Worship Software, options now?

[wogster]

We currently use PowerPoint, but it's big, ugly, and you can't change a PowerPoint on the fly, such as when the order of the service gets changed during the service (I hate when that happens, they even changed hymns on me a couple of times)....

I see a few threads comparing the options for software, but some of them are from 4-5 years ago. I am sure that there have been changes in that amount of time.

Any program needs to have the following "features", low cost (free is best), the deacons are not going to spend a ton of money to fix something that mostly works.

It must be easy for the operator to use.

The operator must be able to make changes on the fly, the operator is also running the sound board, so it's the ultimate in multi-tasking.

I must be able to integrate PowerPoint with it, so I can put in an announcement loop and merge in the Pastor's Sermon slides.

I must be able to create it on one computer, then dump it onto another, I write the stuff on my computer at home, then sneaker-net it to the church computer.

[[Admin] osborn4]

The main ones remain (in alphabetical order) EasyWorship, MediaShout, ProPresenter and SongShow Plus.

I am only familiar with SongShow Plus, but I know it will do all of what you want. With SongShow Plus, you can install as many "workstation licenses" as you want to create programs and use "package to go" to sneakernet it to your projection machine.

ProPresenter seems to be on the rise and continuing to go higher and runs on both Mac and Windows platforms.

EasyWorship and MediaShout also have thier proponents.

I'll let someone else chime in on the free options. I haven't worked with them at all.

Each of the commercial offerings have trial versions available. I'd download them and take a look to see what is the best fit for your church.

[Esoteric]

ProPresenter will do what you require.

Mike

[dmot]

Since "low cost" was the first feature you listed, try openlp.org. I had a presentation HD crash and I was in a hurry so I just dumped a free OS and openlp on it, figuring I would get back to it at a later date and put our big name software back on it. It has been 2 months now and I haven't been irked enough to change it back yet. For free it isn't too bad and the only times I have run into problems is when I have really tried to push it with weird video codexes and the like.

[waynehoskins]

Of the big four, I've used (old) Easyworship, SSP7, and Pro4. All of them are in the same price class, about $400 US, which isn't all that bad. They all have a reasonably extensive set of features.

I've used some of the free solutions as well, and most of them are actually pretty good at what they do, though they tend to have fewer features than the commercial software.

I also think that ProPresenter is probably your best choice, but you should check out all the candidates. I believe they all have a free trial version, and of course the free ones are free. Forget about money initially, and determine (solely on merit) which ones do the job best, both what it needs to do now and what you might ask of it in the future.

Licensing might be a determining factor. It's one thing I don't like about SSP7 (the license is tied to a particular computer) compared to Pro4 (the license can be used on any computer, but only one at a time). Availability and scope of site licenses might be a factor.

I think at the moment, most people generally prefer ProPresenter. Version 5 is either recently or soon-to-be released, and it builds on the features of Version 4 which are already very good. They have a very good set of video tutorials, the best video tutorials I've seen for anything. It's very featured and also easy-to-use.

For what it's worth, our migration path was:
2005 - EasyWorship
2006 - OpenSong
2007 - Lyricue
2009 - SongShow Plus
2011 - ProPresenter

[wogster]

Originally Posted by waynehoskins

Of the big four, I've used (old) Easyworship, SSP7, and Pro4. All of them are in the same price class, about $400 US, which isn't all that bad. They all have a reasonably extensive set of features.

I've used some of the free solutions as well, and most of them are actually pretty good at what they do, though they tend to have fewer features than the commercial software.

I also think that ProPresenter is probably your best choice, but you should check out all the candidates. I believe they all have a free trial version, and of course the free ones are free. Forget about money initially, and determine (solely on merit) which ones do the job best, both what it needs to do now and what you might ask of it in the future.

Licensing might be a determining factor. It's one thing I don't like about SSP7 (the license is tied to a particular computer) compared to Pro4 (the license can be used on any computer, but only one at a time). Availability and scope of site licenses might be a factor.

I think at the moment, most people generally prefer ProPresenter. Version 5 is either recently or soon-to-be released, and it builds on the features of Version 4 which are already very good. They have a very good set of video tutorials, the best video tutorials I've seen for anything. It's very featured and also easy-to-use.

For what it's worth, our migration path was:
2005 - EasyWorship
2006 - OpenSong
2007 - Lyricue
2009 - SongShow Plus
2011 - ProPresenter

$400US, depending on the exchange rate, which I have not seen this morning, is about $400 more then the budget I have at the moment. Personally if I had $400 worth of budget it would go into something more pressing, like our elderly sound system, where at least one speaker has dead and another is dying... We have PowerPoint, which they bought at some point, it does the job, most of the time, just once it starts up, you can't change it. It's also complex, and I end up generating too many slides by hand....

[waynehoskins]

Originally Posted by wogster

$400US, depending on the exchange rate, which I have not seen this morning, is about $400 more then the budget I have at the moment. Personally if I had $400 worth of budget it would go into something more pressing, like our elderly sound system, where at least one speaker has dead and another is dying... We have PowerPoint, which they bought at some point, it does the job, most of the time, just once it starts up, you can't change it. It's also complex, and I end up generating too many slides by hand....

$400US probably won't make a big dent in fixing your sound system. It could replace a couple of drivers, but not much more extensive than that. Which isn't to say you shouldn't fix your sound system but buy ProPresenter instead -- rather, it's to say that you probably can't do the opposite.

I was watching a program from a university in the UK on physics recently, and one of the physicists commented that a particular piece of test equipment used for some experiment, I forget what in particular, was "very inexpensive" at 4 or 5 thousand pounds. I thought that was interesting; that's not an amount I would normally consider inexpensive for a single piece of equipment, but I'm not well-versed on how much things like that should usually cost.

Similarly, most non-technical people don't have a good reference for how much tech stuff costs. The other week I started doodling a "wish list" of relatively small audio things: a few mics, DIs, stands, wireless mics, wireless IEMs, and when I added it all up it came to about $8K, which was far more than I was expecting.

[[Admin] osborn4]

Here is a list of free worship software (although somewhat dated). Seems like I've heard good things about EasySlides and OpenLP, sometimes used in conjunction with ScreenMonkey.

I think those are worth checking out, given the limitations you're experiencing with Powerpoint.

The other thing to look at is the presenter's view in Powerpoint, depending on what version of Powerpoint you have.

[jswaney]

"Licensing might be a determining factor. It's one thing I don't like about SSP7 (the license is tied to a particular computer) compared to Pro4 (the license can be used on any computer, but only one at a time). Availability and scope of site licenses might be a factor."

FYi SSP gives you one projection license and you can switch computers at any time in case of a computer crash or system switch. Just reinstall and the company issues a new unlock code. Also, you receive unlimited workstations at home or the church to build your program and work as a team. Just email you segment or transfer in on a flash drive and merge. You receive unlimited remote in phone support far any system that has SSP installed. At home or the church.

With SSP you can purcahse unlimited projection licenses for $399.00 SSP and Propresenter have the same licensing model although I am not sure if Propresenter allows you to have unlimited workstaton at home or the church.

SSP just released the "November 2011 edition". Every quarter several pages of new features are released. Make sure you download all the programs to see what works best for you.

[superfly]

We've been using OpenLP at our church for 2 years now, and it works like a charm. The Bible college whose auditorium our church uses switched over from EasyWorship to OpenLP last year because they said that OpenLP does the same things, but doesn't have the $400 price tag.

OpenLP supports PowerPoint, PPT Viewer, and LibreOffice/OpenOffice for presentations. You can also create a service at home, and then open the service file on your church computer, and all songs, presentations, pictures, etc will be there - even new songs you typed in at home.

[Esoteric]

Yeah, you really have to have a frame of reference for "not very much". For example I always say to start with 10% of your building budget for A/V (15-20% is better, but you can get by on 10%) while most people typically allocate less than 3% of their budget for A/V.

You can have an unlimited number of work stations with ProPresenter and your license can be used on any number of computers for projection, but only one at a time.

Mike

[wogster]

Originally Posted by superfly

We've been using OpenLP at our church for 2 years now, and it works like a charm. The Bible college whose auditorium our church uses switched over from EasyWorship to OpenLP last year because they said that OpenLP does the same things, but doesn't have the $400 price tag.

OpenLP supports PowerPoint, PPT Viewer, and LibreOffice/OpenOffice for presentations. You can also create a service at home, and then open the service file on your church computer, and all songs, presentations, pictures, etc will be there - even new songs you typed in at home.

I am looking at Zionworks and I`ll take a look at OpenLP, Easyslides uses .net and will not run under Wine on the home computer, so it`s out at the moment, unless I find nothing else wants to work, and I go fight with .net under Wine.... Let me explain that, the computer at home runs Linux, because when I built it, I didn`t feel like spending my budget again to run Windows eXtraPathetic