Presentation switcher for church

[Kyle Ren]

Happy New Year guys! Noob here. I know there aren't any fancy theatrics at a church, but I'm trying to help out at the one I go to. They want to be able to show various content on the projection screen like music lyrics, graphics, video, etc. I've been told to propose to them a presentation switcher . I've also seen a bunch on Amazon for way cheaper. I mean there's some on there for $30! Anyone familiar with this brand or can they use the cheapy brands and be fine? If a presentation switcher is not the solution, please chime in on what would work. Thanks for the input.

[paulears]

Well for that kind of money you can do sooooo much better. Look at newtek tricasters or blackmagicdesign as they have a great range of products that you see used at events, theatre, conferences and education. Simple through to complex, loads of facilities, and either computer or proper panel control. There are some specific real and online magazines about church production, and these are essential reading because of the unique way churches work. Very expensive clever kit, and volunteers to work it!

[revbobuk]

There are more than a few of us on here with experience in setting up the gear you describe. And we'd be happy to help - but we need more information. So - size of church (to give some sort of idea of the scale of solution). What kind of projector/screens will this be working with - single 1200 lumen projector firing onto a screen, or triple wide with multiple screens? What kind of team is working this - or is it just a rota of nervous old ladies? What sources - specifically, do you want to make use of live cameras and put text/graphics over realtime video - that's where having the right kit helps so much. Some of the Roland kit works well in church settings too - a multi-format video mixer can be conceptually easy for folk to understand. More information! And a budget - there's no point attempting some of these things if the budget only stretches to £30 stuff from eBay.

[Joe Fernand]

Note it is $30 (OP is in San Jose) and agreed that is potentially nowhere near the required budget.

 

Plenty of Church now employ pretty sophisticated AV presentations - as others have asked an overview of what you want to achieve and what kit you already have is a good starting point.

 

Your 'employer' is likely to have a pretty sophisticated AV Dept - I would go talk with them, they may even have some old kit you could 're-cycle'.

 

Joe

[paulears]

Church Production Magazine

 

Have a look at this magazine - specifically for Church folk.

[richardash1981]

To provide some more basic information:

Source switchers come in two basic flavours:

• Seamless switchers, like the one you linked to. These are expensive. When they switch, the projector doesn't know you have switched, because the picture doesn't miss a beat. This takes some complicated processing.
• Source selectors, like the $30 Amazon ones. These are cheaper, because all they do is swap the input cable over, without any processing. Just like when you swap the physical cable to the projector, it will have to re-sync, so you get several seconds of black screen (assuming you have turned the blue screen off!)

Be careful to know what you are getting, because there are some older not-so-cheap switchers around which are not seamless, despite having all sorts of other features!

 

What several people have suggested here is a vision mixer, which takes the Seamless switcher one step further, by allowing you to combine more than one picture at once (as with multiple cameras on live TV). This may not cost more than a seamless switcher in the digital age as the hardware needed is much the same. The main thing these add is keying, which is the process you need if you want words (from one source) over an independent picture (from another).

 

I would highlight what revbobuk says about who will work the kit - if the only person who will touch it is you, then you are making trouble down the line.

 

And beware of getting hung up on technology - I found that with some effort teaching people how to convert their video clips to a format PowerPoint would play, we got rid of the need for a switcher by pushing everything (including DVD clips) into a single PowerPoint slideshow which runs the whole service. It means more planning ahead (because everything is fixed when you start the slideshow) but it is much easier to get other members of the congregation to make and operate PowerPoint slides! On the other hand, this can't do live video, so may not suit you at all.

[royzinrotherham]

I have recently sold my video switcher that was made by citronic in the 80s it had 6 inputs and 6 outputs it was a simple device simply switching the "yellow video outputs " we used scart convertors , but it would be no good with hdmi depends how your price point is

[paulears]

Bl;ackmagic Design and Newtek Tricaster always seem to appear in Church installs nowadays - keenly priced for what they can do.

[Stuart91]

BlackMagic are great bang for the buck, but most of the affordable models are fussy about what input resolutions you feed them. That's usually not much of an impediment in a professional situation, but can be tricky in churches where novice volunteers do much of the operation. Trying to explain over the phone to a panicked pensioner that they need to change from 1080i to 1080p will be a bit of a challenge.