Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Almost There
I've been working diligently on trying to finish a huge DVD project. Last spring, I went to Israel with a group from Crossroads. I shot 25 hours of tape. Dr. Charlie Dyer of the Moody Bible Institue was our guide and he allowed me to mic him as he taught. This has been a labor of love. However, it has also been a bigger project than even I had expected. Steve Ritchey, one of my tech volunteers was also along on the trip and he shot about 25 hours of footage as well. I've been combining my footage with his as well as pictures shot by Steve and by Julie Fike. I'm down to the final editing process and the DVDs will be ready this week. Here is a sample of what I've done...
Holy Land Tour 2009 from Steve Browning on Vimeo.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
What I Do
My normal work schedule is...oh wait. I don't have a normal work schedule. My "planned" work schedule is to work Wednesday through Sunday. I am here Thursday all day until around 10pm as a long day to make up for shorter days on Saturday and Sunday.
However, I actually work whenever I'm needed. For the last few months that has meant 7 days a week, sometimes up to 14 hours a day. I've been working on getting footage from my Israel trip onto a DVD on Mondays and Tuesdays. More on that next time.
Yesterday (Friday), I arrived at 9am for my normal day. I stayed until almost 11pm. After my workday was done, Milo and 6 other volunteers came in for a special project. We took down our lighting cyc and put carpet padding up behind it to help with sound on our stage. We had to move everything to the front of the stage, set up scaffolding and take down the cyc. Then we put up some 2x6 and 2x4, stapled the carpet padding to it. We took some test recording prior to and after the padding went up. What a difference! I'm looking forward to seeing how it helps for the weekend services. After it went up, we replaced the cyc, cleaned the stage (twice) and replaced all the equipment for the weekend services.
Today, (Saturday) I was back at the church for a marriage seminar. The seminar is being broadcast live via satellite to our auditorium. I arrived, fired up lights, sound, video and the HVAC. An hour later, its only 64 degrees in the auditorium. Several texts and phone calls later, I've got an HVAC guy on the roof while the seminar is in progress. The heat started working...sort of. I still have 1 RTU that is shut down and won't be working until the first of the week, but the other 2 are keeping it comfortable. We're replacing the controls so very soon many of the problems we've been having will be fixed and I will gain about an hour a day of actual work time, instead of trying to fix the HVAC.
The sound is giving us a few problems too. I got online for a forum that is available during these broadcasts (www.ccn.tv) and made a couple of phone calls. The sound got better but never really cleared up. I guess I'll be making some calls this week. After the seminar is over, I'll have about 20 minutes before my tech team shows up for service.
Its difficult to explain everything that my job involves. As the only tech guy on staff, my duties are many and varied. I still get people asking me what all I do at the church. I tell them, "Read my blog. In a few months, you'll know."
However, I actually work whenever I'm needed. For the last few months that has meant 7 days a week, sometimes up to 14 hours a day. I've been working on getting footage from my Israel trip onto a DVD on Mondays and Tuesdays. More on that next time.
Yesterday (Friday), I arrived at 9am for my normal day. I stayed until almost 11pm. After my workday was done, Milo and 6 other volunteers came in for a special project. We took down our lighting cyc and put carpet padding up behind it to help with sound on our stage. We had to move everything to the front of the stage, set up scaffolding and take down the cyc. Then we put up some 2x6 and 2x4, stapled the carpet padding to it. We took some test recording prior to and after the padding went up. What a difference! I'm looking forward to seeing how it helps for the weekend services. After it went up, we replaced the cyc, cleaned the stage (twice) and replaced all the equipment for the weekend services.
Today, (Saturday) I was back at the church for a marriage seminar. The seminar is being broadcast live via satellite to our auditorium. I arrived, fired up lights, sound, video and the HVAC. An hour later, its only 64 degrees in the auditorium. Several texts and phone calls later, I've got an HVAC guy on the roof while the seminar is in progress. The heat started working...sort of. I still have 1 RTU that is shut down and won't be working until the first of the week, but the other 2 are keeping it comfortable. We're replacing the controls so very soon many of the problems we've been having will be fixed and I will gain about an hour a day of actual work time, instead of trying to fix the HVAC.
The sound is giving us a few problems too. I got online for a forum that is available during these broadcasts (www.ccn.tv) and made a couple of phone calls. The sound got better but never really cleared up. I guess I'll be making some calls this week. After the seminar is over, I'll have about 20 minutes before my tech team shows up for service.
Its difficult to explain everything that my job involves. As the only tech guy on staff, my duties are many and varied. I still get people asking me what all I do at the church. I tell them, "Read my blog. In a few months, you'll know."
Monday, October 12, 2009
A Different Kind of Fun
Last Tuesday, I had the privilege of being a part of the SHE Event. Rebecca St. James performed a concert with a message for the ladies of the Mansfield area. I was in charge of all the tech areas, of course, and had a great time working with some different people.
First, several of the guys from our college age small group volunteered to help out as roadies. When I mentioned that I was working different people, this is what I meant. They are definitely "different!" They are a fantastic group of guys with a heart for the Lord and an attitude of youth! First, they helped clear the stage, vacuum, move the drums and set up for the concert. While they were doing all this, there was a feeling of fun in the air. Sometimes, I feel like I get caught up in the "work" of what I do. It is refreshing to see someone else join in and remind me of how fun this job can be. To see them setting up equipment one minute and then "surfing" on furniture movers the next kept a smile on my face. They even had a chance to take the roadie and a few musicians from Rebecca's group out for a little R & R during the afternoon.
I overheard someone from the tour mention how great it was to see real fellowship here at Crossroads. It seems that some churches are so traditional that they keep the different age groups almost segregated. I give a lot of credit to Lori Biddle for her efforts to bring all the creative groups together! She has a heart for bringing real fellowship out into the open. She has brought the entire spectrum of ages together with the Artists Small Group. She has also started up a drama small group and the college age small group. She also has our worship leaders working with the youth who are blossoming as true worshipers of Christ. Now she tells me she wants to work with the kids in the junior high age group. If anyone is a true leader in fellowship, it is Lori!
But I digress. I also had an opportunity to work with the sound and lighting persons for the tour. Matt Grunden ran sound and worked more extensively with one of our sound guys, Jon Linton. I spent most of the afternoon with Luke Smallbone working on the lighting. I've not had an opportunity to work with a concert lighting designer prior to this visit. It was definitely a different kind of fun. Luke wanted to run the board manually. For our services, I usually program every cues and the lighting operator just hits the go button with an occasional manual slider being used. I've been contemplating going manual for some services so this was a great opportunity to see how someone else might run it. I learned a bit more about how to do some things on the board. During the concert, Luke had to leave and head to the stage. He also happens to be Rebecca's brother. He and another Brother, Joel, are also musicians. The ladies in the audience had a great time hearing them perform also.
When Rebecca came to the stage, the audience was 99.9% female. Rebecca started out with a fast song, then slowed it down to lead the audience into worship, with some teachings in between. Her mentor, Evie Tornquist was a big hit with the audience. If they come back around, and you are female, I'd recommend getting tickets.
I'm really looking forward to more events like this one. Stay tuned for details!
First, several of the guys from our college age small group volunteered to help out as roadies. When I mentioned that I was working different people, this is what I meant. They are definitely "different!" They are a fantastic group of guys with a heart for the Lord and an attitude of youth! First, they helped clear the stage, vacuum, move the drums and set up for the concert. While they were doing all this, there was a feeling of fun in the air. Sometimes, I feel like I get caught up in the "work" of what I do. It is refreshing to see someone else join in and remind me of how fun this job can be. To see them setting up equipment one minute and then "surfing" on furniture movers the next kept a smile on my face. They even had a chance to take the roadie and a few musicians from Rebecca's group out for a little R & R during the afternoon.
I overheard someone from the tour mention how great it was to see real fellowship here at Crossroads. It seems that some churches are so traditional that they keep the different age groups almost segregated. I give a lot of credit to Lori Biddle for her efforts to bring all the creative groups together! She has a heart for bringing real fellowship out into the open. She has brought the entire spectrum of ages together with the Artists Small Group. She has also started up a drama small group and the college age small group. She also has our worship leaders working with the youth who are blossoming as true worshipers of Christ. Now she tells me she wants to work with the kids in the junior high age group. If anyone is a true leader in fellowship, it is Lori!
But I digress. I also had an opportunity to work with the sound and lighting persons for the tour. Matt Grunden ran sound and worked more extensively with one of our sound guys, Jon Linton. I spent most of the afternoon with Luke Smallbone working on the lighting. I've not had an opportunity to work with a concert lighting designer prior to this visit. It was definitely a different kind of fun. Luke wanted to run the board manually. For our services, I usually program every cues and the lighting operator just hits the go button with an occasional manual slider being used. I've been contemplating going manual for some services so this was a great opportunity to see how someone else might run it. I learned a bit more about how to do some things on the board. During the concert, Luke had to leave and head to the stage. He also happens to be Rebecca's brother. He and another Brother, Joel, are also musicians. The ladies in the audience had a great time hearing them perform also.
When Rebecca came to the stage, the audience was 99.9% female. Rebecca started out with a fast song, then slowed it down to lead the audience into worship, with some teachings in between. Her mentor, Evie Tornquist was a big hit with the audience. If they come back around, and you are female, I'd recommend getting tickets.
I'm really looking forward to more events like this one. Stay tuned for details!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
What I Do
We had a guest speaker this weekend...Dr. Knute Larson, former senior pastor from The Chapel in Akron. It was a fantastic experience meeting and working with Dr. Larson.
I had a break from creating the weekly slides for the message. Knute [he told me to call him Knute :)] used a PowerPoint presentation that he controlled from the stage. I didn't have to create the presentation, but I did have to set up a laptop, run a scan converter to one of our camera locations, set up a pulpit with a video monitor on it and make sure it would work only on the center of our 3 screens. A bit of work but still less time than creating 15 - 30 slides!
Here's a quick run down of my week:
Monday - I took the day off. First day I haven't actually set foot in the church in several months.
Tuesday - Spent a couple of hours editing footage from my Israel trip last March. I'm trying to finish up this project by next week. I have to edit about 30 hours of footage down to about 4 hours of finished product. More to come on this one! I also worked for awhile on some elements with our website, finished up materials for Advanced Technical Team Training class and worked on stage layouts and plans for upcoming Rebecca St. James concert. Met up with my video directors and headed north to see a Cleveland Indians game from the studio. About 20 minutes later, I get a call from Pat Murray the director for the television broadcasts of the Indians. The game is going to be postponed due to weather. So we got off the next exit and went out do dinner.
Wednesday - Spent an hour on Israel, finished lyrics and cues for the weekend service, researched repair options for 2 cameras, created new walkin slides for weekend service, then canceled Advanced Technical Team Training class and went home not feeling well.
Thursday - Feeling much better. Worked with lighting person on cues for the weekend, put finishing touches on walkin slides, created a new countdown, updated all cue sheets, music files, etc. for programming meeting (we meet on Thursdays from 1:30 - 3:00 to go over details for upcoming services), cleaned filters and installed new lamp in town square projector, moved light with gobo in town square, moved overhead camera in auditorium, ran new VGA cable from light booth to control room. I spent 2 hours on the VGA cable and didn't get it working right. Finally, at the end of my day, I checked lights during the band rehearsal.
Friday - Finished exporting video files needed for the weekend, set up computer and scan converter in auditorium for Knute, checked lines. They don't work. Check lines in control room. All inputs appear correct. Dan the IT guy is here. I better see if he can help me with the VGA cable problem. He has me check everything I already did. But, just having him to bounce ideas off makes me realize I've been trying to hook it up wrong all along. 20 minutes and the correct input connections fixes the problem. 3 hours to do 20 minutes of work! Updated scheduling issues. More time spent on the camera repair issues. I'm not going to be able to fix them myself. I don't want to spend any money on repairing them since they're so old. I need the rest of you to tithe more so I can order new cameras. Copied cues onto the final MediaShout cue sheet. Back to the auditorium to finish what I started there. Put camera back up. Re-adjust overhead camera and white balance. Spent another hour on the laptop and scan converter. The scan converter was bad. Replaced it and I'm back in business.
All of the above is just to give you an idea of the many, varied things I do each week. I had a dozen small things I did in between all of these that I didn't list but keep me busy all day long. Then, along comes the weekend. Worship services. Then start over again.
I had a break from creating the weekly slides for the message. Knute [he told me to call him Knute :)] used a PowerPoint presentation that he controlled from the stage. I didn't have to create the presentation, but I did have to set up a laptop, run a scan converter to one of our camera locations, set up a pulpit with a video monitor on it and make sure it would work only on the center of our 3 screens. A bit of work but still less time than creating 15 - 30 slides!
Here's a quick run down of my week:
Monday - I took the day off. First day I haven't actually set foot in the church in several months.
Tuesday - Spent a couple of hours editing footage from my Israel trip last March. I'm trying to finish up this project by next week. I have to edit about 30 hours of footage down to about 4 hours of finished product. More to come on this one! I also worked for awhile on some elements with our website, finished up materials for Advanced Technical Team Training class and worked on stage layouts and plans for upcoming Rebecca St. James concert. Met up with my video directors and headed north to see a Cleveland Indians game from the studio. About 20 minutes later, I get a call from Pat Murray the director for the television broadcasts of the Indians. The game is going to be postponed due to weather. So we got off the next exit and went out do dinner.
Wednesday - Spent an hour on Israel, finished lyrics and cues for the weekend service, researched repair options for 2 cameras, created new walkin slides for weekend service, then canceled Advanced Technical Team Training class and went home not feeling well.
Thursday - Feeling much better. Worked with lighting person on cues for the weekend, put finishing touches on walkin slides, created a new countdown, updated all cue sheets, music files, etc. for programming meeting (we meet on Thursdays from 1:30 - 3:00 to go over details for upcoming services), cleaned filters and installed new lamp in town square projector, moved light with gobo in town square, moved overhead camera in auditorium, ran new VGA cable from light booth to control room. I spent 2 hours on the VGA cable and didn't get it working right. Finally, at the end of my day, I checked lights during the band rehearsal.
Friday - Finished exporting video files needed for the weekend, set up computer and scan converter in auditorium for Knute, checked lines. They don't work. Check lines in control room. All inputs appear correct. Dan the IT guy is here. I better see if he can help me with the VGA cable problem. He has me check everything I already did. But, just having him to bounce ideas off makes me realize I've been trying to hook it up wrong all along. 20 minutes and the correct input connections fixes the problem. 3 hours to do 20 minutes of work! Updated scheduling issues. More time spent on the camera repair issues. I'm not going to be able to fix them myself. I don't want to spend any money on repairing them since they're so old. I need the rest of you to tithe more so I can order new cameras. Copied cues onto the final MediaShout cue sheet. Back to the auditorium to finish what I started there. Put camera back up. Re-adjust overhead camera and white balance. Spent another hour on the laptop and scan converter. The scan converter was bad. Replaced it and I'm back in business.
All of the above is just to give you an idea of the many, varied things I do each week. I had a dozen small things I did in between all of these that I didn't list but keep me busy all day long. Then, along comes the weekend. Worship services. Then start over again.
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