iPad 2 easy to use for media?

[dovprst]

(Not sure if this in correct forum?)

We are looking into the possibility of using the iPad 2 for our small church. We are finding it difficult to find people to run our PC with Easy Worship (easy for me, but for whatever reason not for others). I've been using an iPod Touch 4th generation for a while now. It just seems so much simpler to teach our people (touch screen and way it works seem perfect for Deaf people, especially all of the non-techies in our church.). I, who am is pretty good with tech, will build the presentation just as we always have. We don't need people who are tech savvy to run the presentation. I'm kind of wondering if trying the iPad for presentations might draw some of our non-techies to help more. The wow factor will wear off, I know, but by then hey might be hooked. This is all I'm thinking, but I don't want to waste the money if what I'm thinking is off. I wonder if anyone does use it for presentating/preaching here who can set me straight. We're a really small church so we don't do super fancy stuff like some of the big guys here. However, your experience with the iPad would help me in figuring out what to do. We already have Easy Worship on a laptop which needs replacing. Which iPad or new laptop?

[petereit]

A couple of thoughts immediately jump out at me:

First, you might want to look at Keynote on the iPad. Awesome for presentations, both in creating them and presenting them, but I'm not sure the slide navigation is robust enough to use for worship, unless you stick strictly to a predetermined "road map" for verses and chorus and you can lock in a slide sequence that will not vary (i.e., your worship leader spontaneously decides to repeat verse 1 with no advance warning.) I'm not sure how easy it would be for your projectionist to jump back to the appropriate slide in Keynote.

My second thought is probably overkill for a small church but I'll throw it out there anyway since you mention that you're looking at replacing Easy Worship. ProPresenter would perfectly fit your iPad-navigation scenario, since they also have an iPad app that allows you to remote-control ProPresenter on your presentation machine. There is absolutely nothing cooler than sitting IN your congregation during praise and worship and remote-controlling the slides. BUT (and this may be a big BUT) it only works with ProPresenter running on a Mac. Renewed Vision says they're looking at adding the feature to the Windows version of ProPresenter, but I haven't seen a committed implementation schedule. I'm not sure Renewed Vision even knows if it will be possible to add that feature to their Windows version.

[cmchamp]

From those who've used Keynote on the iPad, it's not as feature rich as the computer based platform. If the iPad was all you got, without a Mac, you might find it frustrating to be as creative.

[petereit]

But if he's never used Keynote on a Mac before, how would he know something's missing?

[[Admin] osborn4]

SongShow Plus' newest edition has remote control modules for iOS and Android devices. They even have a browser based remote control that works on older Windows Mobile devices.

But, of course, you still need a full windows machine running the presentation itself.

[dovprst]

Thanks. These posts were helpful. I'm already using my iPod to control Power Point in EW on my PC. (MyPoint app). It is awesome. Much better than the wireless muse we used before.

I see that Keynote may, or may not, be easier. I need to get my hands on an iPad and see before purchasing stuff.