» News

Outside the Norm: Special Productions

Projects, Technology - by Jeff - November 4, 2009 - 08:20 Etc/GMT+5 - Be first to Comment!

Any time of the year, your tech team is busy planning on, preparing for or producing an extra service. Easter and Christmas tend to be the first bigger productions a tech team will have on a schedule, but the calendar is full of events that are outside of the normal weekly worship. Concerts, outreaches, conferences, VBS, holidays, awards, celebrations and facility rentals; each of these events requires additional planning, preparation, equipment, and crew. How can your creative, tech and media teams support these events, make them extraordinary, and yet endure well on the week to week support of the ministry? As a Media Ministry, we’ll define the purpose, put proper time into planning, and then systematically check each medium in place to support the event.

Define why your team incorporates media into the production and you define the success of the tech production. Are you trying to make a statement? Create an atmosphere? Make something totally new and different? Meet the basic needs of the event? For example, sometimes adding a multi-screen projection system is required to allow everyone to see clearly, other times the multiple screens are used for artistic purposes, creating backdrops, or defining the environment. Defining the purpose will drive your requirements for creative elements to put on the screens, screen and projection requirements–how bright, how many different images, how large, where are they placed. Defining the purpose guides the development of multiple media, incorporating congruency of graphic arts on print materials and digital images. The definition of purpose sets the stage, as it were.

Putting the proper time into planning will help your production go smoothly, with less stress and less burnout. Specific details, requests and preferences from the event leaders and presenters given as soon as possible allows your team to meet their needs, possibly even exceed expectations. Once it is understood what the presentation requirements are, you can start planning what equipment will be used to support the event. Often your team can rent or borrow a few extra pieces of equipment to make the event a success, but sometimes you will need to bring in outside production support or freelance operators. This hired help can often take your event to the next level if your team is already stretched thin or you need more or different equipment than that to which your ministry has access.

For Christmas production at High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, TX, some lighting was added in addition to re-arranging space for full orchestra. The entire depth of the platform area leads to a very open, expansive feel.

An Easter production in the same sanctuary comes across entirely differently, with lighting changes, centered rear projection and closing off the back half of the stage area using curtains. Extra risers bring the choir close in. There is a more intimate feeling to this more somber occasion.

Finally, the media leader will perform a line-item survey of each medium that is being used or could be used to support the function of the ministry event. The following checklist can be used, although it is not all-inclusive. You may come up with more- feel free to leave suggestions or input in your comments.

Questions to think through

audio

Can the audio system in place support the requirements of the event?
Do you have enough channels?
Is your speaker system capable of covering the room adequately, or are you already pushing the limits of your system?
Do you have enough wireless mics?
Do you have the proper mics or direct boxes for the other inputs?

projection

What do you want to show on the screen?
Can everyone see the screen?
Is the screen large enough to read text or see the image magnification?
Is the projection bright enough under the required lighting conditions to see clearly?
Can the screens be put where you want them and will the projectors work for them there?
What are the artistic/creative elements required of the projection?

lighting

How much light will be required to support the video aspects of the event?
How much will light be used to set the atmosphere (colors/intensities/haze )?
Is there enough power available to run the additional lights?
How much of the light cues can be pre-programmed and how much will need to be done live?
How much/little will the audience/congregation be lit?

video production

What is the final format(s) of the video?
Will the video production be broadcast or streamed live?
Will cameras be used on IMAG screen in addition to recorded or broadcast?
What format (Standard Definition or a variety of High Definition) will meet these requirements best?
How many different outputs will be required from the switcher?

production support

How will the crew communicate? (Intercom, radios, phones, instant messaging, txt)
How many channels of communication are required
Will internet access be required? What bandwidth? Wireless? Public access?
What kind of space with the additional technical production elements require? Control rooms? Booths? Camera Platforms? Spotlight Platforms? Media Order Counter? Staging?
What Electrical Requirements are needed for each element?
What are the rigging and structural requirements?
Where will graphic arts need to be congruent with print media?

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about your production needs or what would be required to accomplish your production ideas successfully. jeff@mediaartsdad.com

» Leave a Reply

» Videos

In pursuit of home network bliss, I have moved on to step 2.

Step 1: Managed network switch – Netgear GS108Tv2 switch will allow setup of multiple VLANs for managing network traffic.

Step 2: Small PC to setup as a firewall / router – Jetway Quad Lan / Fanless Case (don’t forget to add a small SSD harddrive)

Step 3: Install and Setup PFSense as the firewall software / OS

Now here is where the trouble begins: the Google Fiber Network box can’t be put into bridge mode… so it looked like the only answer was to double NAT, not a good solution…. until this came along:

Spent a good part of my weekend improving our online security. One big part of this improvement was to tighten up some of my online accounts. We have all seen the new stories of the massive data breeches, the stolen credit card data, the big hacks & wide scale identity theft. And while we need to be careful, there is not a lot we can do with our data that other people have. But what we can improve is the security of the small things.

So Google fiber is here, you would think that would be enough. But consider our crowdedhouse. Our network not only serves our family (which admittedly is larger than average, ranging between 9 and 11 people depending on the day, your definition of family and my general attitude), but the network also serves our carriage house apartment, 3 guest rooms being used by long and short term guest and whoever is couch-surfing in the basement at the time. Add up all these users and all their devices plus the odd server or six we tend to run, and we have 25-35 devices on the network at any one time. Supporting this network has become quite the job.

Trash everywhere. That is one thing I am noticing about this urban living. Sure, Main street is nice and clean, but that is because people are paid to keep the trash cleaned up. What about the rest of the streets we live on? Who is responsible to cleaning them up?

In general, we have found that the median life cycle of audio equipment is around 10 years. Some pieces will last longer, others will require maintenance or refreshing to continue to perform to specs and some things will need replaced much sooner. Environment, handling and maintenance, and materials and workmanship directly affect longevity of components. Indirectly, the experiences and expectations of people effectively shorten product efficacy.You could call this the “inside, outside, upside down” theory of life cycle of audio systems.

A worship facility is not just another performing arts space. As the spoken Word- the sermon- is at once equal to and yet higher than the “singing of hymns, psalms and spiritual songs” it is therefore neither lecture hall nor concert space, but Worship Facility. Designing the Worship Facility means to design a space that supports speech as well as music.

Church bulletins are calling people to the Lenten season of reflection and preparation for Holy Week and the most important Christian holy day, Resurrection Sunday. This season is a time when the technical staff can get stressed out, because we know if anything goes wrong, everyone will look at us.

During our last move we left behind a spotlight that had been used for a college touring choir since 1976. It was a used donation when they got it, and it was still being used for special productions in a technologically geriatric setting [stored under risers and used once a year] at a large Baptist church. In finance circles, there has long been a mantra that leasing is not good stewardship. People want to own homes, not lease, to build equity. Buying a car, not leasing, is said to be less expensive in the long run. So why would I promote leasing equipment? You do want to purchase the durable workhorse whose technology remains steady- predictable and reliable. Things susceptible to needing upgrades and becoming outdated should be leased. Here are four points to consider when deciding to buy or lease equipment.

If technology used in the church is of poor quality (in the eyes of those attending), it will tend to reflect poorly on the message, evening cheapening the message. If the technology is too glitzy and fancy (again, in the eyes of those attending), it will make the message feel more like a story, entertainment, even fantasy. We want to get the right system into the right church to give the right message while recognizing that the real question being asked is, “But, how can we make the most of available resources?”

How can I mic our choir so we can hear them? We are hearing the orchastra / band through the choir mics and if we turn up the choir any more we get feedback. We currently have six AKG CK47 mics suspended above the choirloft. Do we need new mics?

… I wanted to talk through a couple of the issues and my thoughts on the solution of your choir mic problem. Your setup and arrangement is very similar to what we had at High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin where I was on staff and we battled with some of the same issues.

Goodbye Simple Network
Living in a High Tech world
Pursuit of Home Network Bliss
It is our responsiblity?
How long should our sound system last?
Lecture Hall or Concert Space? Design of the Worship Facility
Ten steps to Holy Week preparation for the Media Director from a Media Director
4 Points to Consider Before Getting New Equipment
What should we spend on Church Technology? Or, Why Does it Cost So Much?
Micing the Choir

Media Arts Dad

» News

Outside the Norm: Special Productions

Questions to think through

audio

projection

lighting

video production

production support

» Leave a Reply

» Stay Updated: Subscribe

» My Twitter Updates

» Videos

» Latest Reviews

» Random Posts

» Blogs I Follow

» Jeff's Sites

» Topics

» Tags

» Archive

» Please Help

» Social Justice