Posts tagged How-To

How-To Sound Video 2 Comments

Audinate Dante + Audio Hijack: a Match Made in Heaven

As Craig Groeschel says, innovation is often borne out of limitations, and as many of you know as volunteer audio/video techs for a small church: limitations abound. Hopefully, that has led you to find creative ways to stretch every dollar and squeeze every ounce of capability out of each piece of valuable equipment you have.This blog post is about how we use Audinate Dante ($29.99 per computer, plus a device that can function as a master clock) and Audio Hijack ($59) to allow a single early 2009 Mac Pro to… Read More

How-To Networking

Computer Networking for Churches 101: Routers, Wireless and tons more

Wait! Before you read this… Before you read this post, I’d like to invite you to a free, “church tech live” session I’m hosting specifically on computer networking. In this Zoom session, we’ll be talking about everything in this post and more in a visual, discussion-oriented session–which gives you the chance to ask questions along the way! So, instead of reading this, register for that! (or do both I suppose ☺️) Networks are everywhere, and churches are more and more dependant on reliable networks every weekend. This post covers some… Read More

Ableton How-To Networking Video 6 Comments

Automating ProPresenter with Ableton Live and Network-based MIDI

Two programs that are becoming increasingly ubiquitous at churches these days are Ableton Live and ProPresenter. Here is a quick “how-to” tutorial on using an Ableton Live session to automate ProPresenter slide changes. At my church we use this method for sets with very specific arrangements, or special numbers that have very specific video timings. We still have volunteers that run lyrics for 90% of our sets, but remote control comes in handy on occasion.## Introduction First, here are a few things you’ll need to make this work: MIDI Musical… Read More

How-To Lighting 18 Comments

LED Pixel Tape Stage Design Part 3: Pixel Control and Mapping Software

Okay, at this point you’ve done your research, designed your wall, and priced out some components. You’ve installed your tape, wired in your control and powered it up. Now what?### Pixel Control and Mapping Software As I mentioned briefly in part 2, you’re most likely going to need a program that can map media and effects to your pixel tape controller, likely via Art-Net, sACN or KiNet. I’ll look into some specific programs to compare in a second, but generally these programs allow you to create a stage configuration that… Read More

How-To Lighting

LED Pixel Tape Stage Design Part 2: Installation Steps and How-To

Well, we just finished up our Christmas Eve service here at Harvest Christian Fellowship and I’ve got some free time to finish up this series on our LED pixel tape wall installation. If you missed it, this is based on the research we did in part 1.In the end, we ended up going with the following gear for our install: – 21 5-meter reels of Enttec 8PL30 tape (an extra reel in case we have issues, which we did…) – 8 Meanwell LRS-350-5 (300 Watt, 5V) power supplies to power… Read More

How-To Lighting 2 Comments

LED Pixel Tape Stage Design Part 1: Design, Research, and Pricing

We’re really excited to be pulling the trigger on a 3,700-light LED pixel tape backdrop this Christmas. We’ve been really happy with our stage looks recently, but it’s pretty clear that what we’re lacking is a good backdrop.I thought I’d write a few posts and how-to’s as we make our way through this project, especially since it seems like there isn’t a whole lot of comprehensive material on the subject. So here goes! – Part 1: Design, Research and Pricing – Part 2: Installation – Part 3: Pixel Control and… Read More