We are just getting into a new church building, and in the process of getting all new stuff. One of the upgrades we are looking down the road at is multiple projectors. Three screens would be nice. What software is capable of this. Right now we use MediaShout, but I have heard from another one of our tech guys that EasyWorship is the only one that can do it.

The two side screens would be replicas of each other, ideally I would like for them to mirror each other, but that would mean backwards text too, unless there is another way I am not thinking of.

Thanks.

Do you want the screens independent of each other? (Expensive)

Or do you want them to show the same thing? (Cheaper)

If you're sending the same image to multiple computers, you just need a VGA distribution amplifier that can take your computer signal and send it to multiple monitors and/or projectors.

Or, many projectors have a VGA out and you could run your second projector off of that. I've done that in some set ups.

I'm not picturing why you would need backward text on one, unless one was rear projection and the other wasn't. But then, I would think a projector setting could take care of that.

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we have 2 forward projectors and 1 rear projectors displaying the same thing using media shout.

If you're talking about having a different image on each screen, Presenter 4 (which hasn't been released yet) is meant to support 4 displays (1 control + 3 active). I haven't actually seen the product yet.

I know of a church which solved this issue (different things on different screens) by running MediaShout on two PCs at once with similar schedules, and just keeping the lyrics on the one screen.

No, EasyWorship can NOT do multiple projectors - we use it at my church and my director is constantly complaining about the lack of a dedicated "cue" screen, and insisting that "it should be really easy for them to implement, I'm sure tons of churches want this feature".

Ok, what I wish to do, is have the ability to have the center screen for worship lyrics, and the outers for mood screens. The problem is that if you use a graphic on the outers, they are both facing the same way, if they would mirror each other it would look better. I would also like the ability to show a video on the center display, and a graphic on the outers, mirrored, but with text on both, correctly situated.

sevver, we tried mirroring screens at a youth function, it looks good, but ANY text or other elements will look wrong.
In short, it was distracting.

That's a projector setting BTW.

I highly suggest just having 2 screens not mirrored

Agreed. Don't mirror them.

I'm trying to get into the beta for Presenter 4 (it's NOTHING like Presenter 3, and I really want to see it!). I highly suggest dropping the company an email to see if you can do the same - the multi-screen output sounds like EXACTLY what you need.

See, if you had multiple screens outputted from the computer you could always reverse the media that you wanted reversed for the outer projectors, but send non-reversed media to them when the media in question doesn't look good reversed (e.g. something with text in it).

Of course I'm speculating about the functions of some software which hasn't been released yet, but the only other program I know of which handles multiple screens properly is WATCHOUT, and that is REALLY expensive ($5k base + $5k per screen, from memory) and doesn't do lyrics, only media. The MediaShout guys talk about supporting multiple projectors, but they're just talking about using an adaptor to set up your projectors in a widescreen configuration.

Not sure if anyone has seen THIS or not. I have been thinking of ways to do this over the next couple years.


See the two outer screens would really look better mirrored. It is absolutely stunning except for that. Is there a way to run backgrounds from one pc, and mix in text through another?

Edit: I sent an email pleading to beta test the software as well.

I suspect it's a moderately easy thing to do iff the software is a client-server configuration with a single server instance for each program output.

I'm waiting for a two-channel CG program myself, where the two program outputs can be locked (same thing), linked (related things like English and Spanish words), or completely independent. Moderately simple if the infrastructure is there. I've been meaning to write Chris the Lyricue guy and mention that .. if it's an easy thing to do, there seems to be a bit of demand for it.

That's a perfect application for a three-channel CG! Link the two outer screens (each showing the mirror of the image on the other) and have the inner screen run chiefly independent.

It'll be cool to see when one of these really hits the market (a multi-channel worship software), especially a commercial one.

The problem is it's not an easy thing. You're suddenly having to make sure that transitions stay in sync, videos play simultaneously, the frame rate doesn't suffer, etc. It gets even worse when the elements on the screen are different. And how do you code the user control of it? The interface suddenly gets ridiculously complicated because it has to have options for sending various bits of media to various places, when the whole goal is to make it as easy as possible... and the song editor gets REALLY weird.

It's something I've been thinking about non-stop for the last few weeks (I'm considering writing a Mac-based multi-screen program like you've never seen before...) and I have some ideas, but my gosh it's hard to do this and maintain simplicity, both code-wise and as far as the user's concerned. I can see the basic interface in my head (it uses different modes and drag-and-drop to achieve everything), but the code behind it will probably kill me.