to be a good general-purpose tool. At a meeting last week, I was blown away by the 2 sentence summaries it generated on the fly for each section of the meeting.

Screen sharing

If you are sharing a document or a PowerPoint slide, consider logging into the meeting from a separate computer (no camera or microphone needed) and sharing the document from there. Then you can Pin the screen or remove it as required. You can also pin the document side by side with the speaker, giving a much better view of the speaker than Zoom’s default thumbnail view.

Running the Meeting or Event

When hosting a video call with a large group, try to ask specific questions to specific people, and use their names when doing so. This establishes who will be answering the question and avoids the ever-awkward “No, you go ahead. No, you!” situation.
If you (or your technical delegate) need to share information in the Chat during the meeting, set all the information up beforehand in a document, then cut and paste it at the relevant time. This saves getting it wrong at the psychological moment or forgetting. Don’t forget to put the name and location of the file in the running sheet!

If nothing else, consider these six golden rules for better video meetings, (adapted from a Trello™ blog post):

Use video for strengthening existing relationships
Have equipment that works – and test that it is still working before your meeting
Look professional yourself and aim for a professional-looking delivery, flowing smoothly from topic to topic.
Make sure everyone feels included
Set up team rules to make video meetings more manageable – this can be just as simple as waiting till called on before speaking, but whatever the rule is, it needs to match the requirements and purpose of the meeting. For example, if you are running a brainstorming meeting, preventing people from speaking till called on may be counterproductive.

Church Management Systems

Posted on Oct 1, 2022 by Peter Lane

What do Breeze, Wild Apricot, Toucan Tech and Infoodle have in common?

They are all examples of the names chosen by the developers of specific examples of a – relatively – new type of software, Church Management Systems or ChMS. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that this type of software is enjoying a revival, as similar programs have been around for about as long as programmers have been involved in churches. However, the current ChMS solutions are leveraging the commercial sector success of CMS solutions – Customer (or Client or Constituent) Management Systems. Consequently, the underlying technology is very robust. [Note: frustratingly, CMS is also used for Content Management System, a website solution component. Some providers get around this by using CRM for Customer Relationship Management]

The underlying premise being all CMS systems (including ChMS’s) is that collecting all the data about one’s customers (or congregants) that can be accessed by all authorised parties in the organisation. This leads to a number of benefits;

There is “one source of truth” – if Mrs Smith tells the door greeter that she has a new phone number, then (in theory – humans can still break the system) everybody else using the CMS can access that number as well.
A centralised solution is also easier to keep backed up (and because it is a centralised solution, it is more critical to make sure it is backed up).
A benefit for larger organisations is that if the ChMS records details of all interactions, then if a contact makes a call to the office, then it doesn’t matter who answers, the answerer able to bring themselves very quickly up to date with the context and requirements for that contact. In a church context, privacy and confidentiality requirements need to be observed, but the principle still applies, especially for administrative matters.
ChMS solutions usually support managed communications and automation. Need to send out a reminder for that special Sunday School event? Email the pew bulletin to non-attendees? These types of communications have the potential to make people feel wanted and included but are typically not done because they are too time intensive. CRMs can make this type of communication happen for the cost of a few hours of upfront set-up and some regular procedures to ensure details are captured and kept up to date.
ChMS solutions can keep track of skills, qualifications and expertise held by members and staff. If a job comes up that needs specific skills or qualifications, you can quickly find out who has those skills. If a qualification needs to be renewed from time to time, you can have reminders sent to relevant people when renewal action is required. You can organise all your contacts into groups so that sending an email to the Parish Council, to the entire congregation, or to Homegroup members are all just a couple of clicks. Most ChMSs will take care of privacy issues for you by hiding everyone else’s email address.
Safeguarding and protecting the vulnerable – these features have become particularly important during the pandemic. Most ChMSs provide some level of “Check-in” capability to allow you to know exactly who was at a given event, track attendee numbers against a limit and allow follow-up to attendees – whether to say, “Thank you for coming” or, “We’re sorry to advise that one of the attendees has tested positive”, as the case may be. We also live in a society that is increasingly paranoid about the safety of children. Civil requirements for managing children’s groups are becoming increasingly complex and are likely to become mandatory in time. Most ChMSs can offer at least minimal solutions to assist manage these requirements, ranging from Check-in/Check-out capability, recording who dropped off or picked up a given child, restricting who is allowed to pick up a given child, to recording allergies or medical conditions and specific first-aid protocols for individuals. To my mind, it is these types of features that make the most compelling case for churches to adopt ChMSs at the moment.
Overall, the benefits of ChMS can be summed up as releasing time spent on administrative tasks for missional and relational activities. Churches have a large volunteer work component, but it is decreasing over time, so if there is a way we can shift our volunteer resources from administration to strategically focused activity, there should be a significant benefit.

Considerations

Modules, modules and more modules! ChMS vendors seem to love modules. The typical product structure is a core module with at least the CRM functions and a number of optional add-on modules (usually at additional cost) providing additional features such as Accounting functions, Donor management, Service planning, Attendance Tracking, Online Giving etc. Make sure you get all the features you need and that you understand exactly what that costs.

International Law. If you are looking at Accounting or Donor management or similar features, make sure that the solution you are thinking of complies with NZ requirements rather than US or EU requirements.

Buy a system with room to grow. Church management systems can help you grow your ministry, so be sure to buy a system that can handle more than your current needs.

Think twice about building your own system. It may seem tempting to build your own church management software to save a little money, but in the long run, you will end up spending more. You will likely not be able to migrate easily to another solution or share data with others if you take this path. Leave the software to the experts and focus on what you do best: building your congregation.

How to Create Graphics for Websites & Social Media

Posted on Apr 3, 2022 by Peter Lane

Buidling the word website (with cranes).
Creating Graphics for websites and Social Media

Among other things, a global pandemic can change the way we communicate. The Covid pandemic is no exception. Now, it is more important than ever that we know how to create effective graphics for websites and social media.

Before Covid, we went to meetings – now we Zoom. Before, we printed pew bulletins – now we have an email list and Facebook groups. Before, we did audio recordings – now we Livestream on YouTube. Before, we had church notice boards, now we use websites.

Ok, so I’ve allowed myself a smidgeon of hyperbole here. While all of these were around to a certain extent before the pandemic to a greater or lesser extent, but there is no denying that communication technologies have made substantial inroads into the mind of our society in the last 2 years and we have all come to terms with dealing with “new-to-us” technology and processes in our daily lives. Wherever you are in your communications journey, it is fair to say that a 1950’s line drawing that has been circulating in a giveaway clip-art collection for the last 50-years stuck next to some typescript probably isn’t going to cut it anymore, not at least for anything with a digital presence.

As webmasters and Social Media authors for churches on a budget, one of the new essential skills we have been expected to acquire is the ability to quickly create good quality graphics for our websites and social media endeavours. The effectiveness of digital communication is increasingly being driven by the graphics used rather than the content. In fact, in saying that, I am at risk of showing my age – arguably today’s media is being measured by millenniums and younger by its use of video, even more than by graphic elements. Coupled with a drive to produce content responsively quickly and (of course) cheaply, a number of graphics authoring tools have appeared and established themselves in the market. Some of these tools are now also branching into basic video creation as well. So, how do we create graphics for websites and social media? (Not to mention, cheaply)!

Advantages of Graphics

These tools are quick to learn and easy to use, come with copy-right cleared templates and images to get you started quickly and produce output in sizes and colour palettes optimised for various websites and social media platforms. There are some very good image production programs around now, but they are expensive, are complex and difficult to use (so you have to be trained to use them well) and can take hours to produce one image even if you know what you are doing. Fundamentally these tools I’m sharing today are about saving time.

One of the main time-consuming tasks for any comprehensive social media strategy, even if you have an image to start with, is changing the size of the image to suit the different requirements of different media platforms. A Facebook post is optimised for images of 1200 x 630 pixels, but on LinkedIn, a post is optimised for an image of 1200 x 1200 pixels, and different requirements for other platforms. Most platforms will do their best to adjust for non-optimal images, but you may lose information or legibility in the process. The upshot is if you are using any sort of multi-platform media strategy, you spend half your time adjusting the sizes of your images for different platforms.

Finally, a few last notable features. Most of these tools are built for collaboration, so you can invite others to contribute to your artistry. Whether this is a couple of arty friends to get down and dirty with you in the design process, or just sharing the final version with Parish Council for approval, this is a key capability for many people. Also, have links to internet just-in-time printing services, so you can order tee-shirts, coffee mugs, carry-bags and many more merchandise items to be printed with your design (for an additional cost, of course). But an easy way to organise youth group tee-shirts, posters and similar items.

Graphics Programs

So here are descriptions of 3 examples of this type of solution. There are many, many more but I’ve chosen these as being reasonably representative of the ones I’ve come across.

Canva – In graphic design circles, Canva is generally considered the gold standard for others to aspire to. It is reasonably priced and has a great selection of images to choose from. Perhaps the best feature for the readers of this article, it has a non-profit program accessible to NZ Charities, offering free use of their Pro paid version if you register your organisation with them. I use Canva a fair bit for website work – some of which is on the NZ Lay Preachers website (nzlpa.wordpress.com) e.g. the “Don’t Miss Out” badge on the front page at the moment. Canva is particularly good at taking a graphic and then allowing you to quickly go through the process of re-sizing and adjusting for different Social Media platforms.

Visme – this is the tool I’ve used least of these three. It has a growing presence in relevant discussion groups and is a leader in that it is promoting itself directly as a video tool with graphics capability rather than the other way round. While Visme feels a little different to use than the other options, it is by no means difficult – especially if you come to it with no history of the alternatives. They have a good selection of useful articles in their knowledgebase, including the most comprehensive listing of what image sizes you need to use for which social media platform I have ever come across.

Snappa – I have used Snappa largely for YouTube work (video thumbnails, channel headers etc) because it has some very intentional features to support YouTubes requirements. Otherwise, it is quite similar to Canva. One area I haven’t had a chance to use much as yet is the capability to automate your social media posts (paid version only). Once you complete your graphic, you can ask Snappa to post to each platform you use at a specific time and date.

Comparison Summary

	Canva	Visme	Snappa
Website	https://www.canva.com/	https://visme.co	https://snappa.com/
Preset Social Media dimensions for posts and images	Yes	Is aware – templates are pre-sized correctly	Yes
Free Version limitations	5GB storage; selected templates	100GB storage; selected templates; Visme logo on outputs	Limited to 3 downloads per month
Cheapest pay-monthly plan	NZ$19.99 per mth	~NZ$17.90 per mth; (USD12.25)	~NZ$14.60 per mth; (USD10.00)
Video capability	Yes	Short videos & Animations
Non-profit program	Pro Free for NPs listed on NZ Charities Commission Register	25% discount; no info on eligibility
Remove Image Background tool	On paid plans	No	Yes
Free copyright-cleared stock photos	Yes	Yes	Yes
Automated Social Media posting	On paid plans	Immediate Post only, on paid plans	On paid plans

I hope this article helps you find a way to quickly create graphics for websites and social media. I encourage you to share your results as a comment to this blog for the inspiration of us all.

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30-years’ experience with Technology systems. We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles. Submit these either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz. We also operate a website focused on building a community of people interested in improving how we can use technology in churches, located at www.dct.org.nz.

Copyright “gotchas” in Online and Hybrid Worship

Posted on Dec 6, 2020 by Peter Lane

I concluded my last column by promising you something “fun and techy” for next time. Well, my apologies, I don’t think this quite qualifies.

After a recent seminar (online, of course) I was asked the following question by one of the participants.

“I didn’t quite understand in the [ … ] tutorial about how we can get prosecuted using YouTube™. Please can you enlighten me?”

The participants of the seminar had been discussing the downloading of YouTube clips for incorporation in an online worship experience. The issue is much broader than just YouTube, though YouTube manages to put a few specific wrinkles on their part of it.

Anyway, I started a response to my questioner and half-way though realised – this should be my next Touchstone article!

Let me start with a disclaimer – “I’m not an Intellectual Property Lawyer”. I have learned a lot of stuff about copyright by necessity over the years and I offer these guidelines in good faith. However, copyright is a dynamically changing environment with multiple nuances. So, if you are using this article as the basis to make big decisions, please do some independent due diligence first.

The YouTube Trap

With YouTube, there are two big issues:

1 – The contract problem

YouTube’s Terms and Conditions require content to be served by them. Downloading it breaks your agreement with YouTube, and you might also expose them to breaching their own agreements with content owners.

2 – The publication problem

By default, internet content is for private enjoyment. As soon as you show it in a Zoom, or at a service, you’re effectively publishing or broadcasting it. That’s what breaks copyright.

Performance Copyright? Oh yes.

Even if you’re not using YouTube, music comes with another wrinkle: performance rights. The rights to a specific performance — e.g. a singer’s rendition of a hymn — are separate from the rights to the words or tune.

“But we’ve got a CCLI licence!”

Yes. Many churches do. But it’s not a silver bullet.

The basic CCLI licence covers the reproduction of lyrics — either printed or projected — for use by your own congregation.

It does not cover:

making recordings,
sharing services on websites,
or livestreaming.

To do that legally, you need more than the base licence.

Let’s run through some examples…

Scenario 1
In-person worship, PowerPoint of lyrics, live music from organist.
✅ If the songs are covered by CCLI, all good.

Scenario 2
Lockdown hits. You’re now on Zoom with lyrics shared via screen.
🟡 Probably fine — it’s a closed meeting with invited participants.

Scenario 3
You record the Zoom or stream it on your website (or YouTube/Facebook).
❌ Not OK. You’re now a publisher/broadcaster. You need a separate licence.

Scenario 4
Organist is injured. You add accompaniment MP3s to the PowerPoint.
🟡 It depends. What licence came with that accompaniment track?

Scenario 5
You switch out the dull legal track for the artist’s CD version.
❌ Definitely not OK — unless you’ve got the artist’s written permission, or the rights-holder’s.

What’s the fix?

CCLI offers a Streaming Licence add-on that helps cover online services and recordings. It’s not included by default — you’ll need to apply (and pay) separately.
Check at https://nz.ccli.com/copyright-licences/#church-licences.

Don’t forget images and prayers

Yes, lyrics are the headline issue. But everything you put in a PowerPoint — photos, art, responsive readings — needs to be treated with the same care.

That’s the super-simplified version – there are various ways you can get permission to use various media, Licences are almost always available, but not usually without copious amounts of research, hard work, blood, sweat, tears and yes, money. Almost always you have to make arrangements in advance and in writing. Success is not guaranteed – pray hard!

(Reformatted Jul-2025)

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services. He welcomes your questions and article suggestions via dct@dct.org.nz. You can find more resources at www.dct.org.nz

What Was That? – Hearing Augmentation Systems

Posted on Sep 1, 2019 by Peter Lane

As I found while researching this article, the statutory requirements relating to Hearing Augmentation Systems (sometimes referred to as Hearing Assistance Systems, or Listening Systems) in NZ buildings are Convoluted, Confusing and Contradictory. But I knew that – that was why I thought it would be a good topic for this column; I still wasn’t prepared for how much CC&C there actually is!

And to make it worse, compliance is signed off at the individual Territorial Authority level, and the interpretation of what is deemed to comply varies from Authority to Authority; sometimes from Building Surveyor to Building Surveyor.

Hearing Augmentation Systems are systems put in place to allow aural information to be conveyed to Building Users clearly and accurately. The Building Act and NZS4121 (Design for access and mobility – Buildings and associated facilities) are clear that the scope includes users who don’t require hearing aids; however, the Building Code clearly states the requirement is only for persons requiring hearing aids (G5.3.5). The guidance that is given in these documents and other related materials is that the Building Code is the minimum standard and the expectation is that an adequate solution will be designed for a given space, taking into consideration the requirements of the particular location and function of the space. There is also a requirement that Hearing Augmentation systems are maintained 6-monthly. In theory, they should appear on a building’s compliance schedule and are part of the Building WOF process. Also, because they are disability systems, the building must have prescribed signage.

Hearing Augmentation technology and Hearing Aid technology are both in the middle of the technological revolution – both are adopting “new” digital techniques and methods to implement the required functionality and feature set. Hearing Aids, in particular, are adopting new technologies rapidly such as linking to a user’s smartphone. The drive for miniaturisation, however, means that Hearing Aid manufacturers are increasingly leaving out the T-coil which has been the basis for Building Hearing Augmentation systems since the 1960s. The next 10-years will be interesting as the new technologies are trialled and adopted, and transition through the hearing aid population. Hopefully, it won’t take the legislation too long to catch up.

Hearing Augmentation Systems

So, what types of Hearing Augmentation systems are there?

Sound Capture

Firstly, all Hearing Augmentation systems require a system of microphones or other audio input. This can be built into the system itself or can be acquired via a sound system. In some circumstances, this means the sound system needs to be left on even though it is not needed in its own right.

Audio-Frequency Induction Loop Systems (Hearing Loops)

These loops are usually installed in meeting rooms or in other places where people gather. They assist people who have hearing aids fitted with a T-switch. They can also assist people without hearing aids if the user is provided with a loop receiver device.

In addition to permanently installed hearing loops, there are portable hearing loops available. These can be used in small spaces such as meeting rooms or motor vehicles. Loops are sensitive to building construction and other wireless frequency emitters (including other Hearing Loops, so they are not good in multi-room environments).

Infrared Systems

Infrared systems take the sound input signal and broadcast it on an Infrared frequency within the space, which is then picked up with a system-specific receiver worn by the user. These systems generally require a direct, unblocked, line-of-sight to the user and require users to obtain and wear a receiver with the appropriate attachment. They can be used by users without hearing aids. They are sensitive to very bright lights and sunlight and the receiver unit must be worn outside clothing etc.

Building operators need to keep a supply of receivers, batteries and headphones forbuilding users to use as required. Headphones or in-ear devices are subject to Public Health cleaning requirements.

FM Wireless Systems

Structurally, these are very similar to Infrared systems but use FM radio frequencies rather than Infrared frequencies. Consequently, they are not limited to direct line-of-sight. Receivers can consequently be put in a pocket or handbag with relatively minor impact to performance. While they are not impacted by sunlight, they can be affected by other wireless emitters.

There may be some old wireless systems around that use VHF radio frequencies. Given the recent changes in frequency allocation in favour of mobile phone service providers, continued use of this band is problematic.

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30-years’ experience with Technology systems. We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles. These can be submitted either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz. We also operate a website focused on building a community of people who are interested in improving the way we can use technology located at www.dct.org.nz.

Parish Websites: Content Management Systems

Posted on Nov 4, 2018 by Peter Lane

Earlier in the year, I wrote a column on Parish Websites and promised I would write some follow-up articles.

As discussed in the previous column, Websites are fundamentally a collection of documents on a server running a program to use a set of defined technology protocols to make the documents available for display on a remote, but network-connected computer. The motivation behind the original technology was to create an easier way to share academic research within the academic community and focused on text documents. Over time, the enabling technologies have been expanded and evolved so that now, website technologies are what drive everything from online banking and online shopping to social media to remote control of your house’s air-conditioning and lighting. Today, a “standard”, bread and butter website would use server-based software called a Content Management System (CMS) and build the site out of a collection of components that contain content and display that content in different ways.

When Tim Berners-Lee developed the Web in 1989, he envisaged a system where authoring content was very simple and could be done but virtually anyone with access to a computer and a text editor. The content was simply typed in and formatting was applied using Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). The result may not look particularly flashy by today’s standards; however, was quite adequate for the original purpose of sharing academic research. In principle, one can still produce websites in this way, but the Digital Natives who have grown up with the web will probably tell us the result is not worth the effort. This may be ok for some purposes, but if part of the reason for a website is engaging with and being attractive to the site’s audience, then it’s probably not a good idea. The reality is, to use modern display methods and techniques with text files is virtually impossible; and where it is possible requires the author to have a lot of technical knowledge. Thus, Content Management Systems were born.

CMS have a broader context than just websites but for this column, we will ignore that and are really only thinking about Web CMS. Web content includes text and embedded graphics, photos, video, audio, maps, other media and program code (e.g., for applications) that displays content or interacts with the user. The primary advantages CMS provide for websites are;

Reduced need to code from scratch
Easy to create a unified and consistent look and feel
Version control
Edit permission management (control of who can edit / delete what content)
Preloaded content can be automatically published and/or taken down to a schedule

It’s not all roses though. The key disadvantages of CMS are;

Limited or no ability to create functionality not envisioned in the CMS (e.g., layouts, web apps, etc.). Basically translated, this means that imagination is always better than computers.
Increased need for special expertise and training for content authors.

Choosing which CMS to use (or which web service to use) can make a huge difference to how easy your website becomes to maintain a website. Things to be considered include;

Features – does the system let you do the things that are important to your site. An important feature to look for is whether there is separation between how your website looks (style) and the content that delivers your message. Usually, you want content providers to just worry about content, and the looks get set by a template or specific
Flexibility – supports features like templates and add-ins that make it easy to change a whole website or add a new feature. Having said this, too much flexibility actually adds complexity and potentially makes things harder.
Support – how easy is it to get technical assistance, trained and experienced contractors and things like templates and add-ins?
Price – yes, money matters. However, there are a lot of free and/or cheap products available.

Choosing a CMS

In the real world, there are hundreds of CMS to choose from. Here is my take on a few important ones.

WordPress is the most popular web CMS in the world, usually reported as being used by about 30% of active websites worldwide. In the past, I hated WordPress with a passion – I thought it was too hard to use and it had an abysmal user interface. However, the releases over the last 10 or so years have made major improvements and I’m quite happy with it now. Being popular means that there is a wealth of resources available to support WordPress use, though this wealth adds some complexity. Try and minimise the number of add-ins you require.

Methodist.org.nz is powered by Acclipse. There are not a lot of good things to say about Acclipse. Another Methodist website, kiwiconnexion.nz is powered by Mahara. Mahara extends the concept of a CMS by adding specific features relevant to education providers and is actually a class of software known as Learning Management Systems (LMS).

At the end of the day, though, it is not usually the technical bits of a website that make it good or bad. What matters is the impact the site’s content has on the community it is intended for. But that is a column for another issue.

In the Cloud, or on the ground? A short History of Cloud Computing.

Posted on Oct 7, 2018 by Peter Lane

One hears the term “Cloud Computing” and related phrases a lot these days. Probably too much – as with a lot of catchy phrases, the marketing machine has picked the phrase up and boldly applied it where no phrase was meant to go. Quite frankly, “cloud” is now one of the most used and abused terms in the Technology space – much of what is claimed as cloud quite simply isn’t.

So, what is Cloud Computing supposed to be?

The answer is wrapped up in the history of computing development. Initially, computers were standalone devices without connection to other computing devices – any application you needed had to be physically installed on the computer. Then in the seventies and eighties, the computer network flourished. Applications from other computers could now be accessed, at least at the Local Area scale. A whole generation of special computers were developed – called servers – whose main function was to make applications and data available to other computers- client computers – on a local network. In the meantime, the Internet developed and became widely accessible. The basis of the internet was that it was a network that connected local networks according to a set of relatively immutable rules (inexplicably called Request for Comments or RFCs for short).

Consequently, Network Engineers became increasingly focused on what needed to happen at the local part of the equation, so in diagrams of network systems, it became accepted practice to draw the Internet part as a cloud. The engineers needed to document that the internet existed but didn’t need to concern themselves with the details of how it happened. Rule of thumb for good system architecture became to provide a good Local Area Network with all the resources it needed – application servers, storage etc. These could communicate with other Local Networks if needed for coordination and some degree of sharing, but basically, all networks provided all their own resources

However, over time the capabilities of computers, networks, communication links and servers have increased exponentially. One day, some bright young spark said: “Instead of duplicating all this Application stuff in every local network, why don’t we move it to the cloud and share it between local networks?” And so, cloud computing was born.

There is one further piece to the puzzle though. This cloud way of operating was fine if you were a large, enterprise scale entity and could afford the up-front investment in physical infrastructure and make sure that the infrastructure was properly maintained. If not, you probably still had to do things the old way. The other piece of the puzzle is a business model initiative rather than a technology change. Software vendors started making software available in the cloud on a “rental” basis instead of a lump-sum, lifetime license. In essence, they started renting you the software bundled with the cloud-based server to run it on, the technical support and physical support to keep the server running. All you needed to do was provide a device and the communication services to access the server. This model is called Software as a Service (SaaS). Today, the phrase “cloud computing” usually means some form of software or application delivery from cloud-located servers on a SaaS model. And it is not limited to commercial software offerings – the church nationally could commission custom applications that use this model. The recently announced Methodist App is an example of this approach.

Enough History; What does this mean for the church?

There are several important benefits of this approach, but for me, one of the best benefits for a geographically distributed organisation like the church is that it the advantages of large-scale information systems and communication systems can now be relatively easily applied at a congregation level, without needing to rely on locally-based skilled support persons. While there are still some issues that need consideration, there is now no reason why a congregation of 10 should have any different facilities that a congregation of 1000. So, get thinking about the innovative things we can do with this resource!

Streaming Worship services

Posted on Aug 5, 2018 by Peter Lane

I have been visiting with Takapuna Methodist church this past month and came away very impressed at the simplicity and elegance of the setup they use for “streaming” their Sunday worship service. The facility provides a means for the congregations sick or housebound members to still experience the Sunday worship and feel they are part of the community.

Fundamentally, the setup is very simple – an iPhone is mounted on a tripod at the back of the church and runs a Facebook Live session to the church’s Facebook Page by means of the standard Facebook Pages app. The quality of the end-product, using the phone’s camera and the built-in microphone was surprisingly good (though perhaps the fact I am surprised is only a give-away as to my age!) The primary drawback was that the audio was a bit muffled and echoey but not to the point of intelligibility. Of course, the iPhone is not required – with a little thought, you could make this setup work with just about any mobile device or computer.

So how would one go about improving this set-up? The first option to consider is improving the audio. One option is to add an external microphone to the iPhone. Shure, Røde and a number of other manufacturer’s make a number of microphone models designed to plug directly into an iPhone, usually via the lightning connector. (Similar products are available for non-Apple devices using USB connection, and there are still a few options that connect by the microphone input which will work with most mobile phones, though we suggest this last is a last resort.) The other option worth considering is to pick up the sound from a sound system (if you have one). How you would do this exactly would depend on the specific audio equipment you have and what spare capacity it has. Devices exist (again, Shure, Røde et al) that can capture the sound coming out of an audio mixer and sending it to the iPhone to incorporate with the video. The downside of this is you tend to only hear people using microphones – audience responses and congregational singing will likely be lost unless you intentionally set up microphones to capture this.

There are some risks / legal matters associated with streaming that need attention.

Privacy – you need to take reasonable efforts to ensure that identifiable images of people are not broadcast without there permission. Usually, the easiest way to deal with this is to only broadcast a general wide shot where individuals are not readily identifiable.

Copyright – The standard CCLI NZ license allows you to record services (including copyright material covered by CCLI), but the recording should only be made available to congregation members. In the context of streaming, this would suggest that a password or similar mechanism should be used to restrict access to the stream. I would suggest that you should never re-stream a commercial video (even if you have the appropriate CCLI licence to play it in your service). Ideally, everything you stream should come under the category of either original content or authorised content.

References

CCLI Guidelines – https://nz.ccli.com/what-we-provide/faq/#internet

Shure Motiv™ – http://www.shure.com/americas/motiv/overview

Røde – http://www.rode.com/microphones/mobile

Note

The camera shown in the illustration for this article does not actually support streaming. Equivalent camera models that became available after the publication date do.

Radio Spectrum: Accessibility or Entertainment?

Posted on Jun 3, 2018 by Peter Lane

Radio Spectrum Management have been circulating a consultation and discussion document, “Preparing for 5G in New Zealand – Technical Consultation”. The “gotcha” in the fine print is that one option being considered is to move the IMT Band (Industrial & Medical Telemetry Band) as well as make some provision for 5G into the 600MHz Band.

That is the band that most churches who have just bought new wireless microphones will now occupy, having been pushed out of the 700MHz band a couple of years ago.

My company has made the following response to the Radio Spectrum Management discussion document. It is based on a proforma response originating with WUNZ (Wireless Users NZ), but I hope I have managed to value add the thought that there is more to life, and value, than entertainment and sports events and that some of the people impacted by “minor” tinkering with the spectrum are the ones with least capacity to pay for the consequences, but who provide valuable services to society at large.

The discussion paper can be found here – https://www.rsm.govt.nz/projects-auctions/current-projects/preparing-for-5g-in-new-zealand-technical-consultation

Response: Preparing for 5G in NZ

From System Design & Communication Services.

This response relates particularly to the Discussion Document questions 1, 15 and 16.

As a current user and supplier of radio microphones and in-ear monitors that operate in the 600MHz band, I would be an affected party if this frequency band is reallocated for IMT/5G usage.

Radio microphone users would lose 76MHz of nationally available spectrum from this 600MHz band. Currently, there are no other spectrum bands that appear to offer this same amount of spectrum as a contiguous available block nationally throughout New Zealand.

As a specialist supplier to the non-profit and religious sector, I would point out that this sector, in particular, is ill-equipped to make another forced “fork-lift upgrade”, and the response of many of my clients will be simply to do without such systems. The immediate consequence of this will be an immediate degradation of service to the many hearing-impaired and disadvantaged persons to whom my clients provide social welfare services (and in extreme cases may even lead to cessation of service provision entirely).

At another level, removing capacity to operate relevant equipment in the 600MHz range may cause some of my clients to lose their ability to comply with their obligations under the Building Code and Disabilities Code. Compliance with these may involve providing Hearing Augmentation systems and the audio source for such systems will be a microphone. In many cases, the functional and logistic requirements of the service being delivered dictate that this microphone should be a wireless device. Loss of 600MHz systems may require not only replacement or modification of the microphone but may require replacement and/or modification of the entire Hearing Augmentation system, possibly requiring extensive associated building works.

The benefit of such social and potentially intangible services provided by the non-profit sector is not as easy to quantify as the glamour entertainment sectors of Music, Sport and the Arts. However, the social and economic benefits of the sector are not inconsequential.

I request on behalf of my non-profit clients, that Radio Spectrum Management adopt the following recommendation as a guiding principle of re-planning NZ spectrum;

Ensure that sufficient usable spectrum, preferably in the existing 600MHz band, is preserved for radio microphone and in-ear monitor usage at the community level for educational, health-related and social good purposes by non-profit and religious entities.

I also request that Radio Spectrum Management carefully consider these comments and the following recommendations should you resolve to reallocate the 600MHz band and therefore require current radio microphone and in-ear monitor users to re-acquire or modify existing hardware to alternative frequency bands.

Provide monetary compensation to affected users who acquired or modified hardware in direct response to the 700MHz spectrum sell-off.

Ensure that sufficient usable spectrum is preserved for radio microphone and in-ear monitor use at large scale events, such as concerts, festivals, theatre productions, red carpet movie premiers, and sporting events. This provision should make allowance for the fact that multiple users and/or suppliers are operating concurrently at some of these events types.

A quick guide to using microphones effectively; a presenter’s perspective

Posted on Apr 1, 2018 by Peter Lane

A lot of us never need to get behind the business end of a microphone. But for those who have to present regularly, it is important to have a basic understanding of how different microphones work. Then we are able to adapt our speaking technique to suit the microphone in front of us as we deliver our message. This is a quick guide to using microphones effectively for presenters of all ages!

Microphones are components in virtually all audio systems.

Thus, you’ll hear about studio microphones for recording and PA microphones for live sound. There are boom microphones for broadcast or film shoots. Or instrument microphones which attach directly to guitars or other musical instruments. Then there are boundary microphones or boundary effect microphones for theatre work or conference systems, lapel mics for seminars and business meetings, and headset microphones for telephone call centres. (And this is just to mention a few options). The different types of microphones optimise a range of different requirements in different environments.

That said, all microphones have one thing in common: “microphones convert a sound wave into an electrical signal in which the voltage and current are proportional to the original sound”. To perform this task microphones use a thin membrane, known as a diaphragm, which mimics the function of the human eardrum. Sound waves strike a microphone’s diaphragm and cause the diaphram to move. Harnessing this movement creates an electrical signal.

A sound is essentially a change in pressure that varies in specific ways over time to create specific sounds (sound waves). When sound waves strike a microphone’s diaphragm, they cause it to move, which movement, in turn, creates a variance in an electrical current (aka signal). The electrical signal is transmitted to output devices, which either process the electrical signal (store it, or make it louder, or make it sound like Darth Vader on a bad hair day), or use the signal to recreate sound waves (loudspeakers).

Microphone Types

Microphone engineers, over the course of “recorded” history, have developed 3 fundamental techniques for detecting sound waves and “transducing” sound to electrical signals.

Dynamic Microphones

A dynamic microphone uses the diaphragm to move a coil of wire within a magnetic field to create the electric signal. It’s advantages are it’s relative simplicity and good voice frequency characteristics. A dynamic microphone is quite sensitive to interference from external electromagnetic fields. If your venue has a hearing aid loop, you don’t want to try dynamic microphones.

Condensor Microphones

A condenser microphone uses the diaphragm to move one side of a capacitor plate thus causing the capacitance to vary. This creates an electric signal. The advantages are it has good resiliency, can cope with large variances in the sound loudness and tends to have a larger frequency response. Condensor microphones are often used for instrument microphones, however, are the basis for many vocal microphones as well. The disadvantage is that the capacitor requires a power source to keep it charged. Therefore, a condenser microphones require either batteries or a power supply delivered from the connected equipment.

Ribbon Microphones

Ribbon microphones consist of a thin strip of metallic foil suspended in front of a magnetic plate. Sound waves cause the foil to vibrate, producing fluctuations in the electrical current, creating the audio signal. This extremely sensitive configuration picks up a wide range of frequencies and produces an extraordinarily rich representation of the original sound. The trade-off for this sensitivity is the delicacy of the mechanism – ribbon microphones are very sensitive to physical impacts and power overdrive. (Oh, and very expensive).

System Engineering

The other factor that effects using microphones is the system engineering. A system engineered for voice reinforcement usually uses rather sensitive microphones and try to “hide” the microphones away so they don’t distract from the presenter. A vocal microphone for a rock band vocalist, by contrast, can have much lower sensitivity. In this case, however, the microphone is held within millimetres of the vocalist’s mouth. This means that the microphone “hears” only the voice and not the other instruments around it.

Principles for Presenters

So, as a speaker/presenter, how do you make sure you are heard and understood?

Learn to recognise – or at least be able to take a good guess – at what internal configuration and pick-up pattern the microphone has. If you have the opportunity to research beforehand, do so. Then adjust your speech style accordingly – speak “firmly” to dynamic microphones, but more relaxed and rounded to condenser microphones.
When you have a sound operator, work in cooperation with them. A good sound operator will usually have a better understanding of the capabilities of the microphones they can offer.
While standing normally, move the microphone so you are “looking down the barrel” of the microphone. If you can’t move the mic, move yourself. For guidance in using voice reinforcement systems, a hand-held microphone should be about a handspan from your mouth. Stand-mounted or Lectern mics should be about 15”/400mm away from your mouth. A microphone on a stand will typically be setup for voice reinforcement. Taking the microphone off its stand and useing it as a hand-held will result in excessively loud sound-levels. A good sound operator can help here. However, don’t assume they can read minds, so try to give them some warning what you intend to do.
Ensure your voice production is clear and controlled. The microphone doesn’t make the sound for you – it reinforces the sound you make. If the sound you make is muddy, mumbled and unclear, so will be the amplified sound.
Watch your dynamic control. By all means express yourself dramatically – just stay within the bounds of the system capability. If all your drama only bursts your audience’s ear drums, they won’t “hear” anything else. In either sense of the word.
Watch you don’t move off orientation to the microphone. It’s fine to walk around if you are comfortable with that – so long as the microphone walks with you and stays properly oriented to your mouth. (If you are able, use a wireless microphone such as a lavaliere clipon, developed specifically to address this issue. However, they still need care to setup and use.) Some microphones are more tolerant than others, but just turning your head can make a big difference.

You speak to deliver a message – don’t let the technology become a distraction to that message.

Church Websites: Part One

Posted on Feb 4, 2018 by Peter Lane

What, Why & Wherefore

How can churches use websites effectively?

In November last year, I ran a survey on Church Technology topics and received about 80 responses over a period of a couple of weeks. As you can see from the graph, it seems like some of you want to find out about websites, so here we go.

What are websites?

Websites are fundamentally a collection of documents on a server running a program to use a set of defined technology protocols to make the documents available for display on a remote, but network connected, computer. The motivation behind the original technology was to create an easier way to share academic research within the academic community and focused on text documents. Over time, the enabling technologies have been expanded and evolved so that now, website technologies are what drives everything from online banking and online shopping to social media to remote control of your house air-conditioning and lighting. Today, a “standard”, bread and butter website would use server-based software called a Content Management System (CMS) and build the site out of a collection of components that contain content and display that content in different ways.

Church websites

So, why have a church/parish/congregation website? Like many things in the communications field, the first question is, “What are you trying to achieve? What is that makes this a desirable objective for us to accomplish?” Given that there is no truly free way to develop a website – at the very least someone will spend time, and time has a value, even if we don’t end up paying money for it. We need to make sure that the resources we spend make us a return of the type we are looking for. In my experience, there are three general types of things churches try to achieve in their websites, in combination or by themselves. But whatever type suits your situation, remember, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well!”

“Brochureware” site – I call this type “brochureware” because it is an online clone of the printed brochure some congregations have their greeters hand to new arrivals. The objective is to give a summary of the congregation’s “Vital statistics” – the phone numbers, addresses (email, postal, physical), what groups meet and key contact people. Often, congregations will try to go beyond the purely administrative information and try to paint a picture of the type of community the congregation is to help strangers viewing the website try to assess how well they would “fit” in that community. The “Find a Church” feature on the methodist.org.nz website is well-suited to hosting sites of this type. (Alec Utting is the webmaster for this site and would be happy to talk to you about getting your Parish page up to scratch.) Given the research that indicates that something like 70% of people who walk through your door for the first time has already checked you out with Google, I think this type of site is a no-brainer.
Internal Admin site – This type of site is focused on communications between the parish and its members. It provides access to things like rosters, prayer requests, meeting agendas and minutes etc. The nature of the material means that usually some form of access control is required so that confidential information doesn’t get viewed by people who aren’t supposed to. Often this type of site adds community building features to help facilitate and foster the relationship between there members. Personally, my feeling is that unless you have very specific requirements, it would be easier and cheaper to set up a closed group on facebook or a similar platform.
Community site – This type of site reaches beyond one’s own members and tries to engage the people in one’s community. To do this well is very resource intensive (in comparison to the other types), but has the most potential for working for good within one’s community, building a presence for the congregation and building a real role for the church within its community.

I’ve run out of space. Obviously, I will have to write some follow-up articles in future issues.

Carols by Smartphone Light

Posted on Dec 3, 2017 by Peter Lane

Free Christmas Carol App

I thought this was topical – We Are Worship in the UK (part of Integrity Music) have made available this free Christmas Carol App. If you need Christmas carol lyrics on a smartphone, this App might prove useful. Complementary resources (sheet music, lyric videos etc) are available from the We Are Worship website.

Available for both Apple and Android, the app lists the words to lots of favourite carols, and some modern options as well.

Given most fire departments frown on candles lighting anything, this can give a modern twist to your next carols service, and assist keeping the environmental impact of such events low, with no need to print song sheets. I suspect if you use this in public, it would be worth having the musos thoroughly check the words match the tune they intend using …

The app allows each user to customise the size of text and colour scheme used for the words so it can best suit their particular vision needs or fashion sense.

The app is available via , or search your app store for “carol words”.

Enabling Inclusion

Posted on Nov 5, 2017 by Peter Lane

Bringing Church to the people (or People to the church)

I believe it is fair to say that the original motivation for a lot of church sound systems was the capability to record services to cassette, which could then be distributed to the housebound, the ill and others who might be interested. As a social mechanism for inclusion of community members who may otherwise be marginalised, it is a practice of considerable merit (although I suspect that you had to physically deliver a cassette tape in person might be a contributing contributor to this). Cassette tapes have died the death of technological obsolescence, but there are still churches who effectively continue these principles with equivalent modern technologies.

So, it was of interest to me to come across a Facebook post from a person asking to for advice on how to use technology to flip this idea on its head. Rather than asking how can we share what we do in worship with those who can’t be present; but instead, how can we assist those who can’t be present to contribute to and participate in what we do in worship. So, this being a technology column, let’s look at some ways to do this.

Technologically, we can categorise suitable methods as audio-only vs audio-video, or as pre-recorded vs “live”. There are many options available, but the solutions I indicate below are based on real situations and products I know work – this is not to suggest there are no other ways this can be done. I’ve assumed that your playback location has a sound system built-in, and a projector or video display for video, but there is no requirement for this – there are portable solutions available at low or moderate cost if required, provided care is taken to consider the requirements inherent in the size of the venue.

Pre-recorded audio-only and audio-video

This is potentially the simplest way to start including others. There are many devices now to record digital audio – a smartphone usually being the easiest to get hold of. Place the device on a solid surface or tripod if you can in front of the person speaking – resist the urge to hold it in your hand – and use a recording app. The built-in one will usually be fine, but there are lots of options, both paid and free. For video recordings, make sure the subject is well lit, particularly the face. Place the camera lens at the same level as the subject’s face and remember that for speech, close-ups are more effective than long shots (especially when relying on built-in microphones). Sometimes, the easiest way to capture audio for audio-only play back is to make a video recording.

Having made your recording, the recording file needs to be transferred to the playback device, usually a computer. If you must remove that unfortunate moment when the fire engine went past, use editing software to trim to suit. Audacity is a good free program for this for audio, and I tend to use VLC for video. I also use Camtasia but it comes at a cost. Also, NCH have a range of good audio and video programs on a free-to-try basis, with very reasonable pricing if you decide you like it. Depending on your final playback platform you may need to convert the file from the recorded format to a format compatible for your playback system – most editing programs allow at least some degree of format conversion, but there are also dedicated conversion programs available. Often, embedding the audio or video in a power-point slide is the easiest way

Live audio-only and audio-video

The principles of capturing a recording is fundamentally the same as for Pre-recorded – you just won’t have the opportunity to do any editing or format conversion – get it right first time! You will need to have some form of reasonable network connection to your venue though. Packages include Skype or Zoom. Livestream.com (as used for recent conferences) is also a moderately priced option. Essentially, you use the solution to “make a phone call” from the reader to the venue. This can be answered directly, but a slightly more elegant solution would be to provide a video-switcher at the venue so that the call can be placed and/or answered and everything made ready before the call is displayed to the audience.

I’d love to hear about what you are doing.

Resources

Installation tips for AV Display installation

Installing the Right AV Display

Posted on Sep 3, 2017 by Peter Lane

My last column looked at some of the principles of choosing the right AV Display – making sure that the capabilities and features of the display complement the reasons you want to have a display in the first place. The surest way to waste AV money is to acquire devices that don’t actually meet the needs of the situation. Another sure way is to not install systems properly. Improper installation can lead to systems being “too hard” to use, create safety hazards and/or poor quality displays.

Front vs Rear projection

Front projection is where the projector is located, well, in front of the screen (the same side as the audience), the way 90% of projectors are used. An equally valid way to use projector’s is Rear projection, where the projector is mounted behind the screen (the opposite side to the audience). The screen is made from a special translucent material so the image projected can be seen from the audience side. The projector mirrors the image so it still appears the right way around to the audience.

There are several advantages to rear-projection. One is that it may suit the constraints of the location better and makes for an easier installation. Rear projection is a good technique to consider in an environment where there are high ambient light levels. Because the projector tends to be closer to the screen than with front projection schemes, watt for watt a rear projected image will be brighter. Even better perceived brightness can be achieved by constructing a light-proof box around the space between the projector and the screen.

Good security of the projection device can be achieved as the projector doesn’t have to be in the same room as the audience, so long as there is a window to let the projected image through.

Permanently Installed vs Not Installed

Of course, the ultimate security is to lock your projector away when not in use, and only set it up when it is in use. The AV industry refers to this as an un-installed system. This works particularly well for table-top projectors for small groups and meetings and of course provides scope for flexible use in multiple locations. The disadvantage is that you need someone around that knows how to set the system up safely, and the time that can be taken in unpacking / packing. Thinking about what the process needs to be in advance can allow measures to be implemented that will allow a system to be used safely and with minimum effort. For example, installing a new electrical outlet at the location the projector will be used will allow quicker setup without having an extension lead draped across the space, thereby being both quicker and safer.

Structural Integrity

On the subject of safety, installed systems need to be fixed securely. It may seem like an obvious statement, but attaching a display device to wallboard or other lining is insufficient in most circumstances. Devices should be adequately fixed to the building’s structure, or equivalent. Don’t judge the adequacy of a mounting by whether or not it falls down in the first 10-minutes. From a Health & Safety perspective, it doesn’t matter if it falls down after 3-minutes or after 3-years – it still may be improperly fixed. Suspended systems and devices need particular attention because of the level of hazard they can create. In many cases, it worth seeking the opinion of a structural engineer on fitting or retro-fitting suspended systems

How to Choose the Right AV Display

Posted on Jun 4, 2017 by Peter Lane

When I am talking to someone who has recently found out I am involved with AV professionally, I often get asked “What projector do you recommend”?

This is almost as hard to answer as the proverbial “How long is a piece of string”? There are many factors to take into consideration, and most of those factors have nothing to do with the technical performance of the projector or other display device. Further, there is a general assumption that only projectors can be considered as display devices, which is sometimes true, but not always. Let’s look at some of those factors.

Mission

What are you trying to achieve by making this change? Are you looking to display the words of hymns or worship songs for the congregation (so you can save the cost of paper copies)? Replace Orders of Service? Illuminate sermons? Or are you looking “to be more culturally relevant” to youth or society? Do you want to provide a regular movie experience as a community outreach, or provide background content at a social enterprise café? Or are you simply wanting a way to display the church council agenda during the meeting?

These types of questions are important because what you are trying to do will in a large measure determine what type of content you will want to display. Hymns and Orders of Service is typically essentially text; content to amplify a sermon might be a mix of images, infographics and text. Currently, “culturally relevant” is code for video material. (By the way, to present video successfully you will need good audio system capability as well as the display system.) A café might use a mixture of TV programming (video) and infographics material.

Different types of material have different requirements that need to be delivered by the solution. Text needs to be clear, crisp and (above all) readable, so good resolution and good brightness levels are important. Video needs a solution with very good contrast, and with the technical “grunt” to keep up with rendering 50 to 60 frames each and every second without missing a beat. This is harder to measure objectively, but good video devices tend to have lots of internal processor power and internal memory. Presentations can be text based or image based and so tend to need a combination of text and video requirements.

Readability

A critical factor for displaying text is how far the image is from the audience. Obviously, the worst-case scenario are the people in the back corners – the size of the screen (especially the vertical size) makes a difference with this. But a large screen may not be any good for viewers close to a display – if it is too big the display fills the field of vision and it becomes very difficult to read when you must physically turn your head to see each end of a line. The rule of thumb used professionally is that the closest viewers should be more than 1½-times the height of the displayed image from the display, and the furthest viewer no more than 6-times the height of the displayed image.

The predominance of wide-screen formats for video material means that video is less dependent on vertical screen size, but instead depends more on horizontal screen size, within limits imposed by the aspect ratio of the format used.

Logistics & Installation

How do you need to operate your presentations? Do you need to setup and pack away all your equipment every time you use it? Are you going to use the equipment in the same place every time? How technically savvy are your technology operators?

Solutions can be portable, semi-portable, semi-permanently installed or permanently installed. Devices have been developed optimised for each of these scenarios. One can select solutions that need to be installed at the edge of a space, or in the middle of a space.

A potential solution needs to be considered in the context of both what you are trying to achieve and the constraints and advantages of the space (or spaces) in which you are going to use it.

So, before you go shopping for a display device, do yourself a favour and make sure you understand why you want it, and what that means the device you end up with needs to do.

Office 365 for non-profits

Posted on May 7, 2017 by Peter Lane

Those of you that have anything to do with the Methodist Church of NZ may have seen in the March eMessenger an article encouraging parishes to use Microsoft Office 365 for free instead paying for Microsoft Office. “Free” is always an attractive price-point for churches and other charities, so let’s look at this offer a bit more closely.

This is not a Methodist specific offer. Microsoft has a global philanthropic program where they donate licences to their own products to qualified charities around the world, administered by a global charity called TechSoup Global. The criteria for eligibility is “Non-profit and non-governmental organizations that are recognized as charitable organizations in their respective countries. Eligible organizations must also operate on a not-for-profit basis and have a mission to benefit the local community […]”. Microsoft has an Eligibility webpage with detailed explanation of eligibility criteria and links to country specific eligibility criteria.

Because the licencing is essentially a donation from Microsoft, there are some conditions attached. Firstly, the donated software must be used to further the charitable purpose of the done organisation and cannot be primarily for personal use. Reasonable ancillary use is accepted, but organisations should endeavour to ensure that the software doesn’t become a volunteer’s primary [personal] e-mail address, for example. Microsoft has a specific guideline on whether volunteer’s are eligible for Nonprofit licences; the volunteer is accountable for specific activities and results, the volunteer’s role is year-round on-going (or seasonal recurring annually) and the volunteer will not use the software for activities related to personal gain. Use by employee’s should be governed by a “reasonable use” policy. Secondly, I understand that as a donated item, charities should be recording the full commercial value of the software as a “donation in-kind”. (If there is someone reading this who can clarify this, I’d appreciate hearing from you.)

So what can one get for free? In the context of Office 365 services, the answer is 2 specific plans, “Nonprofit Business Essentials” and “Nonprofit E1”. The equivalent commercial versions of these plans are currently worth $9.00 per user per month and $11.90 per user per month (plus GST), so the magnitude of the donation is quite significant. The 2 plans are functionally quite similar – the “Business” plans have limitations in the number of users, migration options and some back-of-house functions that make it more suitable for smaller organisations.

The key components included in each license are as follows;

Email service with 50GB mailbox, calendar and contacts
OneDrive file-sharing with 1TB storage (which means capability to access anywhere from any device)
Unlimited online meetings with HD video, web-conferencing and messaging
Organisation Intranet (Sharepoint)
Team workspace and collaboration tools (Teams)

So, if you are at all familiar with traditional Office, you will be wondering where Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher have gone. Well, they are there – sort of. The free plans only include the Online version of these applications. There is nothing wrong with this – while you wouldn’t want to write your thesis paper with the online versions, they are quite capable, though a little different in some usability respects. But, at the risk of some over-simplification, you may need to be online while you edit. To my mind, ideally you would want your main computer to have Desktop Office program versions installed and just use the online versions for a quick review or last minute tweaks when you are away from your computer.

In the final analysis, the Desktop Office programs are also available through Microsoft’s non-profit program, heavily discounted compared to commercial pricing, but not free. They are available either as a DVD that you can install, or as a different Office365 plan (probably the Nonprofit E3 plan for most) where a monthly per user fee gives access to the desktop versions as well as the online. This decision can be made on a user by user basis – licence plans can generally be mixed and matched to match individual requirements. For example, you can have one user on E1 with no desktop office, another on E1 with desktop office from another source and another on E3 with desktop office available from the cloud. Almost all software products are transitioning to cloud based licenses, so I suspect it is only a matter of time before this becomes the only option available.

As always, happy to address any questions you may have. Contact me at dct@dct.org.nz or via the editor. This article is published at www.dct.org.nz (and all the links are clickable there?).

Links

The Methodist Church of NZ March 2017 eMessenger – http://www.methodist.org.nz/files/docs/mcnz%20admin%20office/emessenger/2017/1-%20emessenger%20march%202017%20-%20with%20attachment.pdf
Microsoft Eligibility page – https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=330253
Microsoft O365 NP Plans & Pricing – https://products.office.com/en-nz/nonprofit/office-365-nonprofit-plans-and-pricing
Microsoft O365 E Plans & pricing – https://products.office.com/en-nz/business/compare-more-office-365-for-business-plans

[Links correct at time of publication; please note they may no longer be active.]

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30-years’ experience with Technology systems. We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles. These can be submitted either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz. We also operate a website focused on building a community of people who are interested in improving the way we can use technology located at www.dct.org.nz.

Praising the Lord with microphones and Facebook

Posted on Mar 5, 2017 by Peter Lane

“Let’s sing a new song to the Lord!” And if it’s at all a modern new song, that means you might suddenly have a requirement for a bass, 2 guitars, keyboard, drums and 6-vocalists. Oh, my goodness – how do we make all that work. Suddenly, the neat new idea is in the “too hard” basket, and nothing ever happens. And it’s not just music;

Baby speaking into a microphone. — Are we just babies where technology is concerned?

“I have seen this really powerful video-clip that would be perfect to play as part of my sermon …”
“We have a funeral in a couple of days and the son is stuck in Northern India; he will be devastated …”
“Next week I have to attend a meeting in Blenheim – no one has the funding to fly me, but if I drive I won’t get back in time to lead worship …”

I have a job that gives me the opportunity to travel a lot, and as I travel I have been in conversations with people in the Church who are concerned that the way we tend to do things is not in touch with the ways of the world in which we live. We need to find ways to “translate” our message to make ourselves more relevant, particularly to our youth. “Better use of ‘Technology’,” they say, “is one way to do this. But we don’t know how.” Technology is not the be-all-and-end-all to being relevant, but it is useful.

I almost always counsel my secular clients against using Technology for Technology’s sake. I think that it is even more important that Churches adopt this principle. The mission of the Church is to communicate the gospel message, and if this message gets lost in the razzle-dazzle of technology and being relevant, then we have failed in that mission.

This is the first of what is hoped to be a regular column, focusing on practical suggestions, tips and strategies for using audio-visual and ICT technology in the life of the church. We envisage covering a broad range of communication systems, including audio systems, projection, email, productivity & collaboration systems, hearing aid loops, videoconference, streaming and social media. We intend to address many relevant usage scenarios such as worship, church meetings, office work, designing new systems and personal reflection. Some articles may be a simple “how-to” carry out some feature in a software package. Others may offer a strategic or theological reflection. While it currently seems most articles will be written by me, it is also hoped we may have occasional guest contributors.

Our hope is to be an interactive forum so we answer real questions – we invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles. These can be submitted either through the editor (if you are reading this on one of the paper incarnations), or by email to dct@sdcs.co.nz. We also plan to operate a website in conjunction with this column – a website focused around building a community of people who are interested in improving the way we can use technology, who can interact by a forum, asking questions or providing answers as they are gifted. The website will host supplementary material to the Touchstone articles – more detailed articles, videos and links to web resources that may not be able to fit in the Touchstone’s space requirement. Everything going well, by the time you read this article www.dct.org.nz will have a working website at the end of the link. (If not, please pray for me and patiently keep retrying till it appears.)

The examples above have been deliberately chosen to be difficult challenges in a mainline church – there are things we can do simply and easily that will make a real difference. They are also chosen to reflect things that have been done, but usually not very well. I look forward to our on-going conversation as we explore how to use our resources to enhance our Message.

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30-years’ experience with Technology systems. We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles. These can be submitted either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz. We also operate a website focused on building a community of people who are interested in improving the way we can use technology located at www.dct.org.nz.