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Full Screen Flash Video On Multiple Monitors

21 Apr

If you run a Windows based projection system with one or two extra monitors/screens, this hack might be useful for you. Whenever you play a Flash video full screen, any keystroke or mouse click on another monitor will cause the full screen view to minimize. This could be irritating if you are trying to play an internet video on one screen and push other media to another screen at the same time. Here’s how to safely hack the Flash player.

  1. Download the replacement DLL (zip container) here.
  2. Open an explorer window and go to C:\windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\
  3. Rename the NPSWF32.dll file to NPSWF32.dll.txt to save as a backup in case the hack doesn’t work
  4. Copy the new NPSWF32.dll from the zip container to the folder.
  5. Restart your browser and viola! It should work beautifully.
  6. If for some reason your Flash player breaks, go back to the directory and delete NPSWF32.dll, then rename NPSWF32.dll.txt back to its original file name.

Pressing escape will minimize the Flash player once it’s been hacked.

(via Lifehacker)

Help Your Media Team Stay Sane and Saved

14 Feb

Today, I worked in the media booth of our local church. This was the first time in several years that I have been the guy sending Scriptures and media to the projection screen. I have been in a managerial role for many years in church media and have not worked in some of these integral roles on a weekly basis. I was reminded that being involved in the routine church media tasks is not only somewhat stressful (everyone will see your mistakes on large screens), but also taxing on a worker’s spiritual connection with the worship and the Word of God.

For those who get to experience inspiring and anointed preaching with no task other than being a hearer, it’s easy to be moved to a faith response to God. However, media team members are actively engaged throughout the services, and typically a wall or glass barrier is between them and the ministry going on from the stage. The response dynamic is sharply different between a media team worker and a member sitting in the audience. Media workers are usually not as engaged in the services as a normal attendee. This presents a problem.

We all need nourishment from the Word of God no matter where we are positioned in the church. It’s imperative that each person in the media team make a conscious decision to be engaged in the worship and the preaching, and not be consumed completely by the tasks they are assigned.  A continual disengagement from the preaching of the Word can mean spiritual malnutrition. If your media team is small, the negative effects of this can be even greater. I have seen strong followers of Christ brought to a place of spiritual stagnation serving in routine duties the church. Duties can easily become priority over relationship with Christ. Excellence is important, but not at the expense of the growth and maturity of the media team members.

The longer team members are disengaged from what’s happening in the service, the more exposure they have to bitterness and resentment toward the ministry of the Word. Their service is not producing growth or fulfillment and frustration ensues. We understand fulfillment comes through our interaction and relationship to Christ. It is vitally important that team leaders to not only care about the tasks needing to be accomplished, but also the spiritual atmosphere of the media room as well. Here are a few tips I’ve come up with to help guide leaders.

  • Make sure your schedule accommodates team members to attend multiple services on a monthly basis. If your media team is not large enough to do so, start a training program to gain new team members. If your church is small and there isn’t anyone to volunteer, taper your media ministry down so it doesn’t burn out your team members.
  • Build a relationship with each of your team members and communicate with them about their spiritual growth.
  • Set the atmosphere in the media room. Pray before services as a team. Set a monthly prayer meeting with the team on a weeknight to pray for the ministry and those who need to come to Christ.
  • Create guidelines in the media room that foster order and reverence for worship and the ministry of the Word. This should include some/all of the following:
    • No eating/drinking during services
    • Only essential staff in the room during services
    • No surfing Internet sites during down times
    • No personal conversations during services, this includes texting/mobile chatting
  • Work with the pastor and worship leader to plan services so that your media team can respond to the Word through prayer and worship outside of the booth. This might mean a stationary image on the screens during this time, or no video recording during altar service.
  • All team members should have a salvation experience.
  • If you identify a spiritual need or malnourishment in a team member, allow them to take a break and sit in the congregation during services. This means you also need to build a strong team that can fill in during these times.
  • Make it a habit to frequently pray for your team members

These are just a few tips to help your team keep a balance of service to the church and their personal relationship to Christ. Above all, we are striving to get to Heaven, and the last thing we want to be a stumbling block to the spiritual growth of our team is our media program. Take stock today and take action to ensure you have a not only a skilled team but a spiritually strong team.

Free Projection Software

4 Feb

I’ve written about projection software in the past, but I wanted to refresh your memory on a free software called OpenLP.  It is a fully functional projection software package that gets you up-and-running in minutes.  Certainly, you cannot compare apples-to-apples with Media Shout or other expensive software, but if you need base functionality without a lot of frills, save your money and install OpenLP. I have to admit, I was skeptical at first, but after using the program for only a few minutes, I was very impressed.  The interfaces is intuitive and easy to understand. I tried to break it with no luck.

Some of the features you’ll find in openlp.org 1.2 (from their website):

  • Add and edit songs.
  • Preview songs, Bible verses and images.
  • Comes with two translations of the Bible – KJV & ASV.
  • Import a Powerpoint presentation (PowerPoint XP/2002 and up required).
  • Present your presentation from within openlp.org.
  • Show videos.
  • Show images.
  • Slide themes, with gradient, image and colour backgrounds, fonts & font effects.
  • Import and export of themes.
  • Saving and opening of Orders of Service.
  • Announcement pop-ups.
  • Custom slides.
  • Multiple Bible verses per slide.
  • Themes set either globally, per Order of Service or per song.
  • Import Bibles from CSV files.
  • Search through all words in every song in database for a certain word or phrase.
  • Search through all words in a book of the Bible for a certain word or phrase.
  • CCLI/SongSelect integration.
  • Link audio tracks to songs, e.g. for use as backing tracks.
  • Translations for Afrikaans, Deutsch, English, Portugues-BR and Español.

Features planned for OpenLP 2.0 and later:

  • Cross-platform support for Mac OS X and Linux, in addition to Windows.
  • OpenOffice.org Impress and PowerPoint Viewer integration.
  • On demand Bible verse downloads from online Bible sites.
  • Song use auditing.
  • Remote operation.
  • Text over video.

If you don’t have a huge budget for your screen ministry, I would highly recommend OpenLP.org. What can you lose by downloading it and taking it for a spin?

Go to OpenLP.org

Awesome Free Screen Graphics

19 Nov

Awesome Free Screen Graphics

CreativeMYK.com is a treasure trove for people in media ministry.  This is a community sharing site where Christian artists freely share their work for others to use.  If you are an artist, this is a great place to get critiques and comments on your current work.  Hop on over to their site and check out all the goodies.

Go to CreativeMYK.com

Convert Powerpoints to Flash

1 Jul

ispring.jpgHave you ever wanted to post a Powerpoint presentation on the web?  Now you can for free with iSpring!  It’s a great little application that allows you to convert what was once a proprietary file to be used only in presentation software into a web friendly Flash file that can be embedded on a website.  This nifty tool can get some of your polished slideshows on your church websites for the world to see.  I love free stuff.

What is your favorite projection software?

8 May

building0010.jpgI need your help! I have had several requests from people asking about projection software. I am not the expert in that area. I have installed projection systems, but I rarely find myself behind the screen of the projection software. I have not taken the time to find out the quarks of all the softwares out there, but you have. Currently my church uses Song Show Plus. Other popular softwares are Easy Worship and Media Shout. We want to hear your opinion! Please post a comment and let us know what software your church uses and what you think of it.