Tech Arts Team Gets Busy

Although last week, the tech arts team had some down time, this week we came back strong.  The priority was installing new projector lamps, so Brett, Mike and I tackled that.  Donna and Chris swapped out a computer that died in the sound booth that primarily runs announcements on a flat screen in the lobby, and Rachel downloaded and installed EasiSlides on our presentation computer.

The projector lamps went well, after the first one, it was easy.  I mounted the first one back up and it seems much brighter, although it still suffers from double vision.  I’ve already cleaned the air filter and blew dust out of everywhere.  This is something we will revisit soon and get resolved.  The second one went back up and it was a bright shade of yellow.  My first assumption was that we had adjusted the color so much to accomodate the dimming lamps that we just had to adjust back.  We checked everything, but both projectors were basically set at the same settings.  So we pulled it back down, found a possible loose connection, put it back together and tried again.  No change.  I finally got back up there and began to disconnect it again and in moving something, the yellow disappeared.  In the end, we figured out that the VGA connection was coming into the projector had been replaced and was not secure.  Twisting the cable coming in caused it to go yellow, even green and back to normal.  Very pretty shades but not good.

We left it with the right color but today I’m going to look into getting a new VGA connector and replace it.  I need to get a new video card for the lobby computer so we can connect it to the mixer and the way my week is looking, I expect to install it during the first service on Sunday.

Rachel installed EasiSlides because I want it on there as an alternative to EasyWorship.  I have read that it is basically the same functionality, only free.  Assuming it tests out decently, I’ll make that available to outside groups that come in and want to project something on the screen.  I love the EasyWorship license because it allows us to install the software on any computer in the building and it even allows me to install it at home for me to use for work related to church.  What it does not allow for is any groups not associated with the church to run the software for their use and me, being a stickler for licensing, intend to honor that.

The plan is to set up a guest login and that login only gives them access to EasiSlides and they just have to deal with that.  Most groups that come in are not trying to display words to songs or anything like that but if that is what they need to do, I will give them a suitable tool, just not my copy of EasyWorship.

If EasiSlides doesn’t check out to be good, then we try something else, but at first glance, it appears to display graphics well.  The interface is lacking, it seems but we’ll give it a shot.

With a few things knocked off the list, it’s time to figure out what we need to do next week, there’s plenty more to do.