In celebration of the newly released ProPresenter version 4, I wanted to take a few minutes and introduce everyone to the incredibly powerful and user-friendly lyric presentation software that’s being used in churches and ministries around the nation. However, in order to understand the ease of use and power behind ProPresenter, it’s important to know what the alternative could be or has been, and how ProPresenter has solved many of the problems of the past.

Printouts, dual computer systems, and a ton of mistakes. . .

For the past seven years I’ve been involved in lyric presentations for worship in some way, shape, or form. I started in the early 2000’s helping with XLT, a weekly prayer gathering for teenagers from parishes all over the Diocese. Way back then (when AOL was still cool) we were using Microsoft Powerpoint. At that time, Powerpoint hadn’t begun to utilize ‘Presenter Mode’ yet and when you were in the middle of a presentation, you weren’t able to see forward or back to know what lyric slide was coming next. This made operating the presentation and being accurate nearly impossible. Not only would you have to know each song being sung inside and out, but you’d have to be familiar enough with the lyric slides to know how much of the next line, verse, chorus, etc. was on the next slide. Timing was difficult and mistakes were abundant.

Before I came on to help, the initial solution for this problem was to save a final copy of the full presentation and print out all of the slides in Powerpoint. There was also a master excel spreadsheet – in alphabetical order – with the corresponding slide numbers that would need to be referenced initially and then the first slide number inputted to jump to that slide. The only way to know which slide you were on was to number them in a color just lighter than the background and to reference that against the book-sized printout of slides to know what was coming next. For the tools given to them, the guys running the lyrics presentation did an excellent job. That being said, it was a cumbersome and frustrating process that allowed for very little flexibility to include or delete any of the slides during the presentation. We finally upgraded our process about six months later. Instead of printouts and spreadsheets, we included a second laptop that had an identical lyric presentation file saved to it. Instead of cross-referencing the spreadsheet and following along on the printout, we were able to use the secondary computer as a guide for the primary. This increased accuracy and timing, but it didn’t fix everything. This continued to be our mode of operation for the next couple of years, but we weren’t able to progress much further using Powerpoint as our main presentation software.

A breath of fresh air.

Many of you are most likely familiar with the Passion movement in the Christian church (and if you’re not, check out www.268generation.com for details). If you’re familiar with the Passion movement and the Passion conferences, then you’re most likely also aware of their progressive and technically advanced worship presentations. Many ministries follow the lead of Passion in ministry and worship presentation – including several that I’ve been a part of. In 2006, I was able to attend one of their conferences in Nashville and was introduced to ProPresenter and ProVideoPlayer by Renewed Vision and in 2007, it became the primary presentation software for the Matt Maher band. Impressed by it’s quick learning curve, multiple features, and powerful performance, we immediately knew that it would become the fore runner of worship presentations around the country and were excited to get to know the program.

Over the past 3 years, I’ve used ProPresenter on over 500 occasions, in both small (20 people) and large (100,000+ people) formats, and for concerts, talks, presentations and more. ProPresenter is incredibly versatile and has virtually endless possibilities. With that being said, let’s take a look at a few of the key features:

Getting Started

*Note: For the sake of this blog, I’ll be referencing ProPresenter 3, but if you’re interested in what’s new about ProPresenter 4, check it out here.*

Getting to know the user interface is the biggest change from a Powerpoint or Keynote type platform. Because ProPresenter is used solely as a lyric presenter, the interface doesn’t have different views, just different frames with the varying parts of the program.

As you can see, the layout is quite different. In the top left is the Program Screen. Across the top half is the Foreground Element window and below that the Background Element window. It is important to think of these two windows as layers in your presentation. The foreground element will ALWAYS be layered over your background element. Lyrics will always be in the foreground and the background is reserved for pictures, videos, or graphic loops to liven up the presentation.

Click to Enlarge

Following the windows clockwise, you’ll see a notifications window where messages can be typed in at any time and shown at any time if necessary. *Note: this message will ALWAYS supersede the other elements. If lyrics are being presented, the notification message will layer over the top anyway.* Above the notifications is the Playlist Window and above that is the Lyrics Library. As song are added into your library, you can drag and drop them into a playlist to create a specific list of songs to pick from. Much like a playlist on iTunes, this creates a filtered list of songs to select from, keeping you from having to search through the entire library to find your songs.

To Be Continued

I could continue to open up and explain ProPresenter, but the truth is there’s just TOO much for one post! Next time We’ll focus on the process necessary to open the program, load the library, load the background elements, and create playlists. If you’d like to follow along, I believe you can still demo Version 3 through Renewed Vision’s website: http://www.renewedvision.com/downloads/ProPresenter3.5.5.dmg. The demo is fully functional, with the exception of a watermark that exists on the Program screen. This will go away if you decide to purchase the software. Also available for download is the brand new version 4 here: http://www.renewedvision.com/downloads/ProPresenter4_b3479.dmg.

Related posts:

1. Introducing: Audio/Video/Production Blogs!
2. Readers Poll: What Software Are You Using?
3. An Interview with a Pro: Jayme Braun – Audio Engineer

One of the main goals that we would like to accomplish on New Media Ministry is to provide youth ministers with some new tools and resources so that they can in turn get to work in implementing these into their ministry. Chris Faddis wrote two weeks ago about the importance of connecting through text messaging, and I hope that many of you have given a shot at trying text messaging in your ministry. If not, read the post and try out the service for free that we recommended.

I wrote a review of a cool product last week called YooStar. YooStar is basically a video kit that allows you to superimpose yourself in the place of some of your favorite characters in videos. This is a great product for creating hype and promotion in your ministry.

I wanted to take a quick look today at a few ways that you can and need to begin utilizing video in your ministries. You might be a little intimidated to try and get involved in ministry because you think cameras are real expensive and editing takes a lot of knowledge, etc. But times and technologies are changing. We’ll cover this later on down the road.

Getting Started

If you’re in ministry of any kind, one of the things I’m almost certain you struggle with at every event is getting people settled and transitioned from gathering and hanging out to getting your event started. In our church, we begin every youth night with dinner. Transitioning from the kids eating and chatting with their friends to actually getting the night going is one of the hardest parts of the night.

Videos are great for filling in this void and easing the transition. Create a short 5-10 minute video skit of something that is loosely tied to your theme for the night. Make it funny and engaging and you’ll have no trouble grabbing the attention of your teens.

Creating Hype

Last week I wrote about Creating Hype in Your Ministry. Utilizing video in your hype strategies can be very beneficial. Teens are going to watch videos, plain and simple. Post it on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, your website. Get it out there and promote it, and teens will probably come to the event. Read the article to learn more.

This is a video our very own Chris Faddis did for our youth group a few weeks ago to promote our semester event.

Recap

Nick wrote recently about the Youth Group Shirt and the importance of having a tshirt for a retreat or big event that you’re putting on. I think the same is true of a recap video. If you go on a weekend retreat, take a camcorder of some sort along with you and piece together some rough clips of a variety of events from that weekend. It doesn’t have to look like the sequel to Avatar, but presenting the option for a teen to remember the experience they had at that event can be a powerful tool to use in helping to prevent what I like to call the Retreat High – where you come back from a retreat or event feeling better and more committed than ever, but a week later you’re back to your normal ways. Giving teens the ability to watch a quick 5 minute video with some footage from that weekend can be very helpful in their individual journey.

Here is a video from a summer retreat that we put together for our teens:

Teaching Tools

Video is the up and coming medium of communication I think in youth ministry. Ever notice how a handful of teens seem to tune you out while someone might be giving a testimony or delivering a message? It’s inevitable that you’re not going to be able to capture the attention of all your teens. Video gives the audience something different to focus on. After listening to the same person over and over for years, they’re going to get tired and bored of you. Sorry to break the bad news. But video keeps minds engaged because they can tell a story much better than you can sometimes because you can only describe an event, place or a person, but a video can actually show them.

So i encourage you to give video a shot in your ministry. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for some more resources helping you with video including products I think you’ll want to take a look at.

Related posts:

1. Creating Hype for Your Ministry
2. Youth Ministry Fun with Yoostar Entertainment System
3. Introducing: Audio/Video/Production Blogs!

What Is It?

The Yoostar System is a collection of the following pieces:

• A High-Resolution Camera.
• A camera stand and multiple camera clips.
• Green Screen Stand.
• Green Screen
• Remote

Combining all of these great tools allows you to be green-screened into your choice of old movies, to deliver the greatest lines alongside some of the greatest actors. The Yoostar isn’t just a camera, it comes with the necessary editing software and a six by six foot green screen (in its own collapsible nylon bag) that you can put up behind you.  Then, when you film yourself, you can be entered into the picture right alongside the greats.

How Good Is It?

While we weren’t able to get our hands on a test unit to try out ourselves, we’ve spent some time reading a variety of reviews around the Interwebs to get people’s opinions to see if this product is really worth the money. At $169.99, it’s not cheap. However, Amazon.com has a few of them available used from $125 to help save you some money.

The Yoostar video camera puts out crisp, high-resolution video. Although the video quality suffers when uploaded online, the original copies left for playback on your computer easily beat what most webcams produce. The camera also has no trouble picking up voices with a built-in microphones. In fact, you may find yourself turning down your mic volume when you speak louder than those who co-star with you. (I’m looking at you John Belushi).

Despite the high quality of the camera, it does have one major downside: The Yoostar camera can only be used with the Yoostar software. It has been tested with Skype on Windows-based machines and on Macs, but Skype apparently refuses to recognize the camera. It may only need additional drivers (which may come in the future), but at this point, I can see it being very frustrating to have a high-resolution webcam that’s not compatible with any other software.

Videos

The YooStar comes with 14 video clips preloaded on it.

• The Godfather
• Field of Dreams
• Some Like It Hot
• Forrest Gump
• Rocky
• Sabrina
• Blues Brothers
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Animal House
• Back to School
• Saw II
• Up in Smoke
• Coming to America
• Sesame Street

Thousands of scenes from new and old videos can be purcahsed additionally from the Yoostar website for roughly $1 per scene.

The Verdict

The price is the breaking point for many, especially for those of us in ministry with tiny budgets. At $169.99 the Yoostar system isn’t exactly cheap, but the hardware is definitely worth the price. The quality green screen, stand and camera alone are worth $169.99. Sadly, since the camera isn’t able to be used with other programs, there’s a lot of wasted potential. If you think you’ll get lots of mileage out of the Yoostar systems capabilities, don’t think twice about purchasing it. On the other hand, if you think your mileage may vary and aren’t sure about making the jump, just keep in mind that it does bring a great green screen set-up that can be used for your own home movies. At $169.99, the Yoostar system isn’t cheap, but it’s still making you an offer that’s tough to refuse. Ask a few parents to see if they’ll throw in $25 to help you purchase it. It sure would make a great piece to help promote your ministry events, or even to get kids to come.

Related posts:

1. Friday Showcase: Catholic Youth Ministry
2. Utilize Video in Your Ministry
3. Lyric Presentation for Worship: The Series!

Related posts:

1. Utilize Video in Your Ministry