Digital or Analog?

Courtesy of Sweetwater.com

About three weeks ago we made the switch from an analog sound board to a digital one and the switch was not an easy one. When you have one day from installation to learn an entirely new sound board in general is tough but adding the digital element and new features can be overwhelming. Digital sound boards are awesome, you can do so much more with your live sound than you could with an analog board, but because it is digital many assume that it is easier to use.

As churches begin to consider the switch from analog to digital there are a few things that should be takien into consideration. First, do not assume that it is going to be an easy switch or that it is going to be a plug and play deal. Secondly, it will not solve all of your sound issues especially if you have a few people in your congregation who like to complain. Finally, it will take time to master the board.

Assuming that switching out your analog board for a digital one is going to be easy or being led by the salesperson that it will be will frustrate you during the installation and training period. Researching the digital board and any additional equipment you may need before making the decision will help you through the installation process. In our situation, we did our research but we took the word of the professional installer that it will be a simple four hour job and ended up taking twice as long. We failed to evaluate our analog system and the way it was setup before having the new system come in, which costed us time sorting through.

Believing that having a digital board will solve all your issues and complaints is wrong. The truth is it won't. It will change the way you run sound and it will change your sound for the better but all that doesn't matter to that person or persons who has complained in the past. Our sound overall is sounding better and clearer than ever before but we are still getting complaints by the same people before we made the switch. My advice is to acknowledge the complaints but don't get hung up on them.

Thinking that because it is a digital board you will be running sound like a pro in no time will easily frustrate you. Learning the basics on a digital board is easy but to really get to know the board will take time especially getting to know all of the features. Be patient when exploring the board and let your pastoral staff know to be patient as well. Your pastors will get frustrated because they're going to want you to know everything as soon as the board comes out of the box so you will have to tell them that it will take time to get acquainted with the board.

Before deciding to switch from analog to digital keep in mind these things and all the reasons why you want to make the switch. I'm glad that we made the switch especially since the board we bought has an iPad app that is truly awesome. I hope that this post can be of help to those considering the switch. 

Lessons Learned: Making a Live Worship DVD

Courtesy of
http://www.virgin.com/media-and-mobile/news/suffering-from-digital-stress

Recently, our church had a Praise and Worship night where we had professionals come in and record the music with the intentions of making a CD to sell. It was also decided that we make a live DVD as well with multiple cameras. The audio recording went well but the video recording not so much. I am one to plan out my shots with each camera in mind but when working with three completely different kinds of cameras it does not always come out as planned. We used our Sony HD prosumer camera, a Kodak "pocket camera" and an iPhone to get the shots. The plan would have worked since the iPhone 4s surprisingly takes good HD video as does the Kodak camera but there were two factors I did not consider that became a nightmare in post-production. The first factor simply being the human aspect and the second factor being the technological differences involved with the cameras.

I have learned that it is important to train good people to work the camera in media ministry because there will always be someone that will back out at the last possible minute and a good backup needs to be handy. During this particular event I had two people back out leaving one camera guy and myself to run three cameras. I left one camera on a wide shot and the other I walked around with which worked out great but it left me in a position to where I couldn't direct the other camera person on shots I wanted.  This brings me to the second factor I mentioned earlier. The other camera person did a good job but the quality of video was not as great as hoped. The Kodak camera does not have a manual focus setting so there were times where the camera automatically focused footage and the digital zoom caused the close up shots to be grainy. These issues left me to be extremely picky on clips and being limited on space on the iPhone led to not enough shots to make a good multi-shot video.

With a possible predicament on my hands I had to make some editing decisions about the videos I was creating for the live DVD. I used whatever footage I had that was good to create the videos and used techniques that I have learned over the years to clean up as much of the footage as possible. I have referenced VideoMaker's website numerous times in this blog but for good reason it is a wonderful resource to have on hand when you need it like working with bad footage. The lesson I learned through this process is that planning is good for a project but to make the planning worth while you should consider every possible scenario there is to ensure a successful outcome.

Business Plans: What Do The Experts Say About Having One?

As I am nearing the completion of my Master’s degree, I thought I would take a break from writing about church media and talk about business plans. Actually, having a “business plan” for your media ministry is not a bad idea because I think it would help you understand what you or the church is trying to accomplish and where you want to take the ministry to.  In researching about creating a business plan I found two experts that I think worth listening to.

Courtesy of timberry.com

The first expert is Tim Berry. Tim Berry is the business planning coach for Entrepreneur.com and has currently written five books on business plans. He has a MBA from Stanford, a MA in Journalism from the University of Oregon, and a BA in Literature from University of Notre Dame. Tim Berry is also a successful entrepreneur who founded Palo Alto Software, bplans.com, and co-founded Borland International (Berry, About Page, 2012). According to Mr. Berry, some of the key factors that investors look for in a company that is in an interesting market, has a credible management team, and a defensible and scalable product. These are factors that to investors make good investments (Berry, 2011).

Courtesy of growthink.com

The second expert is Dave Lavinsky. Dave Lavinsky is the co-founder of GrowThink a company that specializes in helping entrepreneurs develop their business plans. He has a MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and has a background in market research, small business and finance. Dave Lavinsky is an internationally renowned expert in business planning, capital raising and new venture development (Growthink, 2012). Mr. Lavinsky believes that most investors mainly venture capitalists look for small businesses or entrepreneurs that have a stand out business plan but also has already accomplished a few milestones in their business. This means that an investor might look for a developed product or a customer base that can make the investment look less like a risk (Lavinsky, 2012). Lavinsky believes that when an investment looks less like a risk the better it is and that is why these investors look for milestones as key indicators for giving funding.

Both experts have valid points in what investors may look for when looking for an investment to fund. In the end it really does come down to the individual investor or venture capitalist as to what he or she looks for. Dave Lavinsky suggests asking the investor or researching the investor to gain insight into what he or she is looking for.

In the church media world, we are in a way looking for investors through our parishioners to buy into what we are trying to accomplish. It is important that you look for individuals or a group that has similar goals than you do because they are the ones that will most likely invest in what you are trying to do.

References

Berry, T. (2012, January 1). About Page. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from Tim Berry: http://timberry.com/about

Berry, T. (2011, January 29). How Can I Find Investors When I'm Just Starting Out? Retrieved October 28, 2012, from Entrepreneur.com : http://www.entrepreneur.com/answer/222232

Growthink. (2012, January 1). Dave Lavinsky. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from Growthink.com: https://www.growthink.com/team/dave-lavinsky

Lavinsky, D. (2012, August 18). How To Raise Funding Using Milestones. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from Growthink.com: http://www.growthink.com/content/how-raise-funding-using-milestones

Advertising Advantages For Non-profits

I recently read an article that my pastor had forwarded to me about using Google for Non-Profits ™ specifically AdWords ™ to help create traffic to the church’s website for free. Google for Non-Profits ™ offers a variety of apps that you can use to help promote and streamline your church without the huge cost and I encourage churches to take advantage of this service. I recently set up our account with Google for Non-Profits ™ and I am just scratching the surface of the awesome things it has to offer.

I want to focus on using AdWords ™ because of the potential this service can unlock to direct traffic to your website or live stream service. What is AdWords ™ and how can you use it to drive traffic to your site? Basically AdWords ™ is a service where you create a basic ad that uses only words that are posted along the side of the search engine page. When some one conducts a search on Google ™ that may be relevant to what you are advertising your ad will show up on the side of the screen. AdWords ™ uses not only an effectively written advertisement but targeted keywords that associate your ad with possible searches your audience might conduct. How can this be effective? If your church is wanting to promote that they will be offering an online service then you would create an ad in AdWords ™ that has keywords that would be used in a Google ™ search like internet, online, streaming, church, service, etc. The better your keyword choices are the more likely your ad will appear in searches and the more likely people may click on your ad which will direct them to your website.

Finding ways that will help you promote your church that won’t break the bank and is still highly effective is always hard but when you can find services like AdWords ™ it is always good to take advantage of those services. I have included a video that explains AdWords ™ and its uses. I hope you enjoy it and learn from it. 

Your Church Wants To Do What?

Courtesy of hcc3d.com

The last Sunday in September our church is having a worship night with our worship band, which sounds great and many will enjoy it. But towards the end of August our Pastor told us that he wants us to make a live audio and video recording that we will sell and immediately we were scrambling to figure out what we needed to do to pull this off and make it look professional. We had so many decisions to make in less than four weeks on how we're going to do this. The first question we had was are we going to attempt to record and mix the CD ourselves or are we going to have a professional come in and do it for us? We decided that the equipment we have right now wouldn't cut it if we wanted a good quality product so we opted to hire someone from our network of friends that could do the job for a decent price. The second question was do we make and distribute the final product ourselves? We decided that we did have the means to develop and distribute the CD. 

Since the audio was being recorded and mixed professionally we would have to make sure that the quality extended out to the packaging of the CD. How can I design and print out the liner and label without spending a lot of money and it not look "do-it-yourself"? In searching for companies that specialized in CD duplication I found one that I thought was reasonable and allowed me to customize the label and album artwork, and will print blank CDs so we can do the duplication ourselves. Websites like Mixonic.com are good sites to check out when you are looking to produce and distribute your own music or films without a record label or distribution company. For the video side of things, since we have the capabilities to produce the DVD in house, we will be shooting and editing the video ourselves for the DVD. But just like the CD we will order the printed blank DVDs with jackets and assemble the DVDs ourselves. 

When considering whether to go "DIY" or professional for a project like a CD or DVD recording there are a few key factors to evaluate. One factor of course is cost, what are the costs of doing it yourself versus having a professional do it for you. Another factor is time, how much time are you going to put into the project. Is it better for you to spend the time to produce yourself or hand it off to someone else. Finally, satisfaction, are you going to be satisfied with the final outcome of your project if you do it yourself or if a professional did it. How much control are willing to give up or want to be satisfied with your final project? Taking all these factors in consideration will help you make the right decision on which way to go. 

Advice, Please

Courtesy of http://whenfallsthecoliseum.com

I have stated before in other posts that as a Media Director I have to keep up with legal issues that can arise involving what our church is creating and putting out. Not having a lawyer on hand to consult with does make it hard when I have decipher copyright and intellectual property law in reference to the videos, graphics, and songs that are created or used during a church service. When I am in need of advice or just clarification with respect of what we are creating I look to podcasts pertaining to entertainment law. I have found three really good podcasts that offer advice and/or another perspective on entertainment law.

The first podcast called Entertainment Law Update is from Gordon Firemark. Firemark covers a wide range of topics concerning entertainment law but the ones I listen to the most are about copyrights because those are the issues I deal with the most. I enjoy his podcast because he talks about current cases in the industry and then explains the law surrounding those cases and the verdicts. Firemark has a way of explaining the cases in a way that is not necessarily all legalese but in a way that anyone who isn’t a lawyer can understand. In one of his podcasts he talks about a few copyright cases, one of those cases deal with remakes of the Wizard of Oz and the protected characters looks. The issue lies in if the characters are still protected under the current copyright laws.  I would recommend listening to this podcast, especially if you are facing similar issues with using a character’s likeness in a video or graphic.

Another podcast hosted by Arizona State University law students I have found to also be helpful in finding information on entertainment law. These two students are not yet lawyers and by no means offer legal advice but merely opinions and information to help you make your own informed decisions. The podcasts are found on the ASU Sports and Entertainment Law Journal page. Although these podcasts are nearly a year old the information and opinions discussed are still relevant to copyright and fair use laws today.

The third podcast that I would recommend deals with issues that pertain to the music industry. This podcast is called Above the Noise hosted by Aaron Bethune and discusses legal issues within the entertainment industry, specifically the music business. Although this podcast does not directly talk about video or graphic issues but the information and interviews still are of some value. Churches still have to deal with licensing issues with music used in the worship portion of services. For example, our church is planning on putting out a worship cd with our band and it is important that we work out the legal issues prior to recording the live worship set.

When it comes to dealing with any issue within the entertainment industry and church media it is important to always research the information needed to make an informed decision. Also, never rely solely on information found on the Internet or library, try to consult a lawyer whenever possible. 

Is Your Church Breaking The Law?

Courtesy of http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=2837

As someone who works in the media department of a church I am constantly making sure that what we are producing is legal. Sometimes this can be a difficult feat when YouTube™ videos are so easy to download and manipulate and images can be copied and pasted seamlessly.

What laws is the church breaking? Copyright and trademark laws are the most commonly broken without even realizing it. ShareFaith.com lists some of the common copyright infringements that churches commit like making photocopies of sheet music and recording the worship service for distribution. At the church I work at we do record our services and stream them live which brings up new challenges with copyright laws. We bought a CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) license that allows us to not only reproduce music, project lyrics on the screen but to broadcast it over the Internet. What our license does not cover is distributing or selling our services with these songs on it so for the CDs and DVDs we only use the pastor’s preaching. Another infringement many churches make is taking a public domain photo or graphic from an image search and not referencing it where the photo/graphic was taken from. Whether it is using the photo or graphic during a sermon illustration or on a social networking site a reference should always be placed somewhere near that photo or graphic.

To download or not download a YouTube™ video, that is the question. Just like taking an image from an image search without permission or a reference is an infringement so is taking a video off of YouTube™ without permission or paying for it. Churches are guilty of this kind of infringement without even knowing it. So how can a church avoid infringing on copyright laws with YouTube™ videos? According to the terms of service for YouTube™, you have to ask for permission either from YouTube™ or the owner of the video if there is a common creative license attached. There are some videos that have a download link available but you still need to find out if it is okay to show this video in a public setting. Also, there are videos that you can pay for off of the video site.

My opinion on how to keep churches legal in regards to media is to search out sites that are subscription based for photos, music, graphics and videos. Use these pay sites as much as possible and only use sites like YouTube™ if necessary, and seek out permission. Great sites are Sharefaith.com, Gracewaymedia.com, VideoBlocks.com, SkitGuys.com and iTunes. Also, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has a great check list for churches concerning media legal issues and intellectual property that is a valuable resource for any church that uses media in their ministry.

References: http://churchlawgroup.com/blog/uncategorized/churches-the-internet-and-social-media/

http://www.sharefaith.com/blog/2010/06/thou-shalt-steal—making-church-media-legal/

http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/Resources/Web-Ministry/Legal.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/t/terms