Another 'First'

Yesterday was another 'first' for me in my new foray as an audio-visual technician at our church. I have run the mixing board (32 channel Midas board) but had never run the visual side. Until this week. I arrived early to help set up the microphones and found that the audio tech was already there working on it. I spent a few minutes identifying which microphones were connected to which channel.

The pastor arrived a few minutes later by which time I had already powered up the church's computer for running the PowerPoint slides for the music. He downloaded the slide set (65 slides) to the computer and asked if I could run the slides for the rehearsal as the tech assigned for yesterday is on that rarely shows up and even less often fulfills his duties for the day. I agreed readily while indicating that this was my first occasion to do so. The pastor gave me a 3 - 5 minute outline of how the set is put together and the manner in which he wanted them advanced. Oh, by the way, there is a baby dedication and there are a few slides for that as well.

We made it through the practice alright with just a few miscues as I figured out the transitions between the songs and how to start the slide show in the middle of the slide set. I know - pretty basic stuff. I was preparing to go down to lead the song service for Sabbath School when the pastor, the pastor's son, and a gentleman I had never met (Carl) who was to be our speaker for the church hour showed up to set things up for he part of the presentation. On their heels came the Sabbath School superintendent withh a DVD containing the Mission Spotlight for me to play during Sabbath School. I told her I couldn't be two places at one - leading song service and immediately afterwards running the Mission Spotlight from the balconey at the other end of the building. I arranged for the pastor's son to run it while assisting Carl with his set up.

After leading the Sabbath School discussion for my class, I made my way belatedly to the balcony after a visit to the WC. The pastor's son met me on the way and inquired if I was running the slides. I indicated that I would if needed. He told me that his dad had said that where I had rehearsed the songs with them, I should do it for the service. That made sense to me. Up we went for me to learn what else lay in store for the service.

Carl indicated that he had:
1. A DVD clip (Ghosts of Rwanda/PBS) at the beginning of the service,

2. Corel Presentations Scripture slides (end of service).

Just a couple things:

A. The laptop (Toshiba Tecra, Pentium II/Win 95) has no battery - if the power cord comes out, the computer will power down (where upon followed the sequence to prevent the diagnostic boot up and procedure for loading Corel Presentations),

B. I would have to switch the monitor from the church desktop to the laptop - quickly, after "muting" the projector to prevent this manuver from distracting the worshippers - and while avoiding the power cord.

The set up to permit this involved me sitting through the service with the laptop sitting astraddle the top of the desktop which was turned sideways between my legs to permit rapid access to the back. With the laptop turned 90 degrees to permit access simultaneously to its back and keyboard, with it's screen raised about 1/3 of the way I would be able to operate the "PG UP" &"PG DN" buttons on the near side of the keyboard. I was completely unable to see the laptop screen but could monitor the flatpanel screen that sent the image to the projector.

With a prayer for God's blessing on the service it went amazingly well with only one small miscue when I misjudged the length of the "Intro" on one song requiring a quick retreat to the previous slide as each slide has transitions built into it with graphics that fade in and out to match the lyrics of the song.

The Scripture slides at the end were to be "loose" - he would stop sometimes and talk and sometimes would just read through the passage and go directly on to the next slide. It was a bit anxious until I learned to read his body language which told me when he was going to stop without waiting for him to say anything. He cued me the first couple slides: "Reading on..." but after he did not need to say anything and we moved together through the slide set without comment.

All in all I enjoyed it MUCH better than being on the audio board and would prefer to work the visual aids side. The pastor liked it because the slides were advanced properly. The previous week, Easter Program, he told the technician how to advance them and was ignored. Four time the slides were not advanced in a timely fashion causing a momentary pause in the congregational singing each time. I may have found a niche.

My ignorance of some of the details for the audio side showed through: neither I nor this week's audio tech could figure out how to make the 3 new wireless mikes work. We didn't know that they each had a separate radio station that needed to have a powerswitch turned on. Duh. Though this was not obvious as there is a single switch that I had been "told" controlled ALL the AV equipment. Not, as it turns out. We both now know that. There needs to be a "basic operations instruction sheet" typed up. Someday when I have nothing to do, maybe! Until then we are all working "seat of the pants" and using the expertise of the pastor's son and a member who has worked around sound boards and amplifiers for decades with his electric guitars (Fender basses).