I need to run four screens!! What one works with this?

[sedejong]

Hello all,

Our church is a new church and we have just purchased our new building. We are looking into setting up the projectors right now. Here is our "Ideas" for the church.

We want one large screen in the front center, 2 smaller screens in the front on the sides, and one screen in the back so the teacher/praise team can read from that one.

Here is what our Worship team would like them to do.
When we are singing songs, they would like to have the words for the songs with a regular background on the sides and back screens, and in the center screen, they would like to have a moving background (ex. a waving flag).

We have tried different trial versions of software and are leaning towards either EasyWorship or MediaShout. I haven't seen that either one of these do this but worndering if anyone has gotten these to work like this. Or is there another program out there that does this.

Thanks in advance!! We have had great responses with questions on this site. I LOVE IT!!

[bridger]

We use easy worship. It will show the moving backgrounds and has the option of removing the words and showing the background only with one click. However, as far as I know, it will not show two different screens at the same time. It would run your three screens with the same thing on it, but the big one in the middle with something different may have to have a different input source than the others. Anybody else know?

[Sysmom]

We do this on 2 computers and 5 projectors to display 4 screens, exactly as you have outlines.

We use Media Shout on both computers - but the magic here is not in the computers, it's in the hardware.

We had some video pros from Analog Way build us a sweet set of video switcher/scalers to accomplish this.

The center screen is double wide (do not do this if you can avoid it) and is run by 1 computer, but displayed by two projectors (1/2 each).

The center screen is completely independent of the other three screens - and they always show the same thing. When we add another switcher/scaler, we'll be able to show different things on either side screen.

deb

[jtoycen]

In terms of showing the same image on multiple screens it doesn't matter what computer, software or switchers you use - you just need a Distribution Amplifier. The DA can be either VGA or RGBS cabling and it takes the single signal from a computer and splits it to multiple outputs, as well as amplifying the signal to eliminate any signal loss. Good luck!

Jaymes

[kbob]

Not using it on a regular basis yet here, but Presentation Manager does this currently-you can have two different things on two different screens. As mentioned above, from there a simple distribution amp and/or distribution am/scaler should allow you to run the three screens. The second projection output from presentation manager should let you run the middle screen.

Make certain you get a REALLY beefy machine to run something like this-that's a lot of pixels to be pumping through a single machine.

http://www.presentationmgr.com/

[horner516]

I have worked the production world for some time and the best product for accomplishing a set up like this is a combination of renewed vision product. In my mind I see a 2 computer set up. One coputer would run pro presenter. This would allow you to output the lyrics with still or moving backgrounds. The program can also play back just the foreground elements(lyrics and video you set up as such) with a black background via firwire video output or the addition of an additional graphics card. This forground feed gives to stage members the option of a confidence monitor with nothing additional to distract them. On the second computer I would run ProVideoPlayer. This program is unbelievable and really gives a person with a discerning eye the ability to mix creative motion backgounds that enhance worship. I would then take an hd or multi-format switcher and key the lyrics from computer 1 on top of the video output from computer 2. This allows the words to transition on all screens at the same time with no lag or worry about putting different slides up.

horner516

(I actually went to FBC Plainview for a while a LONG time ago. Welcome, horner.)

The question of one computer handling more than two screens has been asked for years. Can you do it? Yes. Can one person control 4 screens? Not usually. It's better to distribute both the manpower and the computing power to more than one system. So, two computers and two operators at least. Unless you're really talented or a mutant with four arms, I don't recommend multi-screen on one machine.

[kbob]

Hey Tim-something to consider. the PM product allows you to link the sync's for the two different outputs to each other, so when you fire, both screens change. For instance, you can have two different song databases in both English and Spanish, linked so you don't have to run them independently. You do have to spend more time setting it up ahead of time in order to link them, but not when running it.

That's pretty sweet, in my opinion...it eliminates the "octopus" requirement for running a multi-lingual or multi screened presentation from a single pc.

[cjlowe]

I played Octopus the other day with two screens, and I agree with Tim. It's fine as long as everything is queued and ready. As soon as something deviates from plan, it can dissolve into chaos.

Fortunately in my case, I am quite good at chaos - I've had a lot of experience with preparing unplanned. But if you've got multiple volunteer operators, you can't set up anything permanent involving multiple screens if you believe running two at once might be really challenging for just one of them - it's just not fair.

The one exception to this might be if backgrounds were on one computer, with lyrics on the other, keyed over the top of the background. That way, the background can be ignored if the lyrics PC needs attention. But even that really depends on your operators' capabilities.

Presenter 4 is another product that's meant to support four monitors (I don't know if the control screen is counted in that or not, but either way, that's 3 guaranteed), but it's still in beta and I haven't seen it yet.

Originally Posted by kbob

Hey Tim-something to consider. the PM product allows you to link the sync's for the two different outputs to each other, so when you fire, both screens change. For instance, you can have two different song databases in both English and Spanish, linked so you don't have to run them independently. You do have to spend more time setting it up ahead of time in order to link them, but not when running it.

That's pretty sweet, in my opinion...it eliminates the "octopus" requirement for running a multi-lingual or multi screened presentation from a single pc.

Yeah, I know about that (I used to be tech support for PM). The problem is when you start adding in lower thirds for the IMAG screen (which needs to be advanced at a different interval with different content) and confidence screen (which needs to be advanced at a different interval with different content) -- and how about another feed for broadcasting? One person just can't do it.

[jonack]

I would highly suggest a combo of Renewed Vision software. We use PVP on a weekly basis and love it. I wish I could afford to have 10 screens all running, different sizes, different aspect ratios. The nice thing about the PVP software is that each computer can have a different graphic of video loaded and when you trigger the system to change, they slave nodes can all be the same, different. The only downside is that it doesn't do live video, which is fine with me since I don't think we would want to do that. So in summary I would highly suggest Renewed Vision!

[JHVideoGuy]

Another vote for ProPresenter and ProVideo Player combo. We use it to run 2 screens and 4 plasmas. We've been very pleased with it.