Switch from Sunday Plus

[Lukky]

Hello all,
I am considering switching from Sunday Plus. Not because I am unhappy with it but because we have built a new sunday school wing and we are installing multi media setup in every new classroom and my teachers need something to use. It is going to be hard to teach all these other people all the tricks I know.
My first issue is I downloaded easyworship so I could demo it because another person at my church had used it before and said it was good. My issue seems to be that i am used to Sunday plus allowing me to manage all my song files. small files in a folder, easy to back up, easy to search, ability to create multiple folders for different venues. So I can have the same song formatted differently, one for camp, church, and college ministry. I was also dissapointed at the seemingly lack of ability to edit each slide in easyworship. You type it puts it where it wants it.
My next real issue is I need something with a site license or pretty cheap like Freepath (although I cant do lyrics yet in freepath) There is a real possibality that there could be 3, 4 or 5 of us using it all at the same time. Its kinda frustrating because it seem like it would be so easy to have freepath do Text over image. I think I even tried to drop the old SP files in there just to see.
I am really considering just purchaseing Freepath and telling them to run Lyrics from PPT if they need to which they wont very often. I do like having the Bible text ready at the drop of a hat though.
Thanks Dustin

[Lukky]

No one had any comments on this issue. Just one salesman banging on my door? Weird??

dustin

[annsni]

We just bailed on SundayPlus. It was just not working well for us - well it was working OK for what it did but we knew we needed so much more and finally on Mother's Day when we tried to run a short video through it and watched it crash the tribute to moms, it was time to change.

We decided to go with refurbished Macs and ProPresenter and I LOVE it. I'm the one most trained on it right now (started working on it about 2 months ago) and I'm finding it SOOOOO wonderful to do most everything we need. Additionally, the Renewed Vision guys are really responsive to questions - VERY unlike SP. We got a good deal on the Macs and a really good price on a site license from skstarkiller on here. If you wanted to see what it looks like and what it can do, go to www.renewedvision.com and go to the support section where you'll find tutorials. That's how I started to learn how to use it then just started using it and it's gone GREAT so far!

[Kstu]

Dustin,

we're in much the same boat here. S+ has worked for us to do simple song projection, but seems to be a touch glitchy (it occasionally freezes when trying to run background video and I have had minimal success trying to run DVD or other video). I looked at EW earlier this year and was impressed, they even had a program to convert the S+ songs over (which a competitor failed to have so was struck out of contention). Much like you I didn't like the way the words were put up how EW felt it should break the lines, but I think there was an option to change this (my trial period has run out so I can't check this). On the plus side it was simple to use - one of my volunteers tried and found it intuitive.

We're in the process of moving to a larger building so a site licence is going to be critical for us. As the building is art of a school I'm not sure if they'll go PC or Mac.I'll let you know what happens.

Stu

[Lukky]

I am really concerned about the song storage issue. I have been so accustum to just dragging and droping the songs from my folders. It is so easy to back up. I gave up on using SP for video a long time ago. I use VLC for all video and it works great once you understand how to Que it up. We also run powerpoint completly seperate. Really all I do with Sp is worship lyrics. I feel like it does that pretty well.

Dustin

[shayward]

we have built a new sunday school wing and we are installing multi media setup in every new classroom and my teachers need something to use. It is going to be hard to teach all these other people all the tricks I know.

I can speak as both the Technical Arts Director as well as the husband of the Christian Education Pastor I'm also the Music Director and the band leader for the Sunday morning worship team.

You have 3 priorities:

1. Ease of Use
2. Ease of Use
3. Ease of Use

Teaching Sunday School is a tough job. It's often hard to get recruits. There's a lot of prep time that goes into a weekly 1.5 hour programme. The last thing any of these teachers want to do is struggle with the technology.

Plus you can't show any weakness or the kids will eat you alive! And what I mean is, a 2 minute technical glitch or "I'm not sure how to do this" equals a group of 6-year-olds whose attention is gone, they're squirly, and you ain't getting their attention back. Just try to survive the rolling train wreck of a Sunday School class and hope for a better time next week.

Don't inflict any solution on the Sunday School that will cause them to struggle. As techies, we often forget this.

We picked Easy Worship because I can enter a set list in under 2 minutes, I can enter a song (copy & paste from a text file) in under 20 seconds, and I can train someone to use it in 10 minutes.

For us, ease was the name of the game. And it's our chief philosophy in picking any technical arts solution. I've got young kids, our main sound/projection operator has young kids, we all work full time, our wives are extremely active in the Sunday School.

If it can't be done in under 5 minutes, it aint part of our Sunday morning routine

For any software (worship software especially), you get 10 points to spend how you want: on Ease of Use or Powerful Features. If you want 8/10 on Ease of Use, you get 2/10 for Powerful Features.

I haven't tried Freepath, but with the big 3:

- SongShowPlus is incredibly powerful but takes weeks to learn
- EasyWorship is incredibly easy to use but doesn't have all of the powerful features
- MediaShout is about 50/50

I was also dissapointed at the seemingly lack of ability to edit each slide in easyworship. You type it puts it where it wants it.

When it comes to Sunday morning service and if you've got a decent sized tech crew to look after it, you have the luxury of being particular about your formatting. And why not? Be excellent in your calling for the Lord and the service of His Kingdom.

But the Sunday School teachers' calling is not to media ministry.

To them, this will be a secondary tool. 10-to-1 they won't be worried about formatting the word "and" in italics in the middle of a slide or the like. They'll be very happy to have something that lets them easily setup and run the songs. A way of getting from A to B, if you will.

Their only 3 worries will be

1. Ease of Use
2. Ease of Use
3. Ease of Use



Any solution you design has to be simple.

You want:
- Computer with Easy to Use Worship Software
- DVD Player
- VCR (yeah, they still get used )
- Projector
- A Labeled Switch To Go Between Computer, DVD, and VCR
- One Power Bar

Easy, Easy, Easy

My next real issue is I need something with a site license or pretty cheap like Freepath (although I cant do lyrics yet in freepath) There is a real possibality that there could be 3, 4 or 5 of us using it all at the same time.

I think EasyWorship's license is a site license. I know we can have it installed on our laptops for prepping service. I'm not sure if it gives you multiple projection licenses or not.


I don't know if EasyWorship is your ticket or not, but ours is run by a 12 year old. I trained another 12 year old to use it in 5 minutes and she did great. I trained my wife in under 3 minutes and she ran an entire funeral while running the sound board and she's NOT a sound or projection tech.

But not matter what you do:

EASY!

PS: Don't forget to make it really easy

[shayward]

My wife adds:

Buy DVDs that already have the lyrics on screen, stick it in the DVD player, and go. Buy your stuff from Group

And if doesn't work, send a kid to go harass your husband in the middle of service - if your husband happens to be the Tech Director.

[annsni]

See - we just had VBS and had a song change - at the last minute. As in "OK!! Let's go 'Walking on the Water!!' " and that was my cue to start a song - that wasn't in our playlist.

Never fear!!! ProPresenter is here! I can play the song straight from the library!! I clicked on the song in the library, clicked on the first slide to put up the background then pressed "Play". It went ahead playing the audio and, since I had automated the slide changes for the lyrics, it did it all! "No hands!!" I think I lost about 1.5 seconds in loading the song over having been prepared and knowing we were doing that song. I was able to sit back as the song played on for the kids and looked at my partner in crime (my boss/the media director) and laughed at how good this program is!

Whew!!

[jameshorsley197]

Personally I think the big three worship software may be overkill for Sunday School. Freepath is a great alternative and Sunday Plus is Now beta testing a new program for single users , such as Sunday School teachers called Cloud, similar to Freepath, You can check it out here
http://sundayplus.ning.com/
Both Freepath and Cloud are intended as teaching tools not worship software. Will play pretty much any format but the one draw back is that it does not play DVDs yet. Just check the Cloud website out and see what you think
Also screen monkey is a free alternative and is a really good program that many have used in conjunction with Sunday Plus to help with SP's video weaknesses.
As stated before ease of use will make or break whether people even use the multimedia systems that you have spent all this money on.

[shayward]

As stated before ease of use will make or break whether people even use the multimedia systems that you have spent all this money on.

100%

And again, I think using a DVD Player instead of the computer to play DVDs is the way to go. Most people are familiar with how to use a DVD player. My 78-year-old grandfather recently learned how to make the DVD player (basically) work.

Running from a computer, well... A/V software or a Windows Update or something will end up grinding the video to a hault at some point or a codec will get corrupted.

[David Burton]

ScreenMonkey is something to take a very long hard look at.

First of all the price is good, Freeware, but a donation is good.

It does do DVD and Powerpoint, also live video feeds with the right equipment. It now supports Drag and Drop when you are building up you cue list so you will have somethings that you are used to and can teach others how to use.

It is my backup to Sunday Plus, Cloud and Freepath.

WAR EAGLE!!!!

[Kstu]

Hi all,

we finally made the choice to go with EW. We're in the transition phase, but so far I'm very happy/ impressed with it. EW was even able to convert our S+ songs to the EW format (they only require minor editing to get up on the screen). One of the other programs we tried said it couldn't be done and we'd have to retype each song. Our worship leaders choose from a large range of songs (over 100) and I'm not retyping each one! Do I need to say what happened when it came time to choose?

kstu