In my experience open-source stuff is NOT intuitive, and can sometimes lack good support if you get in a jam. Okay, so before I explain our setup, I’d recommend ditching the open-source option. Whatever you pick, you’ll likely have a learning curve to tackle, anyway, so make sure you pick something that works. You don’t have to do anything I say beyond this point, LOL, but take your time in making this decision. :) Do as much research as you can, before making the choice that works best for you. Thirdly, you did good by coming here and crowd-sourcing solutions. Do what you need to do to make it work within your church’s context (and budget), but this stuff is “worth the price”. when, in truth, you’re just throwing money away. I see SO MUCH bad advice being thrown around, in the name of saving money. You may be on a tight budget, like most other churches, but you have to take a long view of anything you do in the sound/tech arena. Secondly, since we have that out of the way, DO NOT skimp on tech spending. We know money is a finite resource, so being wise with spending is paramount.
We all deal with it, and anytime you look to the general professional world, they scoff at churches and their tight purse strings. Things don’t move at the same speed, and budgets are dramatically different. They aren't nearly as mature as OpenSong, etc.įirstly, let’s establish out of the gate that the church world is not like the professional world. ** yes, I know that some of the Open Source programs have some of these capabilities. If this is at all an issue, then I highly recommend sticking with the "simple" (open source) programs.
The harder part is maintaining a bench of trained volunteers (who care about quality) to build and run the shows. (b) it is harder to use - not impossible - but not "hey, random youth, sit down here and run the show today" easy.įor us, the money is the "easy" part (it's a one-time cost). then you should use ProPresenter, understanding that: complex sets (timers, speaker notes, automatic loops).
In fact, in my opinion it's better than the paid software solutions - because it is extremely easy to use and train volunteers.īut if you want to do literally anything else**: instant (spontaneous) switching between Verses, Chorus, Bridge.instant (spontaneous) switching between songs.lyrics (and Bible) only but adding two things PowerPoint can't do.If you are only looking for a PowerPoint replacement: The answer to this question heavily depends on what you are trying to accomplish.